LS 46 - James Swanwick - Blue-Blocking Sleep & The 30 Day No Alcohol Challenge

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Welcome to the Longevity show, informing listeners on the important aspects of health, wealth, and happiness to ensure you live life to its fullest. With fascinating interviews with top authors and gurus in the field, along with the latest news in the science and technology of longevity, we're going to reveal expert advice and amazing secrets of living a long, happier life. And now, here's your host, Jason Hartman.

It's my pleasure to welcome James Swanwick to the show. He is an Australian American investor, TV host, and former sports center anchor for espn. He is the host of the James Swanwick show podcast and creator of the 30 day no alcohol challenge, which helps people reduce or quit alcohol. And, you know, I can't wait to hear more about that because there's a lot of what I call gratuitous drinking, at least that I do, I'll admit it. Not. Not necessary drinking. He is also the creator of Swannies, these fantastic blue blocking glasses which help people sleep. He has interviewed celebrities including Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, George Clooney, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, and world leaders, including US Vice President Al Gore. The fantastic. What a lineup. James, welcome.

How you doing, Jason? Great to be here. Thank you very much.

It's good to have you on. And my first question for you, because I will admit I am envious. I thought I had the all star guest list on my show. You beat me. You're one of the few. I guess you didn't have Steve Forbes on or some of the other famous people I've had. But how do you get those great guests? That's awesome.

Yeah. Well, I used to be a celebrity interviewer, so I would interview movie stars and, you know, the interviews would appear on TV shows around the world and in newspapers and magazines. So I got to hang out with, you know, a lot of influential people. Hugh Hefner at the Playboy Mansion was a fun interview. And Jon Bon Jovi and, you know, just a whole lot of, you know, who's who of celebrities. It was a lot of fun.

Very cool. Very cool. I don't know if I could interview Al Gore. I would tell him what a quack he is and what a hypocrite. But you were probably nicer than I would be.

I think I was a little bit nicer.

Yeah. You know, so he'll actually come back on your show, maybe. Right?

Good stuff. Well, hey, before we talk about the 30 day no alcohol challenge, which I found interesting when I met you and heard about that. You know, you gave me a pair of these Swanie sort of sunglasses. They're really not sunglasses, but they look like sunglasses. And I gotta tell you, just before you did that, I purchased four pairs of these computer glasses, which reduce the light. And, you know, this is a big deal. I think this is a big problem in the world because we're all. I mean, who would have thought that we would spend our life looking at screens, you know, 20 years ago? And we're just looking at screens all the time. We're all doing this, and it is ruining our sleep patterns. And the one pair of Swannies that I have from you, I put them on my nightstand because those block more than any of the others. I now have five pairs of these glasses, these types of glasses, the blue. And I can wake up, as I typically do, six hours after sleeping, look at my phone for 10 minutes, check Facebook, look at the news feed, and some news articles on an app I like called Newser. And I can go back to sleep in 15 minutes. And I can really sleep. I mean, those little glasses are really helping me, I gotta tell you.

Well, it's great. Thank you so much for sharing the. The positive results you've had. It's true though, isn't it? We're addicted to our cell phones, we're addicted to our laptops, we're addicted to our televisions. And all of these electronic devices are emitting this dangerous blue light. And it's dangerous because it's keeping us up at night. It's basically keeping our mind active. You think about it, back when we were cavemen and cave women, we didn't have these screens, obviously, we didn't have the light bulb. Fast forward thousands of years in the last hundred years. Now all of a sudden, we're spending nighttime in artificial light. These light bulbs, we're sitting inside in artificial light. And that messes with our circadian rhythm. And the circadian rhythm is the internal body clock that knows whether it's daytime or nighttime. And the problem with all these electronic devices that we're on the cell phones and the iPads and the problems with the lighting and the light bulbs is that we're confusing our internal body clock. Our body thinks and our brain thinks that it's daytime when in actual fact is it's nighttime. And so the problem is, is that when we actually go to sleep, it's harder to go to sleep. It's harder to fall asleep because our mind is so active. And then when we do fall Asleep, it takes 90 minutes for our bodies to start creating melatonin. And melatonin is what really gives us that beautiful REM sleep. And so if you're on a computer screen or iPhone, you know, lying in your bed, texting and emailing before you go to sleep, and then you. Then you switch off your phone and try to go to sleep, it's going to take 90 minutes before you're even going to get into that beautiful phase of sleep where there's melatonin production. So wearing the blue blocking glasses 90 minutes before you go to sleep stops that blue light from triggering your brain activity, stops that blue light from messing with your sleep, and ensures that you fall asleep faster and you fall asleep and you sleep deeper.

