How To Get Deeper Sleep and Overcome Fatigue
Ashok Gupta walks through why deep sleep matters and what kills it, then gives the MEND protocol: meditation 10-20 minutes daily, morning bright light, movement, an evening wind-down without screens, and no caffeine after midday.
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Well, hello and a warm, warm welcome to our Facebook Live today with me, Ashok Gupta. And today we're going to be talking about a really important topic that really determines our health and well being in general, and that is, of course, sleep. And time and time again in our clinic, we see people having real challenges with sleep. It may be that they don't get enough sleep or the depth of their sleep is not deep enough and therefore they're not waking up feeling refreshed, rejuvenated. And we've got so many challenges with sleep that we need to be aware of. Some of them are because of the way we're being brought up. Society, lifestyle pressures, they're all impacting on our sleep. And today I'm so glad that you can join me for our Facebook Live where we're going to go deeper into the science behind how do we get a good night's sleep? How do we make sure that when we wake up in the morning, we're feeling rejuvenated? Whatever that deep sleep is that we needed, we got it and we're ready for the day ahead instead of needing five cups of coffee to wake up. And talking of coffee, a really interesting thing happened to me many years ago in my clinic. I think I shared this story with some of you before where a lady came into the clinic and obviously it's a step by step process of diagnosing what causes people fatigue. So she came to my clinic and said, you know, I'm really suffering from fatigue. I really don't understand it. And I thought, okay, well, let's step by step, let's try to understand what's going on here. And we went through her diet, we went through her lifestyle, we went through her sleep routine, exercise. There was nothing obvious that was standing out in terms of why her sleep wasn't particularly deep. And so we went through a few things and I mentioned caffeine and she said, no, I'm, you know, I'm not drinking any caffeine because caffeine is one of the main reasons that we interfere with our sleep. And she said, yeah, no, I'm not really, you know, having any caffeine. I mean, I don't have any coffee. I mean, I have, you know, some tea a day, you know, a few cups of tea. I said, well, tea actually contains quite a lot of caffeine. How many cups of tea are you having? And she said, maybe about 11 or 12. And it amazed me that she wasn't aware that actually that would be the root cause of why she couldn't sleep at night and why she was feeling fatigued. So in today's webinar it really will be about self diagnosis. So we're going to understand more about what causes sleep challenges and sleep problems and you can pick apart what might be going on in your life that may be contributing to this. Now, of course, if you have any serious sleep issues, you must see your doctor or physician. For instance, sleep apnea and other related conditions have a more serious cause. But in my experience, most causes of fatigue, daytime sleepiness, they're down to a lack of deep sleep. And it's one of the most important things we need to heal physically, mentally, emotionally. And I would say that we've almost become slightly arrogant in the way that we approach sleep in modern society. We take it for granted and therefore we abuse our sleep sometimes. And today I really want us to feel that this is a really important part of our lives and how can we improve it? And of course, why is it important in the first place? So before we start, what would be great is just to understand where you're all tuning in from. So just on my phone here, I'm going to join the feed and look at your comments. If you'd like to comment on our video and tell us where you're tuning in from around the world. I know we had about 500 people who'd signed up to attend live, so I'm very interested to know where you're all from. So we'll give you a bit of a shout out. So Annette from Sunny Gibson's bc, that's nice to see you there. Natanja from the Netherlands, Julie saying listening to learn how to sleep better. Lorraine tuning in from Seattle, Josephine from Oslo. Hi to you. Desiree from Netherlands. And it goes on and on. Lots of people from west coast and east coast of America and also the uk. Jerryanne from New York, Nirupuma from nj. So I'm going to read all of them out but a big hi to all of you. So I'm really glad you're able to tune in today. And of course what we'd love to see is those hearts, those thumbs up going across the screen when you like something that you hear. And of course please do share this feed on your own timeline on other groups that you're members of because sleep is something that we're all affected by and all need to improve in our lives. So feel free to you can just click the share button and share it straight away with friends, family on your own timelines and we get more people Tuning in live. Great. So more and more of these hellos coming in. So hello to all of you. And what we'll be doing is this actual sleep webinar will be half an hour, so till 6:30 UK time. And then we'll start another feed for Q and A because I want to make sure these videos aren't too long. So we'll have plenty of time. Another half an hour for Q and A on your fatigue challenges, sleep issues, main chronic fatigue syndrome. Whatever you want to ask me about, but very much based on sleep. Okay, good. So you may ask, well, what is the purpose of sleep? Why do we sleep? Well, let's take the analogy of our phones, okay? So every night we plug in our phones, we wake up in the morning and magically our phone is charged up to 100%. And yet often we aren't. Isn't that ironic? It's because sleep performs many different important roles. And one of the main