Hi, I'm Dr. Tracey Marks a psychiatrist
and I make mental health education videos.
Today, I'm talking about
how you can manipulate your body temperature
to get deeper sleep.
Deep sleep is what you need to wake up feeling rested.
Deep sleep is one of four stages of sleep.
Stage one is the stage where you're drifting off to sleep.
Your brain waves are starting to slow down
and your muscles are starting to relax.
And this stage only lasts about one to seven minutes.
It's very easy to wake up
from the state with loud noises
or someone calling your name.
So some people can go in and out of this stage a few times
before they actually fall asleep.
Then you move on to stage two,
which is still a light stage of sleep.
But your heart rate slows down even further
and your body temperature starts to drop.
The first time that you hit the stage,
you stay there for about 20 to 40 minutes
before you go on to stage three.
But as the night progresses,
you spend more and more time in stage two.
About 40 to 50% of your sleep is spent in stage two.
Stage three is the deepest stage called slow wave sleep.
Everything is slowed down.
Your brain waves are slow as is your breathing
and your heart rate.
Your muscles are completely relaxed.
This is the stage
that's hard to wake up from.
My parents used to call it being dead to the world.
I don't know where they got that phrase from
but it makes sense to me now
because it can take a lot
to wake someone up from the state.
They may not respond the calling their name
and if you shake them awake
they may wake up confused and disoriented.
This is the stage that you're in
when you're sleeping through the noise of an alarm clock.
So it's like you're completely cut off
from your environment or dead to the world.
The normal amount of time
that we spend in deep sleep is about 15 to 25%.
The last stage is rapid eye movement sleep called REM sleep
or REM sleep.
And this is a very light stage
of sleep where you dream.
Your body is paralyzed
so that you don't act out your dreams,
but your brain is very active during this phase.
Some researchers believe that REM sleep
is very important for creativity.
Everyone dreams, but you don't always remember your dreams.
REM is supposed to constitute about 20 to 25%
of your total sleep.
Most of your deep sleep is front-loaded
at the beginning of the night
and you get most of your REM
and light sleep in the second half of the night.
That's why if you wake up naturally,
you may feel like you just woke up from a dream.
And you probably did have your last dream 10
to 15 minutes before you woke up.
So those are the stages.
I mentioned the deep sleep is what you need to feel rested.
Some important things happen during deep sleep.
This is when your body tissues regenerate and repair,
memories of things that you learned
get hard-coded in your brain
and you get hormone or growth hormone secretion.
This is one of the reasons
adequate sleep is important
for children who are still growing.
Your body clock or circadian rhythm cycle
controls your sleeping pattern.
And there are several things that influence your body clock.
Light is one huge factor.
And I've talked a lot about how using
blue light blocking glasses two hours before bedtime
can help you keep a consistent bedtime schedule.
But another important influence
is your body temperature.
A normal body temperature is 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit.
And that fluctuates about one degree in either direction.
Over the course of a 24 hour a day.
Part of the sleep process involves a drop
in your body temperature.
So if you're too warm, you may have trouble falling asleep.
Or if you do fall asleep, you may not get enough deep sleep.
About two hours before you start to get sleepy,
your brain secretes melatonin
and your core body temperature starts to drop.
So there's a process that begins here.
And here's some things that you can do
to help your body get to a nice, cool temperature.
The national sleep foundation recommends
that you keep your bedroom
between 60 to 67 degrees Fahrenheit.
If you live in a warm climate like I do,
it may be way too expensive
to keep your air conditioning cranked up high enough
to produce that temperature.
One thing to clarify here
is the difference between ambient room temperature
and core body temperature.
Your core body temperature
is the temperature inside of your body
or particularly around your heart area.
Your organs and your muscles generate a lot of heat.
And your blood vessels help dissipate that heat
by traveling from the big vessels inside of your body,
out to the tiny vessels in your skin,
where heat is released and you get sweating.
The skin of your midsection and groin
is called your proximal skin and covers your core body.
The skin of your hands and feet
is culture distal skin
because it's a distance away from your core.
- What?
- Stick with me.
I'm almost there.
One of the ways your body cools itself
is to push more blood away from your core out
to your hands and your feet to warm them.
This then cools your core because it removes heat
from your core out to the right outside.
And the reverse is true.
When your core is to cool,
the blood vessels in your hands
and your feet constrict and push more blood
to your core, to warm it.
