4 Different Sleep Types | Dr. Michael Breus

Hi, I'm Dr. Michael Bruce. 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. You may have seen me on TV shows like Dr. Oz, Oprah and the Today Show. I've also had the good fortune to write three best selling books which all address sleep, but in very unique ways. Everybody needs sleep. We all know that. But what a lot of people didn't realize is that everybody's sleep needs are different. The concept of needing eight hours of sleep every night is a myth. Just look at the math. We know that the average sleep cycle is approximately 90 minutes. And the average person has five of these cycles. If you look closely, you'll see that this equation leads to only seven and a half hours of sleep. Personally, I sleep from midnight to about 6:30 and I've been this way my entire adult life. So let's bust that myth today. Everybody's sleep need is different. Another aspect of your sleep that it's personalized is called your chronotype. Everyone has different chronotypes. You may not know this word, but you probably understand the concept. Think about somebody being called an early bird or a night owl. Those are chronotypes. Chronotypes are internal rhythms that are biologically set. And it's your unique wiring, known as your sleep chronotype, that determines what your most energetic times of a day will be. Using this example, some people are early birds. They rise early and are very active during the early morning hours. Other of us are night owls. We sleep late and are much more active in the evenings and late at night. There's been some fascinating studies done on these different types of people. For example, a study showed that night owls tend to be more intelligent even when tested in the early morning hours. And night owls also have a tendency to have more sex. Although that's probably because we're up late at night. They handle caffeine much better than early birds. Early birds have a much harder time sleeping when they've consumed caffeine throughout the day. But before you decide I'm just a night owl fan, you should also know that night owls are much more likely to engage in substance abuse like alcohol and smoking than early birds. Night owls also tend to be less happy. They're also the biggest risk takers, which can lead to some severe problems. Early birds are often what many people claim to be, when in fact they're really not. Only 15% of people are true early birds and and they tend to be very successful. They're often managers or in management. And they are very healthy and health conscious and extremely productive. Now, I don't call them night owls. I call them wolves. And I don't call them early birds. I call them lions. I've broken up the chronotypes into four separate categories and given them animals that mimic the closest behaviors to those types. The bear. Bears internal clocks rise and fall with the sun. They usually need a full eight hours of sleep a night. It's the majority of the population. The wolf, and that's me, have a hard time waking up in the morning and are most active at night. The lion. The lion tends to wake up really early with lots of energy, but they're exhausted by early evening. And the dolphin. These are my light sleepers who are often diagnosed with insomnia. Now, each chronotype affects how much sleep you need, your optimal routine and what time you're most productive, among many other factors. 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. You'll be sleeping, sleeping like a baby in no time. See you at the masterclass.