(soft music)
- Hello, Michigan Medicine.
Welcome to the latest episode of "The Wrap,"
brought to you by the "Headlines Employee Newsletter."
I'm Daniel Ellman with the department of communication
- And I'm Hunter Mitchell.
Everyone's favorite co-host.
This week we've got a show
that is certain to keep you alert and awake.
As we talked to Dr. Neeraj Kaplish
the director of
Michigan Medicines Sleep Disorders Laboratories.
- Before we bring in Dr. Kaplish
be sure to spend a chunk of your waking hours
catching up on "The Wrap."
All 100 previous episodes can be found on iTunes, Stitcher,
Google play, or any other podcast hosting platform.
You can also find about a year's worth of shows
on the Michigan Medicine, YouTube channel.
- Coming up on March 19th is World Sleep Day.
So to preview that day
and talk about the importance
of getting a good night's rest,
we're thrilled to be joined by a Michigan Medicine expert,
Dr. Kaplish, thanks for joining us.
- Thank you so much.
Having the opportunity to talk to you guys.
Thank you so much.
- All right, so let's start off with an easy question
for you, why is sleep so important?
- Well, that's a good question.
And I think it's the right question to ask
as opposed to question, because we spent about one third
of our life sleeping and sleep is so vital
for our body functions and all
of our organs and wellbeing that we all know
and understand when we don't sleep well.
What happens to us?
So sleep is in the same breadth as exercise,
and appropriate diet that we do to maintain our wellbeing.
So sleep recharges our mind and brings a positive attitude
for us also makes us improve our learning
by improving our attention, energy levels
and also help us heal and recuperate.
And you will be surprised to see that sleep also
makes us look good.
When we don't sleep well
our eyes are so baggy and people can notice that.
So sleep is a very important
especially in the pandemic time, because a good sleep leads
to good immunity and a good vaccine response.
So I think, so this is a very
very critical in this present, challenging times.
- Wow, okay.
Well, so how much sleep do I need?
Do some people just need less sleep to function?
- Yeah, so I think this was just settled recently.
I think we have long debated
on how much somebody needs to sleep to be very healthy
and researchers just recently answered that question.
About two, three years back
and there was a consensus and you all know
that sometimes young children tend to sleep for long hours
and adults may not be requiring that long hours of sleep.
So if you are less than one years of age
I think you could be requiring almost
up to 16 hours of sleep, including your naps in the daytime.
And as we grow older, the need for sleep tends to go less.
And even in teenage years
if you could be requiring anywhere from nine to 12 hours
of sleep and after age 18, I think most people will require
about seven to eight hours of sleep.
As per the question
whether somebody needs less hours of sleep.
I think the more
and more we are realizing that sleep is so vital for us
that's hard to imagine somebody who would require less hours
of sleep and not be able to function well.
Now having said that there is a rare occurrences
when we say some people are short sleepers
that means they sleep less
than five hours and do fairly well during the day.
I have no ill effects from sleep
but those are very rare people.
I think majority of our should aim
towards getting seven to eight hours sleep who are adults.
- Perfect, now I know a lot of sleep is affected
by sort of a routine before you sleep,
but your bedtime routine
what you do in the hours before you're trying to sleep
what should a proper bedtime routine look like?
- Yeah, so I think being a citizen for yourself
and advocating for your own health,
I think regular sleep is critical.
So having a regular bedtime
or regular wake time will kind of put your brain
into a rhythm that allows you to fall asleep
in a reasonable period of time
but don't kind of take your body to be an on and off switch.
So I turned off my lights and I exercise
and I want to go to bed and fall asleep right away.
So there are certain things that I would
I typically tell patients that helps them fall asleep
sooner is that kind of don't take your problems to bed.
So this is something that is bothering you.
You can kind of take away from a bed and comparatively
write down those things down and possible solutions.
If you had, this is what we call a stimulus control.
So trying to take your problems away from your bed.
And like I said
exercise can really help you kind of get a better night
of sleep, but doing it close to close to bedtime
that's not a good timing for that.
So limiting exercise too close to bedtime
after 7:00 PM is not advised
and same goes for caffeine as well.
So if you drink caffeine
or any stimulating drinks that will not be good
and will prevent you from falling asleep
and also disrupt your sleep.
Alcohol while it might actually help you fall asleep
but it can disrupt your sleep in the middle of the night.
So limiting alcohol intake in patients who are vulnerable
for sleep difficulties, is it wise.
And I think those are the typical things that I recommend
to the patients.
I think those are the bigger things that would
help you kind of get prepared for your bedtime
and help you fall asleep sooner and stay asleep.
- Awesome.