roles is actually cleaning out the toxins from our brain. So every day as there's neural activity, there are waste products produced, toxins and those need to be removed from our brains. And, and those waste products are removed at night by the microglia, these are other cells in the brain. So that's one important role of sleep. And of course memory consolidation. So the memories, the situations and experiences we've had during the day, those are then consolidated into our long term memory banks, then our metabolic rates. So whether we are burning carbs or proteins or fats, that's often determined by the quality and length of our sleep. Believe it or so putting on weight. Obesity has been heavily linked to a lack of good quality sleep. And generally mentally, physically, emotionally, sleep is incredibly important. And our immune system is also rejuvenated through sleep. And in terms of the science of sleep, if we go back into our evolution, we would wake up close to dawn, so the light would wake us up in the morning. We would then go through our day, pretty much spending our entire day outside, of course, huntering, gathering, whatever we might be doing. And in the evenings at sundown, we would still be probably outside. We would be around the campfire, laughing, singing, dancing, whatever it may be. And then we would go to sleep pretty soon after the sun's gone down. Fast forward to our modern civilization, the advent of modern lighting. What tends to happen is we sleep in in the mornings, even though there's bright light coming through the curtains, which is interfering with our sleep, we then often are working indoors so we're not getting bright light. And then in the evenings we're staying awake and we are using devices with lots of blue lights coming into our eyes, which then is stimulating our nervous system. So we're living lives almost the opposite way to how we've evolved. And that's what's causing these sleep problems. And please note that sleep problems are the root cause, I believe, or certainly a co occurring factor in a lot of conditions. So that includes Maine chronic fatigue syndrome, which is obviously the speciality of the Gupta program, and fibromyalgia, also depression and anxiety, they become a chicken and egg situation where the more that we have those conditions, the worse our sleep gets, and so on and so forth. So getting our sleep right is a big part of ensuring that mentally, physically and emotionally we stay healthy. And we know that when our sleep deteriorates, our chances of getting ill actually increase three or four times. I mean, that's incredible, isn't it? And actually, if we're only getting five or six hours of sleep, our global chance of mortality, the chance of passing away actually increases by two thirds, increases by 67%. So getting that sleep, deepening it and lengthening it is what we're going to be talking about today. And one way to look at sleep in our modern lifestyle, something that I call the men's protocol, which I mentioned before. So the Gupta program men's protocol, where MEND stands for mind, exercise, nighttime routine and diet. So M is for mind, E is for exercise, N is for nighttime routine and sleep, and D is for diet. And it's those four things which often aren't working correctly in our lives and we need to mend it. So in terms of what interferes with the depth of our sleep, first and foremost, our minds, the stress that we experience during the day, the emotions, the overstimulation of our nervous system, they can contribute to a lack of decent sleep at night. And the way to look at it is we are like a teapot. So the, the teapot receives lots of nice tea from the pan and it goes into this beautiful teacup, sorry, teapot. And when we meditate, when we sleep deeply and soundly, when we're eating good food and nutrition, that's like pouring tea into the teapot. And the teapot's nice and happy because it's nice and filled with lots of good, hot, warm tea. But when we eat badly, when we don't look after our health, when we get stressed out, it's like pouring the tea out of the teapot. It drains our energy. So all the time we're putting good things into our system to energize it. And we're also leaking the energy out of our system when we don't live a good lifestyle. And sleep is one of those components. Now, of course, if we're getting great sleep but we're not eating well, it's in the same way we're then leaking that energy, which is why sleep and diet and exercise and all of these things can work together for us to have good health. So today we're discussing the n of the men's protocol, which is our nighttime routine and sleep, which is a really important part of filling this particular teapot and keeping us strong and energized. A bad night's sleep, look, literally pours the tea out of the teapot. So our minds leak out a lot of this energy through the fact that a stimulated mind finds it more difficult to go to sleep at night, because what are we doing? We're getting stressed out. We have different emotions which come up, the fight or flight response, which gets our muscles tense, ready to fight or flight. However, when we get to sleep, our muscles still feel tight and tense, like we're ready to deal with a particular danger. So our brain thinks, why would I let you go to sleep? Because you're still potentially in danger. It hasn't let go of that danger signal. So then going to sleep is not an active thing for the mind to do because we need to deal with the danger first and then exercise. When we exercise, we use up those stress hormones in the body and exercise is one of the quickest and easiest ways to reset our sleep patterns. Now, of course, for those of you with me and chronic fatigue, that isn't an option for you. But even some gentle stretching and movement can improve our sleep at night. Thirdly, what's leaking the energy out of our teapots is our nighttime routines. So