Many of the guests that I have on my longevity and biohacking show will say the two major things. Well, I'm gonna say the three, actually. The three major things you can do to improve your lifespan and your health span is you must exercise. You know, obviously, you must eat right, and you must sleep well.

That's the triad, you know, that's it. I mean, beyond that, yeah, there's some other hacks you can do, but that basically nails it if you can do those three things right? And our pineal gland is what senses light in animals. It tells them to thicken or reduce their coat, you know, in winter or spring, and adjust to the. And, you know, for us, it dictates our circadian rhythm. I read this fantastic book years ago called Light the Medicine of the Future. And ever since reading that book, I have practiced the idea of not watching the television before bedtime, of lowering. I have dimmers throughout all my homes, always of reducing the light in the house. But incandescent lights or LED lights or whatever lighting you have in your home, or halogen lights, they aren't as bad as this light that's coming from the screens. You know, that blue light is just super bad from your computer screens, from your phone. And that is just really, really devastating stuff. So these glasses are powerful and they're cheap. Right. They don't cost a lot.

Absolutely. And, you know, it's true, though. Like, if you don't sleep well, it affects your. Your health in so many ways. It affects your ability to be able to burn fat. So you actually keep fat on. It leaves you more stressed, which raises your cortisol levels. Raising your cortisol levels keeps fat around you. It makes you temperamental and irritable, which affects your relationships. And when your relationships are affected, you tend to eat poorly or you tend to Drink a little bit more. I mean, it's all very much.

And don't forget about the focus issue. You know, your ability to focus throughout the day is so dependent on sleep. And there have been many studies on this, so, yeah, absolutely. It's a great thing. So why are your glasses better than any others? I mean, I just know that they're darker and they seem to really change that light. The other ones that I bought before I met you, you know, they're kind of this yellow hue, and they're very subtle. They don't seem like they're dark enough. I like yours because they're darker. You know, they really seem to block that light.

Well, they measure blue light in nanometers, nm and so we. The problem with these yellow tinted glasses is that they're only blocking a certain amount of the spectrum. Okay. So they have okay results. Now, what I. And then the other problem is that the other blue blocking glasses that are a very orange lens, which do block a lot of nanometers, are very ugly. They're kind of like those workman glasses that you see people using when they're mowing the lawn or doing gardening so they don't get hit by flying stones or rocks. So they got these huge, big, ugly oranges, orange protector security glasses. And so I was just like, well, you know what? I want to wear these glass, like, I want to get the benefit of the orange lens blocking out as much of the dangerous blue light as possible, But I also want to wear these glasses out to dinner in Hollywood or West Hollywood where I live. I want to be able to go into a bar or to a restaurant.

But why would you wear them there, though?

Well, usually, sometimes I can be out an hour and a half, two hours before sleep. There's still that artificial light that's coming in. So it's not just for. For blocking the blue light from electronic devices. It's also for blocking artificial light, like overhead light from light bulbs as well. So if I know it's 90 minutes before I'm going to go to sleep and I'm still out, I will pull out my glasses and I will put them on. Because even if I'm driving through traffic, the lights that's being emitted from cars coming in my direction is keeping my mind active. The lights from the traffic light, the light from the overhead light in the restaurant that I'm dining in is still keeping my mind active. So I will put these glasses on 90 minutes before I go to sleep, and then by the time I get home, I then turn off the light, take the glasses off and I'm good to go. So really, just to answer your initial question, the difference is that these block considerably more of the dangerous blue light than the ones that I think you had tried beforehand. And also they're socially acceptable to wear them out and about. If you're dining with someone, people are not going to look at you and say, why are you wearing sunglasses? Because they don't look like sunglasses. They look like reading glasses with a little tinge of orange to them.

Okay, you want to switch gears now and talk about this other poison that so many of us ingest and that's alcohol.

Yeah, absolutely. Let's do it.

And you know, it's interesting because I was at BevMo recently, I was buying some vodka, some tequila, some, you know, high end drinks for my liquor shelf. And you know, the salesman said, you know, I said, what? Why is it that as, as you get older, you know, you just, that the effects are really, they stay with you, that you used to just blow them right off. When you have that younger body, your cells regenerate faster or whatever's going on that just, you know, makes it work. He said, you know, basically what we're doing when we drink, we're just poisoning ourselves slowly. And I thought, well, that's a great thought, you know.

