(yawns)
- Joe! - Wh- what?
- What's wrong?
- I'm exhausted, I got like no sleep last night.
Only two or three hours.
- That's not enough.
- Well, how much is enough?
- Well, you're gonna find out. 'Cause we're on ...
[Jessica And Joe] Science The (bleep) Out Of It.
(jazzy bass guitar theme)
- So how much sleep do you usually get a night?
- With the tossing and turning,
and waking up all the time,
pretty close to like five.
- Yeah, you definitely are sleep deprived.
- I can't help it.
It's not like I can't get into the bed.
It's just like my mind is still just going like super-fast.
Like, oh, you shouldn't have said that.
You shouldn't have done that.
Like, oh, your step dad was right.
You know, you don't know what you're doing.
This and that, like oh, like,
oh, the cat, my money, I'm poor and I'm unhealthy,
and boom, boom, boom.
Next thing you know it's like 3:00 in the morning
and I'm like, "Oh, crap."
- Some people have a hard time sleeping at night,
because they have reduced levels of melatonin
in their system.
Melatonin is called the sleep hormone.
Night owls, for example, don't actually
start producing melatonin until much later in the night,
which is why they don't feel tired until later.
- I've seen videos, and I've heard people brag
about how they only need like four hours of sleep,
and they're, like, totally rested, whatever.
Is there, like, a set amount of time
that everyone needs sleep.
- Yeah, so you're the average adult,
like how old are you?
- Twenty-three?
(negative buzz)
- An average adult between the ages of 18 to 64
needs about 7 to 9 hours of sleep a night,
according to the National Sleep Foundation.
So it's just your overall quality of life
is gonna be lower if you are sleep deprived.
- Yes, true, but staying up late totally rocks.
- What do you do late at night
that's so important?
- Surf the internet. (laughs)
I'm literally looking at a screen
until the second before my head hits the pillow.
- No, that's a bad thing.
I mean the screen right in front of your face
right before you go to bed.
That's ...
For years scientists knew that light affects sleep,
but they didn't necessarily know how.
And then in 2002 they discovered
a different kind of sensor in our eyes.
It's called the intrinsically photosensitive
retinal ganglion cells.
These cells are extremely sensitive to blue light.
Which could explain why one study found that people
who don't have electronic light in their life,
their circadian rhythms, their sleep cycles,
actually synced up to the rising
and setting of the sun.
But because we bring these phones to our bed,
we're looking at this light,
specifically the blue light in those phones
is sending a signal to our brain
that it's daytime out,
which is making us feel more alert,
less tired, and ultimately disrupting our sleep.
- Okay, now what about drinking alcohol
before going to bed?
'Cause sometimes to help me go to sleep
I kinda like to bada-bing a few, you know?
- Drinking alcohol can make you feel tired,
because it actually elevates the amount
of adenosine in your body,
and adenosine is one of those chemicals
that makes you feel tired.
So it can help you fall asleep,
but once you are asleep,
that's where the problem starts.
So we have a sleep cycle,
where we cycle in between non-REM, and REM.
And we cycle between that about five times a night.
Alcohol blocks your ability to have REM sleep.
But if you don't get REM,
you're not going to feel as alert the next day,
so nightcap's probably not the best thing.
- Do I wanna fall asleep fast and feel bad,
or take forever to fall asleep and feel bad?
- There are some foods that you can eat
that will help you fall asleep,
if the reason you're having trouble with that
is because you have lower melatonin levels
in your body.
And there are some natural foods with
a relatively significant amount of melatonin.
So there's almonds, there's raspberries,
and gogi berries actually have quite a bit as well.
- Gogi berries?
(chime)
What would be a couple of things
to throw at me that I should do to like,
probably help me to get better sleep?
- The number one thing that experts always recommend
is the same bedtime every night.
- No, I hate that note.
- I mean, you just have to set out a time.
Like, you really should say, "Okay, 30 minutes
"before bed, I'm not gonna look at my screen,
"I'm not gonna turn on the TV."
Just like, open a book.
You can even-
- What? Books? No.
Are you kidding me?
- You can do-, you should also probably-
- No, forget that. - If you're ...
- Screens only.
It's TV, or iPad, or phone, or laptop,
or some sort of monitor.
That's everything now, I'm not gonna pick up a book.
What am I gonna ... and then read by candle light?
- Well then, continue having terrible sleep.
- Fine, I will. (Jessica laughs)