So that's why if you sit in a cold room,
you may notice that your hands seem a lot colder
than the rest of your body.
And that's why you have to protect your hands
from frostbite by wearing gloves.
So here's what you can do to cool your body
without having a super high electricity bill.
You can take a warm shower, two hours before bed.
This heats all of your skin and in turn heat your body.
But the process of cooling down after you get out
of the shower, triggers sleep since that's what
your body naturally does as a signal for sleep,
it starts to cool.
If you don't want to take a shower,
you can get similar results with a warm foot bath.
Another thing you can do
is wear socks at bedtime to cool your feet
and use cooling objects to cool your core.
I used to sleep with ice packs for years
to get this effect until I met the sponsor
of today's video Eight Sleep.
If you watch my channel much,
you know that I don't do many sponsor videos.
Out of 200, this is two of two.
But okay, couldn't turn down
Eight Sleep's offer to test their bed,
which they gave me at no cost
because I'm a huge sleep advocate.
In fact, I even wrote a book about sleep 10 years ago.
It's out of print in case you're wondering.
Eight Sleep has directly addressed this issue
of body temperature regulation by making a bed
that cools your body, including your core.
The magic is in the cover called the pod pro.
You have the option of purchasing just the cover
if you already have a mattress
or getting their mattress plus the cover.
The way it works is there's a hub that contains water
that's pumped through an active grid and the cover.
With their smart app,
you can adjust the settings according to your needs.
The app helps you choose a starting temperature
based on your age and whether you tend
to be a hot or cool sleeper.
Then the bed temperature changes
over the course of the night.
I'm a hot sleeper.
So I start out with a cold temperature
that warms up as it gets close to the morning.
The cold mattress at bedtime makes it easy
for me to fall asleep.
And then the warm mattress
in the morning makes it easier for me to get out of bed.
Each side of the bed can be programmed independently.
Before I started using this bed,
I had just gotten an apple watch
and started monitoring my sleep habits.
And there are other gadgets that do it too.
Like FitBit.
What I didn't like about the Apple watch
was that if I get out of the shower
and forgot to put it back on before I went to bed,
I didn't have any data.
But with Eight Sleep's app you don't need to wear a watch.
Your sleep pattern is measured
by the pod cover that's on the mattress.
So it detects your heart rate and body movement
by your presence and the bed.
You get lots of information about how much you moved around
and how much time you spent in light, deep and REM sleep.
The hub which I guess is the brain,
detects and when your room temperature has changed
and we'll make suggestions on changing your bed temperature
to optimize your sleep.
The cost of the pod pro cover is %$1,395 for a queen cover
and $2,395 if you want the mattress with it.
This is not cheap, but mattresses aren't cheap.
This price is in line though with similar types of beds.
What's nice about it though,
is that if you just bought a nice mattress,
but you want the body temperature regulation,
you can just buy the cover.
You can get an extra $100 off the pod
or the cover using the discount code Dr. Tracey Marks,
and that's Tracy with an EY.
If you purchase with that code, I receive a commission.
If you don't want to purchase a cooling bed
you can do what I did for years
and use ice packs or a cooling blanket.
You want to use ice packs that have a protective cover
so that you're not putting ice directly onto your skin.
Good places to target on your body or your back,
abdomen ,back of the neck, armpits and groin.
A ceiling fan can also help keep you feeling cool
but some people can't tolerate
the air blowing on them at night.
So in summary, deep sleep helps you feel rested,
helps with your memory and promote cell growth and repair.
It's like putting your body in maintenance mode.
And it's a very necessary thing.
You can help your body maximize its deep sleep potential
by manipulating your body temperature.
You can do this by sleeping in a cold room,
taking a warm bath or even a warm foot bath,
two hours before bed.
avoid doing things that heat your body
like vigorous exercise, too close to bed
or eating spicy foods too late.
Fun fact, capsaicin is a chemical compound found
in chili peppers that stimulates thermogenesis
which is the process of yourselves producing heat.
So eating hot food can not only give you a hot mouth
but it can warm your body internally.
Then the last suggestion is that you can wear
socks to warm your feet
while you simultaneously your core
with a cooling bed, cooling blanket
or ice packs in strategic places on your body
like your trunk area, neck, armpits, or groin.
I hope this helps you have a restful deep sleep.
Thanks for watching.
See you next time.