Sleep

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Some specialists say we need 8 hours every night, some say we need more. In truth, there's only one person who knows how much sleep you need.
You.

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Episode Transcript

Sleep (00:00):
Happy Friday pod fans.
Hope you are well.
Are you ready for the weekend?
I know I am.
I've got a works Christmas partytonight, which I've been looking
forward to, and it's my birthdayon Monday, so this weekend might
be a bit full on with a few latenights.
But I can have a lie in onMonday on my birthday to catch

(00:21):
up, I guess.
Although, to be honest, that'snot quite how sleep works.
If you needed more and didn'tget it, then you didn't get it.
It's gone and that's it really.
I'm gonna talk about sleeptoday, but as I've spoken about
it quite a bit before, and it isa common topic for people like
me to talk about, I'm gonna tryand mention things that maybe

(00:42):
you didn't know or hadn't reallyconsidered, so hopefully you'll
learn something new today.
The last time I spoke aboutsleep, I tried to find some
academic literature about howmuch sleep the average human
actually needs, and there are somany variables, it makes the
answers kind of pointless.

(01:04):
Apparently, for most adults,you're looking at anywhere
between 7 and 10 hours.
And in our sixties, we'relooking more at the lower end of
that, maybe even only six hoursfor some people.
So there's no real specificanswer as to how much sleep we
need.
Everyone's different.
Now, one thing a lot of peopledon't realise though, is the

(01:28):
benefits of resting compared tosleeping.
Our brains do need us to sleep,obviously, but so many people
worry that they're not gettingenough, and it's those worries
that keep their mind awake.
Keeps them frustrated, preventsthem from getting sleepy, or
even simply resting.

(01:48):
So yeah, sleep is better thanjust lying there, resting your
mind.
But actually, even if you onlyhad two hours sleep and you
compensated by spending ninehours, just resting your mind,
resting your body.
That's genuinely the equivalentof five hours sleep.
Which isn't great, but it's notso little that you need to worry

(02:10):
that you're damaging your brain.
In the sleep studies profession,it's called Non Sleep Deep Rest.
Other people might call itmeditation or hypnosis.
Call it what you like.
Just do it if you need to.
Now, first off, we need toidentify whether you are getting
enough sleep in the first place,which sounds obvious, but I've

(02:32):
found that we do overlook this.
Particular behaviours that youneed to look out for are, number
one, you fall asleep veryquickly.
For someone who's getting enoughsleep, usually takes about 10 to
15 minutes of relaxing in bed,feeling sleepy and comfortable
before they fall asleep.

(02:53):
If you fall asleep in fiveminutes, you're probably sleep
deprived.
You might need some earlynights.
Number two, does your alarmclock have to wake you?
People are getting so used totheir phones waking them up,
they're no longer questioningthat.
That's a bit of a weird thingthat they were asleep and they
needed waking up.

(03:14):
It should be obvious to us thatwe need to wake up before the
alarm clock goes off, otherwisewe needed more sleep.
One thing to get your headaround though is the difference
between being tired and beingsleepy.
Tiredness, I think of as beingwithin the body and sleepiness

(03:35):
is part of what's going on inour brain.
Try not to mix these up.
Because if you are tired, butyou are not sleepy, going to bed
is probably not the answer.
That's when people find theycan't sleep.
They get annoyed.
If you find that your eyelidsare getting heavy or you've
totally missed the last fiveminutes of a TV show you're

(03:56):
watching'cause you just couldn'tconcentrate, then you're more
likely sleepy and then you needto go to bed.
But if you're just lacking inmotivation, you're feeling slow,
maybe you've got sore muscles,then you're likely physically
tired and you need to rest.
But that doesn't necessarilymean you need to try and sleep.

(04:17):
If you try, you probably won't.
You maybe just need to not thinktoo much.
Put off any big jobs you weredoing.
Don't paint the bedroom ceilingnow.
Do that another day.
Just rest.
Read something.
Watch some easy, lazy tv.
Get in tune with what's reallygoing on within your body.
So there are already loads andloads of podcasts already out

(04:40):
there about how to set up bettersleep routines.
Do go and check those out.
I've spoken about it before, soyou can certainly search on my
Patreon feed for that if you area patron of mine.
Also, if you are, do use some ofthose hypnotherapy guided
imagery tracks that I stick onthere as well.
They'll really help you with theNon Sleep Deep Rest skills'cause

(05:03):
it is a skill.
So practice it.
Anyway, I didn't wanna overruntoday.
I think I've timed it just aboutright.
Enjoy your weekend.
I'll be back on Monday onPatreon with a full episode all
about acceptance and letting goof the past.
So I'll see you on there.
Bye for now.