what you do after dinner determines the depth of our sleep. And if we've got kids, children, toddlers, we know about how we have to have a nighttime routine and not get our children too stimulated. And in the same way, we also need that wind down after dinner. Yet what do we do in the evenings? We're often on our tablets and phones, a lean forward activity. So we are activating our mind. We've got an outcome that we want and that is over stimulating our nervous system. And on top of that, we know that screens emit the blue light spectrum and that signals to our brain to say, aha, it's time to wake up and our melatonin levels go down. Melatonin is a Hormone that indicates to our brains or to our bodies that we're ready to go to sleep. Okay? But when we're exposed to that bright light, the melatonin production reduces and therefore the brain gets into awareness mode or activation mode. So we want to make sure that, you know, we're not doing that deep activity on screens in the evenings. Now people ask me, what about TVs. Well, actually, because the TV is further away, it's not as bad as being on a mobile phone or on a laptop or on a screen because it's further away. And secondly, it's a more of a lean back experience. So when we're watching TV compared to one being on a tablet, we're not trying to get a particular outcome and therefore tensing up our nervous system. And finally, diet. Diet can be a big drain on our energy levels in terms of our sleep when it comes to caffeine. So caffeine is the number one predictor of whether someone has bad sleep. And of course, there are other stimulants like sugar and alcohol, and they also have an impact as well. Many people are thinking, I know I'll have a nightcap, I have a glass of wine or some alcohol, and that helps me fall asleep. But unfortunately, when we use those types of chemicals to get to sleep, it still interferes with our nighttime sleep and makes us feel more groggy in the morning, especially alcohol. So that's not a practical way that can help us have better sleep. And these circadian rhythms are very delicate. So what happens during the night? And I think some of this sleep science is quite important. When we go to sleep, we have about five or six cycles which are deep sleep and then rapid eye movement. The deep delta wave sleep is when the real healing in the mind and body occurs. And the REM sleep, or the rapid eye movement sleep is when our eyes flicker. And that's often when we're in a deep. That's when we're in a dream. We're essentially dreaming and processing the emotions of the day and probably consolidating memories that make sense now in those two phases. It is unfortunately the REM sleep, which increases when we've been stressed during the day or haven't had a good lifestyle during the day. And that encroaches on our deep wave, our delta wave sleep. So we know people who suffer from depression. They have less of the deep delta wave sleep and more of the REM sleep. And that's why they feel more exhausted the next day, which then means they feel more depressed and anxious the next day as well. So this is incredibly important for a whole range of mental, physical and emotional conditions. We want to deepen and lengthen the amount of non rem sleep. And what's really interesting, if we take the analogy of a pressure cooker. So imagine our minds are like a pressure cooker. Here we go, there's a pressure cooker and our minds are like this, where everyday worries, thoughts, emotions build up the pressure in the pressure cooker. Probably wondering, how many kitchen utensils am I going to actually use today? This is our final one. So the pressure builds and builds and builds. And like a lot of, you know, on the top of a pressure cooker is a little valve and you can pick up the valve which releases some of the steam and pressure in the mind. Now, if a lot of steam and pressure is in this pressure cooker at night, then at night the mind is trying to process all of these emotions so that we're ready to have let go of the emotions and stress of the previous day and we start with a blank sheet of paper the next morning. However, by doing that, by processing emotions during the night, it actually encroaches on the deep wave pattern sleep. And that means we, although we may have resolved the emotions, we've actually feeling more fatigued the next day. And that's that. I see time and time again in my clinic. And the great news is that one quick and simple way of releasing the stress and pressure from our minds is some kind of meditation practice. And it doesn't have to be meditation. It can be any kind of relaxation techniques or hypnotic techniques, whatever works for you. But meditation is the quickest and easiest way. And as many of you know, I actually have a free app called the Meaning of Life Experiment, which one of our team, our marketing manager Jess, will share in the comments boxes. So the Meaning of Life Experiment is a free app that you can use to learn how to meditate. And most people say to me, oh, I've tried meditation, it doesn't work for me, my mind gets too busy. And I say, would you go to the gym on the first day and expect to lift of the weights and pump large weights? Of course not. It takes time to build yourself up. And if you've had a lot of anxiety and worries in your mind, then this pressure cooker is full of pressure. So when you first meditate, you're going to have lots of steam coming out of this pressure cooker and therefore it's going to feel like I'm meditating, but all I have are Lots of thoughts running through my mind. Those thoughts running through your mind doesn't mean your meditation is bad. It is simply exhausting the tension and pressure that's built up out of your mind. And after a number of weeks or a number of days, once a lot of that pressure has been released, then you can begin to experience more of those glimpses of stillness. But