Well, it's true though, isn't it? I mean, alcohol is a poison, whatever way you look at it, and certainly.

It'S got so much sugar in it that it's at least a poison on that level, if nothing else, right?

Yeah. And it's funny, you know, the National Institute of Health did a study a while ago and they showed that it takes seven to 10 days for the toxins from alcohol to leave your body, leave your system. Isn't that incredible? Like, even if you drink and then, you know, you drink a lot of water and another day or two has passed, there's still toxins from the alcohol floating around in your system. So if you really want to live at an optimum level level, just know that every drink you have for the next week, week and a half, you're still not really functioning at your peak performance because there's still toxins floating around.

Wow. Yeah, that's something else. You know, I, I tell you, I just don't want this stuff anymore. I, I very, I drink very little nowadays and my body is thanking me for it. But, but what do you do and what's the impetus behind this course you have? Why? How did you become interested in that?

Yeah, well, I was always just a social drinker. Okay? I was not an alcoholic by any stretch of the imagination. I drank couple drinks each night. Maybe I'd go out and have a few drinks during the week. And then on the weekends, sometimes I'd get drunk and sometimes I wouldn't. Sometimes I'd have a few beers while watching Sunday football down at a bar. And I was just a social drinker. But what happened was, is that over time, I kind of got into my early 30s, and I was like, man, I've put on a little bit of weight here. I'm tired of these hangovers. And even if I didn't have a hangover, even if I'd had a couple drinks the night before, I was still waking up feeling tired and lethargic and irritable. And maybe I'd sleep in a little bit. I was just lacking in energy. Just like a kind of like a 5 out of 10. I just felt like I was existing in the world. And so I remember I woke up one morning, I was in Austin at the south by Southwest festival, and I had a couple gin and tonics on a Friday night. I went back to my hotel. I woke up the next morning, and for whatever reason, I just had a horrible, horrible hangover. Just an awful hangover. And I went to an International House of Pancakes and IHOP right next door to this.

Another healthy choice. Yeah.

And I remember I was sitting in this IHOP and there were these huge, big fat people sitting either side of me. And the menus in the IHOP have these big, bright, bold colors of the food, right? And it's like pictures of photos of bacon and eggs and all. You can eat pancakes. And I just felt horrible. I was just like, oh, this is the worst. So I actually just said to myself, you know what? Enough, James. See if you can just do 30 days without alcohol. Just see if you can do it. Because you got to feel better than what you feel now. And so I did. I started. I went out that night. I didn't drink. It was a little bit socially awkward. I felt a bit awkward. But I got through the night. After seven days, I'd lost a bit of weight. My sleep was improving. After a couple weeks, I realized that I was having kind of nicer and deeper conversations with people. And after 30 days, I'd realized that I'd lost 13 pounds of fat just from stopping drinking alcohol. I slept so much better. I got a hell of a lot more productive in my business. And I was just an all around nicer person. Not that I was not a nice person beforehand.

But we'll listen, we'll be the judge of that. But. Okay, okay.

But it was just. I just felt so much better in Every way after 30 days, Jason. So I just said, you know what? I wonder how long I can go. Let me just keep going. And so I did. And I haven't touched a drop of alcohol since. I haven't drunk any alcohol at all since 2010.

The distinction here, listeners, about what it is we're talking about is that this is not an issue of being an alcoholic or having a drinking problem. This is really having a drinking opportunity.

I'm being funny. Well, I'm attempting to. Well, you know, the audience will be the judge of that. But, you know, it's. It's really about this, you know, the. The have two drinks type of concept. Right. You know, let me raise an objection or two for you if I can. You know, how can you be social without drinking? I mean, I think some people really ask that question. I can't imagine, you know, going out. I mean, I've done it only a couple of times and not having a drink or two or more. But, you know, I just would not be interested in being in a bar or at a party very much. I don't think. I don't know, maybe I would. I just don't try it very much. You know, it's just sort of a reflexive thing. Well, yeah, I'll have a drink, you know, and, you know, I've never had, at least I don't think so, any kind of big alcohol consumption issue, but, you know, socially drink. Right. You know, can you still have fun?

