#43 Small Changes, Big Impact

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Six surprisingly simple actions mighty meaningfully improve your sleep, eating habits, and overall well-being—and how you can easily test them for yourself.

We begin with two sleep-related tips. First, try lowering your bedroom temperature to under 70°F. In a small controlled trial, participants who slept on a cooling mattress fell asleep faster and reported better rest. 

The second tip: go to bed at the same time every night. A study in adolescents showed that consistent sleep timing improves how quickly you fall asleep, total sleep duration, and overall sleep quality.

Then we dive into three food-focused techniques. Starting meals with protein may help you feel fuller, thanks to effects on hunger-regulating hormones like ghrelin and GLP-1, as explored in this review and systematic analysis. 

Next, waiting 20 minutes before going for seconds may give your brain time to register fullness, supported by a study comparing fast and slow eaters. 

The fourth tip? Just stand up. There’s no formal data yet, but being upright might affect how full your stomach feels mechanically—something I noticed during long flights when a quick walk dramatically reduced my appetite.

Finally, we explore the idea of non-food “snacks” throughout your day. Evidence shows that short bursts of movement as brief as 30 seconds to 5 minutes can improve fitness, particularly in sedentary individuals. Similarly, just five minutes of breathwork has been shown to elevate mood in randomized trials. 

But here’s the key: try them for yourself. In Part 2 of the episode, I guide you through using an “N of 1” approach to test each strategy. Start by measuring a baseline (using wearables, a sleep journal, or a validated sleep questionnaire). Then try one of these approaches for a few days or a week. Reassess and see what happens. 

Takeaways:

Sometimes, the most powerful health strategies aren’t the hardest—they’re just the ones you haven’t tried yet.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
will a cold bedroom help me sleep?
Can eating a bit then waiting20 minutes before eating more
help me eat less?
How about doing just fiveminutes of focused breathing?
Will that calm me?
There's evidence to supportsome of these and, in all cases,

(00:23):
testing whether they work inyou is critical.
Let's find out.
Hi, I'm Dr Bobby Du Bois andwelcome.
To Live Long and Well, apodcast where we will talk about

(00:44):
what you can do to live as longas possible and with as much
energy and figure that you wish.
Together, we will explore whatpractical and evidence-supported
steps you can take.
Come join me on this veryimportant journey and I hope
that you feel empowered alongthe way.

(01:06):
I'm a physician, ironman,triathlete and have published
several hundred scientificstudies.
I'm honored to be your guide.
Welcome, dear listeners,whether you're in the US or
anywhere of a number of othercountries that seem to be

(01:27):
enjoying the podcast.
This is episode 43.
Will these simple and quickapproaches help you?
Let's try and see.
In my discussions, we oftenfocus on what I might refer to
as big changes.
To live long and well Could bestart a full exercise program or

(01:50):
try to stop smoking, or buildnew social relationships or lose
a whole bunch of weight.
But the real question also isare there simple changes that
you can do that might reallyhelp?
So I came up with Dr Bobby'stwo darn easy criteria for

(02:15):
simple changes.
We must define what we mean bysimple changes.
Criterion one needs to bepretty darn easy to try it,
something you can do quickly,easy, without a lot of time and
without a lot of preparation.
Criteria number two it needs tobe pretty darn easy to assess

(02:38):
whether it works for you.
So for today we're going todivide our discussion into two
parts.
In part one I'll walk throughwhat those simple approaches are
.
A couple go in the area ofsleep, three go in the area of
eating or weight control, andthen we'll have one called the

(03:01):
frequent snack technique.
This is a teaser, has nothingto do with food.
So some of the techniques andapproaches I've talked about
before, others are new.
Some of them have a fair bit ofevidence that supports they
could work for you, but somedon't.

(03:22):
And that brings us to what willbe part two.
How do we test whether thesesimple changes, simple things to
try whether they work in you?
Now we've talked many differenttimes about the N of one
approach, and this will be aperfect way to apply it.
If you would like a little morebackground on the N of 1

(03:44):
approach to testing in yourself,that would be episode number 27
.
So let's dive right on in.
So the first couple deal withsleep.
Simple approach number one trya cold bedroom.
It's so simple it's hard tobelieve it works.
The body naturally cools atnight.

(04:08):
It's a circadian rhythm thing.
Ideally we don't want to fightthe cooling process by having a
warm bedroom.
Does it relate to melatoninrelease?
It could be, but what's theguidance?
What's the simple approach?