it's about running the gauntlet and committing to that regular meditation so you get past the phase of the steam being released and you can go into more of that deeper stillness and peace that you truly are inside. Okay, so how do we get deeper, better sleep? How do we let go of fatigue during the day? Well, as I've mentioned in the MEND protocol, M is for meditation and mindfulness. So what that means is some kind of meditation practice. And I would advise a minimum of 10 to 20 minutes a day. A good time to do that would be in the morning. And if you have a lot of stress that's built up during the day and you're finding you've got sleep issues, then actually meditating before dinner is also a great time because you let go of all the stresses and strains of the day. A good 20 minute meditation before dinner, then you're having dinner and your digestion is better and you're feeling healthier, and then you're ready for that wind down in the evening. And you can also do a meditation, say just before you go to sleep, especially the soften and flow meditation, which is in day 10 of the meaning of Life experiment on the app. That's a great meditation to actually soothe and calm any stressed muscles. It's a mindfulness technique and people find it really helps them drift off to sleep. Finally, in the timeline of the Meaning of Life experiment, there's actually a meditation called the get back to sleep meditation, which does exactly what it says on the tin. So if you can't get to sleep or you wake up in the middle of the night stimulated and you find you can't sleep, then you listen to that meditation. And it uses the very science of how we drift off to sleep to help you gently fall asleep. Okay, good. So meditation is one of the quickest and easiest ways to reset your sleep system simply because you're releasing all that stressed up, tensed up emotion and pressure in the brain that normally would get released at night through dreaming and encroach on your deep delta wave sleep. And many studies have shown that meditation is a quick, simple way to of resetting our circadian sleep rhythms. And the longer, the better. And of course, it's about reducing our stress during the day. And that's something that we don't have time to go into today because that's obviously a big topic. But just being aware of what causes you stress and doing whatever you can to reduce your stress is obviously going to support you and help you in your sleep. And most importantly, we don't want to worry about our sleep. If we start worrying, then that's more negative thinking, more negative thoughts. And then when we're going to sleep, we're worrying that we can't get to sleep. And if we wake up in the middle of the night and those worries are there, then once again, we're not allowing our system to calm down and we're worrying about worrying and worrying about worrying about worrying and so on and so on. So we. Whatever happens, if you suddenly find that you can't sleep, just listen to one of the meditations and tell yourself this is just as good as sleep. I'm just resting my mind and my body. Okay, good. So with our men's protocol, we've talked about mindfulness meditation, so reducing our stress levels overall and learning to meditate. E is for exercise and movement. So exercise can sometimes be a word that means going to the gym or really pushing ourselves, but really it's about movement. And by moving and being active, we use up the stress hormones in the body, which then enables the muscles to relax, become smoother, and help our sleep at night. And a lot of people are very hung up on this idea of 10,000 steps, and they're wearing their gadgets to tell them when they've hit the 10,000 mark. Yet, interestingly, there is no scientific evidence that 10,000 steps in any way improves your levels of health, fitness, sleep, etc. What there is evidence for is that actually raising your heart rate is the best way of improving your health. But you don't have to run. It can simply be gentle. So gentle walking in nature or brisk walking in nature, where you're just getting slightly out of breath, that has been clinically proven to improve your sleep, to reduce your stress levels and be very beneficial for overall cardiovascular health and reducing your chances of mortality. So think less about hitting the 10,000 step mark and more about how briskly can I walk, how much can I raise my heart rate, how. How much can I get out of breath? Now, obviously, this doesn't necessarily apply to if you have me or chronic fatigue syndrome or fibromyalgia. In those situations, it's very, very gently introducing movement. But if you don't have those conditions, and you're generally finding you're feeling fatigued, it's actually pushing your body to get out of breath will really help your sleep rhythms come back. And what's really powerful here, and one of the most important things I'm going to say now is morning exposure to daylight. Incredibly important. So when we wake up in the morning, and this is a new instruction for all of those of you who are on the Gupta program, as soon as you wake up in the morning, I'd like you to expose yourself. The sentence doesn't stop there. I don't need to expose yourself. I want you to expose yourself to daylight. So that means going outside and for at least 20 minutes, exposing yourself to that by reading a book out there or perhaps having breakfast or whatever it may be, but making sure you're getting exposure to that daylight. And that then triggers the cortisol in your system to then get the sleep rhythms back to normal. And this has been a lot of recent scientific evidence showing that exposure to bright light in the morning is one of the quickest and easiest ways to get our sleep rhythms back to normal. Okay, so if you can't go outside, then please sit right in direct sunlight through a window. But going outside is better. Sitting or standing near a