I mean, I have the most fun. That's the thing. Like, people think, oh, my God, I can't go out. I'll be so dull and won't be interesting, and it's be like I'm in a prison all night. I feel the complete opposite. When I'm not drinking or now that I'm only drinking water or soda water, I am the life of the party. I mean, I've got so much conversation in me. I've got so much energy. I have so much clarity. I'm genuinely interested in other people because I am genuinely interested in other people. Other people are genuinely interested in me. I mean, it's just. It's. Even the way that you asked the question, Jason, is mind boggling to me because, you know, because I'm used to this now. But it's mind boggling that so many people think that they cannot enjoy themselves without drinking. And that is just. That's a sad reality of how culture and marketing has influenced our life, because.

So. So, yeah, I'll give you a famous quote, and I want to say this is by someone like Oscar Wilde, maybe. He said, I drink to make other people more interesting.

So, see, you know, the thing I would think is that other people around you will just be annoying, you know, if they're. If they're drinking. Right. You know, sort of the way you almost tolerate is by having a drink with them, you know? I don't know.

Well, you're implying that you're. You're spending time with people who are drunk around you.

Well, not even drunk, just sort of. You know, people, when they have two drinks, they get. They get louder. The whole bar is louder. You know, there's no question about that. It's funny, it's ironic that they say alcohol is a depressant because it seems like people get pretty hyper with it, you know?

Yeah, well, it's temporary. Illusionary pleasure is what it is. People think that they're actually enjoying themselves, but it's very temporary. And it's all an illusion because as we know, there's a ramification that comes with that. You're going to feel depressed, you're going to feel awful, you're going to be hungover, you're going to put on weight, you're going to eat crap food, you're going to make bad decisions, you're gonna text to the ex, you're gonna say things that you regret.

Drunk texting.

Yeah, all those kind of things. But look, here's the thing. How do I have the most fun of anyone at the party or when I go out? This is what I do. I just say, I am going to have the most fun of anyone in this room. And I go out there and I commit to doing it. And so it's just very much a mindset. Like, I don't go out there and say, I will not drink alcohol tonight. I say to myself, I'm only drinking soda water or water. I'm having the most fun of anyone at this party. When someone asks me why I'm not drinking, I. And I just say, you know, I'm taking a break from alcohol for a while. I'm just drinking water tonight. Nobody cares. We all think that people care, but nobody cares. Okay? The other thing is that I never apologize for not drinking alcohol. I never tell people or judge people for them drinking alcohol. I don't get preachy. I don't say, oh, you shouldn't be drinking. So Much. I just don't care. I don't care if you're drinking, and I don't really care if you're not drinking. But for me, the party is me, the good time is me. Okay, that's it. And so I don't go out there thinking, oh my God, I'm not drinking. I don't fit in here. I'm so dull. I just do it. It's just a mindset.

So give us some of the techniques that you use to make this work. I would assume one is, I mean, you talked about the mindset and everything you said is great so far, but just some additional techniques. I think one of them might be even.

Do you have something in your hand? You know, a lot of the, like, smokers, you know, they just want to have something to do with their hands or people, you know, eating candy and stuff or it's kind of the same thing. So you order soda water or what do you, what do you do?

Yeah, my staple drink is water, ice and a piece of lime. In fact, here's a little tip. When any, when anytime a waiter or a friend ever asks you, what would you like to drink? Or what can I get you? Drink, just repeat these words. I'll have water, ice and a piece of lime, please. And that's it. And then just whenever anyone asks you that question, just say those words. That is a delicious drink. The other thing is soda water with some lime is beautiful as well. And I'll just drink that all night. And so a lot of times people don't even realize I'm not drinking because sometimes, you know, soda water, it looks like a drink. It looks like a drink, sure. And so it's absolutely fine. And I'll just sip on that. I feel very clear headed. I'm feeling hydrated. I wake up feeling amazing. And that's fine. Now, I did try to trick someone once, in fact, and during the first week that I stopped drinking, I had a date with a lovely lady called Andrea. And I took her to Jones Bar on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood. This was in 2010, a week after I started. And I was very conscious, like, oh my God, this girl's not gonna like me because I won't be drinking. So I got there 10 minutes early and I told the barman, when I order drinks first, can you just make sure mine is a soda water and a piece of lime, but, you know, so it looks like a vodka. And he go, sure. And so all night, you know, we were there, she had a few glasses of wine I had a few glasses of soda water and lime, but she thought I was drinking vodka. Fast forward to three weeks later, and her friend said, oh, James, you know, can I get you a drink? I said, oh, no, thanks. I've stopped drinking. And the girl that I took out on the date said, no, you haven't. You were drinking on our. On our date. And I said, oh, actually, no, I wasn't. I was only drinking soda water. She's like, what? You tricked me. And I'm like, yeah, sorry. And she's like, I can't believe you lied to me. Anyway, that was the end. She dumped me right on the spot because I was dishonest.