(04:28):
Set the temperature in yourbedroom below 70 degrees or at
70 degrees, and there's evidenceto support this.
In a small controlled trial nowthey used a cooling mattress to
achieve the cooling.
But no reason to think thatjust a cool bedroom wouldn't do
the same.
And what do they find?
That sleep onset, how quicklyyou fell asleep was

(04:51):
significantly faster and howwell you slept subjective sleep
assessment was better.
That was a small study.
Here we have a largerobservational study with about
34,000 people and about 4million nights of sleep, and
what they looked at was thetemperature and for each degree

(05:14):
things were warmer in the room.
Your sleep efficiency went down, which is of the hours you're
in bed.
How many of those hours are youasleep?
Also, for each degree that itwas warmer, there was a shorter
total sleep duration.
So what's the call to actionhere?

(05:35):
Give it a try.
Set your bedroom temperature at70 or below and C.
For this technique and for thenext that I'll talk about, I
have an episode number three onsleep, and more details are
there if you're interested.
Okay, simple approach.

(05:57):
Number two related to sleep.
Aim to go to bed at a similartime each night.
That is surprisingly important.
Now, some might argue that itisn't the time you go to bed.
That needs to be uniform andsimilar, but it's the wake-up

(06:17):
time For me.
I wake up the same time, aboutfive in the morning.
So whether I go to bed at ninein the evening, 10, 11, or
midnight, I'm still gonna wakeup at the same time.
So unless I go to bed close tonine for me, I'm not gonna get

(06:39):
the desired close to eight hoursof sleep.
Now there's evidence to supportthis.
They did a study in 46adolescents and they had them go
to sleep at the same time eachnight what's called sleep
regularity and that wasassociated with longer sleep
duration, shorter time to fallasleep and that overall, greater

(07:03):
sleep efficiency.
So there's some evidence tosupport it.
Of course, as we'll talk later,you need to test it in yourself
.
What's the action item?
Go to bed at the same time fora week or so and see what
happens.
All right, now we're going toswitch gears.
Talk about eating weightcontrol.

(07:24):
Simple approach number threeBegin your meal with protein or
have a protein-forward meal,meaning a significant part of
your meal is protein.
There's some studies thatsuggest that protein intake may

(07:46):
improve satiety or how hungryyou feel in the short term.
Now I'm not talking aboutlong-term weight loss and the
studies are quite mixed aboutwhether protein-heavy meals lead
to long-term weight loss versusa more typical meal.
What I'm really talking aboutis the immediate sense of

(08:09):
fullness.
Protein may help with thehormone ghrelin, which says to
your body I'm still hungry, andthe GLP-1 hormone, which is also
something our body produces.
Those may go up with proteinintake.
Now there are others who sayfat makes them full.

(08:33):
Again, these are all testable,but there's some studies to
suggest that protein intakehelps you to feel fuller.
It does for me, maybe it willfor you.
So what's the action item?
Try to eat.
One serving of protein Could be20 grams of protein.

(08:53):
25 grams of protein at the verybeginning of the meal or as a
pre-meal snack.
So maybe you'll have a littlebit of tuna or part of a chicken
breast, maybe 10 minutes beforeyou eat.
See if that helps you, or haveyour protein at the beginning of

(09:15):
the meal, not later into themeal.
Quick tip number four wait 20minutes before you eat more.
So there was a reallyinteresting study.
They had two groups.
One ate quickly, so whateverthey were going to eat, they ate

(09:36):
it pretty quickly, six minutes,ate it in about six minutes.
The other group ate more slowly, 24 minutes.
So a significant differencebetween the two groups.
What did they find?
The group that ate more slowlyhad a sense of greater fullness

(09:57):
over the time period, suggestingthat it may take a bit of time
for your brain to realize huh,maybe I'm not hungry anymore,
maybe I don't need to eat more.
So that's the science, or theevidence.
I'll give you my unscientificpersonal experience that if I

(10:20):
get interrupted while I'm eatingnow, I may feel like, oh, I'm
so hungry I really just want towolf down the food that's in
front of me.
But if I get interrupted, maybefor 10, 15 minutes.
I got to go deal with a phonecall, I got to deal with
somebody at the front door.
When I come back to the table,I don't feel a need to eat

(10:42):
anymore.
Somehow that's a relativelysmall amount of food made me
feel full if I gave it enoughtime.
So what's the approach you mighttry?
Action item fill your plateabout half of the usual amount.
So whatever you think you'regoing to eat, just put half of

(11:03):
it on the plate.
Maybe put half on one plate,put half on another plate.
Eat that first amount of food.
Wait 20 minutes, go for a walk,see how you feel.
Then come back and see after 20minutes if you still wish to
eat more.

