Hi, I'm Dr. Michael Breus.
Some of you may know me as The Sleep Doctor.
I've spent the last 19 years seeing patients, doing research and educating
everyone on the benefits of a good night's sleep.
Today I'm going to dispel a myth that surrounds the two most abused
substances worldwide, caffeine and alcohol.
The truth is, there are a lot of stories about the effect of both of these
products on sleep.
Caffeine is the most popular fast-acting stimulant in the world today.
Coffee accounts for 54% of all the caffeine consumed in the world,
tea accounts for the other 43%.
So, 97% of all the caffeine taken daily around the world comes
from these two products.
On any given day, 85% of all Americans use at least one caffeinated product.
In fact, the amount of caffeine consumed on an average day by adult Americans is
about 300 milligrams per person.
That's about three times higher than the world average.
But before we go and condemn the Americans for ingesting too much caffeine,
that's only half of the daily caffeine consumed in heavy tea-drinking countries,
like England and Sweden.
Now, most people think caffeine doesn't stay in their body system very long.
"I can drink a cup of coffee after dinner and I'll be fine to go to sleep."
That's what lots of people tell me.
Well, that's a very popular myth.
The half-life of caffeine in your body is between six and eight hours.
That means if you consume 100 milligrams of caffeine in the morning,
six to eight hours later, you're still going to have 50 milligrams
that's impacting your system.
We know that when you have about half of your total daily intake,
it does not affect the ability to fall asleep.
So if you want to go to bed at 10:00 pm without having caffeine affecting your
sleep habits, you need to stop drinking caffeine by about 2:00 pm.
Now, for those of you working in high-paced jobs, the idea of giving
up caffeine so early in the day is quite surprising.
But if you want to achieve optimum sleep, it's important to remove
the stimulant, like caffeine.
While you may feel like the buzz from a cup of coffee or tea only lasts
for an hour or two, in fact, its impact lasts much longer.
Okay, so then what if you can't sleep?
Alcohol is the number one sleep aid in the world.
You'd think that would be a good thing, but alcohol also deprives you from feeling
the effects of deep sleep, mainly stages three and four which can
have the most important impact on your body.
So, you need to give your body time to absorb the alcohol before allowing
yourself to go to sleep.
It takes the average human body approximately one hour to absorb
one alcoholic beverage.
So if you're going to be drinking in the evening and have, say,
three glasses of wine, you need to make sure to give your body
at least three hours after the last glass before going to sleep.
This will allow your body to recover so it can provide you with the
best sleep possible.
So the problem isn't necessarily alcohol itself, but how we process it.
It's okay to drink alcohol, but the key is timing.
Timing is critical in terms of how it affects your sleep, your health and
your next day.
So, no alcohol.
Then you might be wondering, what can I do for a good night's rest?
Exercise is a simple way to improve the quality of your sleep.
As little as 20 to 25 minutes of daily exercise will improve the length and depth
of your sleep.
However, if you exercise too close to bedtime, it might affect your ability
to fall asleep.
A good rule is not to exercise within four hours of your desired bedtime.
Otherwise, you may actually find sleep more difficult.
Another big thing is the negative impact of using your phone or tablet when you're
going to bed at night.
Your exposure to light can cause a whole host of sleep problems.
Getting some form of light within 30 minutes of waking up is usually one of the
best things you can do for your circadian rhythms in the morning,
but you don't want that blue light at night.
Doing something like going out to get the morning paper or taking your dog for a
walk is a wonderful way to help your body establish this new waking pattern.
But what we're talking about is blue light.
That's the type of light that is emitted from either your mobile phone
or your tablet.
What people don't realize is that blue light is like caffeine for the brain.
It causes a reaction in your body that suppresses the melatonin,
which is what helps regulate your sleep cycles.
So if you want to develop healthy sleep patterns, it's important not to use your
phone in bed.
Because when you turn your phone on and surf even for as little as five minutes,
it can have a dramatic effect on your system, and it's kind of like taking a
shot of caffeine.
And that's definitely not what you want to be doing late at night.
So to sum it up, don't drink caffeine past 2:00 pm, don't drink alcohol
right before bedtime.
The rule is if you have two glasses of wine, you need to give your body at least
two hours before going to sleep.
Exercise 20 to 25 minutes a day will give you a better night's rest,
and put that phone away just before bed.
If you want to learn to sleep like a champion and optimize your sleep
for increased energy and productivity, sign up for my upcoming
Masterclass with Mindvalley.
I'll have you sleeping like a baby in no time.
See you in the Masterclass.