So I learned a lesson there. It's like, you can lie, you can trick people, but they're gonna. What's the point? There's no point.

Yeah, no, I don't. I don't see any point. You know, I mean, I don't care what people think. You know, Like, I would just say I'm not drinking, you know, no big deal. But. But how. What are your other hacks for doing this, for managing your mindset or. Or being in the social environment? Because, like you say, this is so ingrained. I mean, these liquor companies have done such a good job of just making it part of the culture. It's mind boggling how successful they've been at that.

Well, I mean, I watched football. I watched the NFL on a Sunday. And you just have to watch the commercials during the, you know, the halftime show or whatever, during the breaks and a break of play to realize how ingrained it is in our culture. Because all the ads for Budweiser and Coors, they're all the same. It's a bunch of guys sitting around having a good time, being jokey with very pretty girls. And what it's doing is. It's ingraining in our mind that if you want to be part of the tribe, if you want to have fun amongst other people, then you need to drink alcohol. But I would challenge that. Who says, I watch football every Sunday, and I love watching football, and I don't drink alcohol. The other thing is that you see these imagery that hotels put out of, like, romantic dinners. There's a man and a woman having a candle at dinner, and there's a bottle of wine, as if the wine. You need the wine for romance. Who says you need the wine for romance? Why not just have the candlelit dinner without the bottle of wine?

But the liquor companies and the marketing are so good at associating this idea of Pleasure and being part of a tribe of people if you drink their product. But it's a complete nonsense because I can be part of the tribe and I can have extreme pleasure from not drinking alcohol at all. So just to answer the first part of your question, what's another little hack? And it's to do with the mindset as well. I just go out and I just say to myself, I'm going to have the most fun of anyone here tonight. And the way I do it, like I said before, is I just become genuinely interested in other people. And I just say, I don't say, hi, what's your name? What do you do? I say, hey, what's your name? Tell me your story. And then I listen intently. And when the person can see me listening intently, they begin to warm to me and connection is made. And then all of a sudden, that person's introducing me to another person. I'm meeting someone else, we're all talking, we're all having a good time. No one is even thinking for a second that I'm not drinking alcohol. No one cares.

Right, sure. Yeah, of course, of course. Very good, very good. Well, what does someone do in your program? Just tell us about it really, really quickly. How does it work?

Yeah. So I created this program called the 30 Day no Alcohol Challenge. And basically social drinkers who realize they want to take a break, they join the program every day. They get an email from me, which is a video. I've recorded 30 videos, one video each day. And I give them one little tip and one little bit of advice to help them get through 30 days. A lot of people think, oh, my God, I can't go 30 days. The most I've ever gone is like three or four days. And that was when I was sick or on antibiotics or something. And so what I do is I give them accountability. I hold their hand through it and I give them 30 little tips on how they can respond to questions when people are saying, why aren't you drinking? And I talk about the health benefits of not drinking. And then they go into a closed Facebook group where there's an amazing community of people who are really supporting you along the way, sharing their experiences, taking photos of the drinks, the non alcoholic drinks that they're drinking, and really encouraging other people. So it's very much an accountability group, Jason. People come through, I hold their hand through. They get a community of other people who are doing the challenge at the same time. That keeps you on track. And then hopefully. And what has been happening at the end of those 30 days, you feel amazing. You would have lost weight, your skins look better, you're sleeping better, you're more productive, you got more focus. And then from there, I'm not saying you've got to quit alcohol forever. I'm just saying maybe you feel so amazing that you reduce the alcohol that you drink thereafter.

Yeah, yeah. Very good stuff. Good stuff. James, Give out your websites. Tell people where they can find out about the things we discussed.

So the 30 day no alcohol challenge is at 30daynoalcoholechallenge.com the blue blocking swannies glasses. If you go to swanwicksleep.com S W A N W I C K sleep.com you can check them out there. And I'm on Instagram at James Swanwick and YouTube and Twitter and all those good places. Ames Swanwick.

James Swanwick. Thank you so much for joining us.

It was great to be here. Jason thank you.

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