Okay, so I think you touched on this just a little bit
but is it normal that I've been having a hard time
sleeping lately with the pandemic
and other stressful things happening in the world?
- This is a very challenging time for us.
And if you are having trouble falling asleep
you are not alone.
There was a recent survey done in during the pandemic time
of how much trouble people are having falling asleep is
about 30% of the Americans have falling asleep
or staying asleep just
during the pandemic and it's above and beyond.
What was it present before that?
And there are also patients who are having also bad dreams.
So you are not alone.
And they have find this term that insomnia
during the pandemic time is called COVID somnia.
So again, you are not alone.
And, but again
there are things that you should still try to do
try to improve your sleep, even during the pandemic time
just keeping the healthy habits
and sleep my mind that I just talked about constantly.
- Yeah, and I know I for sure had that
especially at the beginning of the pandemic
I was waking up at weird times.
I was not falling asleep very easily
but eventually you sort of settled into a routine.
So that leads me perfectly into my next question.
I know so many of our employees here
at Michigan Medicine work overnight hours
or nighttime hours, things like that.
How should faculty and staff
who work non-regular shifts approach their sleep?
- Yeah, I think the health employees
in our health systems are really vulnerable
to working night shifts and shifting schedules.
So that puts them
at a more greater risk of having sleep difficulties.
And that's is what we call us shift work disorder.
And it does not mean that you just have a nighttime shift
you can have a rotating shift, or you could wake up early in
the morning to start your shift
like at three or four in the morning.
So that would also be a shift work problem.
And many times shift workers are able to
adjust their rhythms and don't have any trouble
with their functioning in the daytime.
So that not everybody who works a shift has
a shift work disorder.
It's only when you have trouble maintaining your duties
or having trouble falling asleep
in the daytime that can become a disorder itself.
So in those patients who have shift work disorder
I think you should try to keep your regular sleep schedule
on your days and on and off from work
and make sure that your areas where you work in
during your shift are well lit.
So light is a very powerful source to keep us awake.
So it is important for you to be
in an environment that kind of stimulates you
and sometimes caffeinated
about visual leadership is not helpful.
And if it is possible,
and during your break time that you can take a 20
30 minute nap, I think that will probably refresh you
and help you get back
onto your responsibilities that you are trying to carry
out during your shift.
And in some instances, you might wanna talk to your doctor.
If this conservative measures tend to fail,
there are potentially other approaches
including medication that will help you be
stay more productive during your shift.
And I think you should talk
to your doctor about what other options you have available.
- So the sleep problems typically lead
to other health problems
whether they're mental or physical?
- Yeah, I think a sleep by itself when it is too less
or too much can indicate there is a trouble with your sleep.
So yeah, so if you don't sleep enough hours
and people have been shown to have trouble
with maintaining their weight, so obesity could be a factor.
It can affect your glucose control,
it can affect your heart health
and it increases your risk of your strokes.
On the mental health side.
I think it can lead to a worsening of your mood, anxiety
depression being on the edge, snapping at people.
So those are the things that can happen
on the psychological side.
Now we all can see that trouble
with the breathing while asleep can also result
in other aspects of probably with health.
That can increase your risk
of having stroke, and heart issues
and also sometimes rhythm problems of your heart.
So it's also the quality of the sleep that matters
in some patients, which might kind of put them
at risk for having other medical and mental health issues.
- All right, so let's say you consider
that your sleeping habits aren't ideal for you
or you think that they're not ideal for you.
How would somebody know when maybe a sleep study
should be done
and are those even being carried out during the pandemic?
- It's a good question.
I think sleep studies are often very helpful
to understand the underlying issues
and the one of the major reasons why do we do
sleep study is the breathing trouble
that happen while sleep.
And be large obstructive sleep apnea is
the most common reason why we do sleep studies.
So the symptoms that would indicate
that you have potentially sleep disorder breathing would be
that you partner, or your spouse
or other family members noticing that you snore loudly
or you stop breathing as well in the night.
Are you frequently wake up in the night
or you are acting out your dreams to at times as well.
So for example, yelling or screaming, your sleep
watching your punching the walls
falling out of bed can be consequential.
And so those what we call us parasomnias.
So that's another reason why we commonly
do sleep studies as well by far
the major reason why we do sleep studies is coupled
with the breathing while you sleep in the night
which can be very consequential
and maybe lethal at times.
Now in even in the pandemic at times, Michigan Medicine
sleep labs have been able to provide service very safely.
We have stringent screening procedures in place.
We have regressed cleaning of our rooms that has been done.
We are also even doing COVID testing prior
to the patients coming into the steep bed
which allows us to maybe
before the testing of the patients are really COVID pals.