window, making sure you're getting bright, direct light. And that's fine for the summer months. For the winter months, obviously, sometimes it's not particularly bright outside. And then it's worth getting one of those lamps that you can get. So those bright lamps, you can see them on Amazon. And when you wake up, as soon as you wake up, exposing yourself for 20 to 30 minutes and then having as much bright light during the morning as possible is now our kind of new way of looking at the men's protocol. So please, please, please make sure that you're getting that exposure to bright light. The best way would be a brisk walk in nature as soon as you wake up. Or if you're someone who does cardiovascular cardio exercise, then actually going for a run outside in nature is a great way of getting your sleep patterns back to normal. And of course, n the nighttime routine, letting go of screens in the evening. And what really helps us get deeper sleep is reading, fun conversations with friends, playfulness, you know, being light and laughing. All of these things are great for our physiology. So really think about what helps me relax in the evening and have that wind down towards sleep. And watching comedies on tv, your favorite comedies, laughing out loud is a brilliant way of resetting the nervous system. Now in terms of your room, making sure that if you've got bright light coming into the room in the morning, wear an eye mask. Because if you're sleeping in in the morning and there's bright light that is interfering with the depth of your sleep and will make you feel more sleepy. So having an eye mask and then waking up when your alarm goes off, then taking off the eye mask and exposing yourself to bright light would be the very best way of ensuring those sleep cycles. And of course regularity. Because a lot of us are spending a lot of time on screens, we're going to bed later and later. And actually studies have shown the ideal time is anywhere between. Well, the latest time is between 10:30 and 11. We really should be lights out in bed before 11:00 o', clock, ideally 10:30. And some of us, you know, have a bit of leeway with that. And then making sure those last two hours we've really been in a wind down and we've really been fun, relaxing activities, but not stimulated by a screen or work. We shouldn't be doing any work on a laptop after 8 o' clock in the evening. And finally, D for diet, once again, reducing those stimulants. So not having caffeine after 12 o' clock is a great way of making sure that your sleep is deeper. And if you have caffeine after 12 or 1 o', clock, because caffeine has a half life of six to eight hours, the caffeine is still in your system, stimulating your system when you go to sleep. So a morning cup of tea or coffee is fine, but anything after lunchtime can impact on your sleep. And, you know, getting off that caffeine cycle is incredibly important. And just for your own health and well being, I really do encourage you to think about reducing your caffeine to one or two cups a day and nothing after lunchtime, there is some evidence that slow releasing carbohydrates can help us go to sleep at night. So if you're feeling a bit peckish before you go to sleep, some milk, some oats can also support deeper sleep. There is some evidence for that. And valerian tea is a great way of getting to sleep. So there's a company called Celestial Seasonings that sell a tea called Sleepy Time Extra, which got a valerian and spearmint and chamomile and that has been clinically shown to improve people's sleep as well. So the quick wins are basically cutting out caffeine after 1 o' clock in the afternoon, 12 o', clock, regularly meditating and Getting exposure to bright light as soon as you wake up, and of course, overall reducing our stress levels. And if you find that difficult or you've got a very stressful life, whatever it may be, please make that commitment to daily morning and evening meditation, even if it's just for 10 minutes, it will really make a big impact on your life. And we know that people who meditate, studies have shown that it halves their usage of medical facilities, so it doubles your health and well being just through regular meditation. So if you want to find out more, please join us on our podcast channel. So we now have a new podcast channel which is the Gupta Program. So you can search online for Gupta Program Podcast channel. And if you're suffering from deeper fatigue, so chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia or multiple chemical sensitivities, as you may know, we have a specialist program for that which is all about brain retraining. And we're going to start a new brain retraining program on Monday 4th June. So this coming Monday. And if you'd like to find out more, then please go to our website, which is guptaprogram.com program products. And there you get a home study course and 12 weeks of coaching with myself to support you through your recovery from those conditions. Okay, so we will now be having a Q and A, but we're going to be doing that on a separate live stream. So once this webinar now ends, all you have to do is keep refreshing the Gupta Program Facebook page and you'll see a new stream which will be the Sleep Webinar Q and A. And we'll start that just in a few minutes. And big thank you to Jess Reedy, who's our marketing manager for organizing and putting together this sleep webinar and hope you get to download the app which is called the Meaning of Life Experiment, which you can find on App Store and Play Store, which has got lots of lovely meditations to help you have deeper, longer sleep. So all it is left for me to say is thank you for watching. I hope you can join me starting on Monday for our three month coaching series and good luck with your sleep. Thank you and goodbye and look forward to seeing you on our livestream in a few minutes on the Gupta Program page.