They could be putting patients
other patients in the lab or the staff at risk.
So we are very cognizant of those risk factors.
So, but we are able to provide the testing
even during the pandemic, whenever it is necessary.
And in regards to the home testing we are,
and we have evolved.
And during pandemic, the home test thing
which we used to do in person with the patients becoming
into the sleep lab, getting hooked up.
Now we are trying to do the same thing virtually
by giving instructions over the phone
having cab side pickup for the home testing equipment
and also sometimes doing mail into the patients.
But the patients are not able to come in
during the pandemic or their look very far off.
So I think we have adapted
and we are able to provide very safe
the home testing as well as in-app testing
when it is needed for evaluation of sleep apnea.
- Awesome, well thank you so much
for all this incredible insight.
Be sure to stay tuned to headlines for more information
on world sleep day, over the next couple of weeks
you'll be able to find that@mmheadlines.org.
That's mmheadlines.org, there will also be a live
stream called improve your zs, improve your health.
That will take place on March 24th at noon.
So also stay tuned
to headlines for more information regarding that.
- All right Dr. Kaplish,
your work here is not quite finished.
Now as our viewers know in January
we introduced a new feature called the lightning round
where we ask our guests for questions in 60 seconds.
You ready to do it?
- Yeah, let's do it. (laughs)
- We got 60 seconds on the clock.
Here we go.
- Awesome. All right, so here's your first question.
What's the first thing you plan to do when
the pandemic ends?
- I'm going to go on a road trip
with my boys and go to the football games.
- Yes. Good choice.
If you're the choice of watching a TV show
watching a movie or reading a book, what would you choose?
- I think watching a show lately
I've been watching a show called "Monk"
which is about a detective and my sons
and I really enjoy it.
- Nice, all right.
This one may be kind of tough.
Are you a dog person or a cat person?
- I'm a dog person, but I don't have any of them at my home.
I had dogs when I was growing up in India
but my boys had been after me to get a dog,
So, I've been resisting. - You never know .
(all laugh)
All right, what's the top item on your bucket list?
- Carbide on my bucket list.
That's a tough, I think I want to go somewhere
with my wife where she really would like to have a good time
and we have not been able to do that.
- Nice.
Well, thanks Dr. Kaplish for being a great sport.
And once again, if you want to learn more
about world sleep day, stay tuned to, mmheadlines.org.
- You can find other great stories of headlines this week
including a look at a new sleep challenge offered
by them healthy on top of that
there were tips to help you give kudos to your colleagues
during recognition month, a call for book recommendations
in honor of reading month and insight
from Michigan Medicine leaders during women's history month
and all that and more at mm, headlines.org.
- Okay, Dan, Dr. Kaplish appearance got me thinking
about sleep.
Would you consider yourself a morning person
or a night person?
- Boy, well, I consider myself a chameleon.
I might have whatever I need to be,
but I used to have a job where I had to wake up
at four in the morning, sort of like Dr. Kaplish mentioned
some people are doing that.
I also had a job where I didn't get off work till midnight.
You sort of do what you have to do.
Work-wise and you sort of adjust.
But overall, I would say for sure, I'm a night person.
I do.
You don't want to see me too early in the morning.
And , when you're a huge sports fan, which I am
it's really hard to not be a night person, especially
in the Eastern time zone.
All the games are ending around 10, 10 30, if not
starting around then.
So I would definitely consider myself a night person.
What about you?
- For me?
I would say a night person,
just college wasn't too long ago for me,
you're kind of forced after all your classes
to stay up and get into that.
But lately my wife's been waking up at five.
I've been staying up till one.
I'm like a tired person.
I don't know what I am.
So, but I think I'm going to use some of these tips.
I heard in this podcast to kind
of fix my sleep schedule a little bit
- Outstanding. All right.
It's time for the weekly trivia contest.
Last episode
we asked listeners how many pediatric heart
transplants were performed at Mot last year.
The answer was 22.
Congratulations to Heather Anguish who sent
in the correct answer.
Heather, a member of the department of communication.
We'll be in touch shortly to help you claim your prize.
All right now for this week's question, here's Hunter.
- Thanks Dan.
This week's question is on Thursday
Michigan Medicine headlines, previewed what upcoming day
of giving at event once again on Thursday headlines
previewed what upcoming day of giving at the event.
Once you know the answer
send it to headlines@med at EDU for a chance
to win a great price.
- It's all the time we have for this week.
Dr. Kaplish, thank you for being here
and thank you as always to all of our listeners
and viewers for everything you do for patients, families
and each other.
- We'll see you next week.