(11:23):
And if you do, by all means youcan have some more of your food
.
But you may find, as I haveover and over again, that after
that 20 minutes I actually comeback and I don't want to eat the
additional food.
Okay, quick tip number fiveStand up and see if you're still

(11:45):
hungry.
Now, there's no scientificevidence here, but I have a
theory.
But first, before I tell youthe theory, let me tell you how
I came across this.
So when I'm on an airplane, Iguess I'm stressed out, I always
bring snacks with me and Ialways tend to eat an awful lot.
I bring a lot of snacks and Ikind of go through them and by

(12:09):
the time I'm all done with it,you know, 15, 20, 30 minutes
later it's like, hmm, maybe Iate too much.
Well, at one point I ate somesnacks and decided, oh, I need
to get up, stretch my legs, getto the bathroom.
Some snacks.
And decided, oh, I need to getup, stretch my legs, get to the
bathroom.
Now I hadn't really eaten verymuch yet, but I had eaten some.

(12:32):
What did I find?
When I was vertical, almostimmediately I didn't feel hungry
anymore, went to the bathroom,came back, sat down, decided, no
, I'll just put the snacks Ihave away.
Now, why does this work?
Could it be and again, this isall theory that the way your
stomach feels full meaning, kindof a mechanical thing, there's

(12:54):
a lot in my stomach is affectedby being vertical versus
horizontal, versus lying down.
It may distend part of thestomach in a little bit
different ways.
Who knows?
It works for me.
So action item for you Beforeyou're assuming that you're

(13:14):
still hungry while you'resitting down and eating, get up,
walk around, see if it makes adifference.
Again, that's the beauty ofquick tips they're quick and
easy to see.
All right, the final quick tip,number six add healthy,
non-food snacks to your day.

(13:37):
Now, what do I mean by that?
A snack isn't a meal.
It isn't you're going to sitdown and eat a full meal.
You're just going to have alittle bit to eat.
You can apply the concept of asnack to other things.
Now.
Many of you have apps on yourphone that remind you when to
stand, you know every hour orsomething.
It'll say stand up, that is asnack.

(14:00):
It might be a walk around forone or two minutes or five
minutes.
That's a snack.
There's evidence that even shortbursts of exercise can improve
fitness in people who are notgetting much exercise, and in
these studies it was sort of 30seconds of exercise up to five

(14:22):
minutes of exercise, and therewas really 10 randomized control
trials that were summarized.
Again, for this study and theothers I'll have links in the
show notes.
It's been shown in good studiesthat five minutes of breath
work.
Just breathing in certain wayscan improve your mood.

(14:43):
There was a randomized controltrial that showed just that.
So maybe the action item hereis try some non-food snacks Five
minutes of quick exercise atsome point during the day, five
minutes of breath work at somepoint in the day.
You can even randomize it,meaning different times a day.

(15:06):
You just randomly flip a coinand it will tell you what snack
you should do.
Find out, give it a try.
It could be fun for you.
All right, that's part one.
Those are the six quick orsimple things you might try.
Well, now we get to theall-important part too.
You've got to test whether itworks in you.

(15:29):
Now, as I mentioned at theoutset, there is some evidence
to support the six simpleapproaches and, on average, for
many of them, the evidence saysthey work.
But the average response isn'tnecessarily going to be your
experience.
Maybe you'll get less benefit.

(15:52):
Maybe you'll get more benefitand sometimes, like my idea
about standing up and feelingfuller there's, frankly, no real
evidence to support it.
There's, frankly, no realevidence to support it.
But the beauty of the quickapproaches I've suggested for
sleep and eating is that theyare easily testable in our N of

(16:13):
1 approach.
If you want more detail on this,episode 27 walks you through
this and a lot more.
So what's the approach?
In brief, figure out what it isyou're trying to focus on.
It might be your sleep, itmight be your eating.
It might be calories you'reeating at a given meal.

(16:33):
So step one measure a baseline.
So if it's your sleep, you'regoing to measure some aspect of
sleep.
You might have an Oura ring,you might have a Fitbit, you
might have an Apple Watch.
Quantitatively, you can look atyour sleep.
You might not have one of those.

(16:54):
You could just do something assimple as figuring out on a
piece of paper how many hours ofsleep did I get last night?
How difficult was it for me tofall asleep?
Did I wake up a bunch?
Do I feel rested in the morning?
Or, if you want to do it moreformally, there's a
questionnaire called thePittsburgh Sleep Quality Index.

(17:14):
You can answer some questions,get a number.
So you're going to measure abaseline and obviously, for
weight, that's not very hard.
It might be your bedroom scale,it might be just how many
calories you ate at a given meal.
So step one measure a baseline.
Step two try one of the sixsimple approaches and then, step

(17:39):
three re-measure using the sameapproach.
The beauty about these sleepinterventions and these
interventions about how much youeat at a given meal.
You can answer this test withindays or a week or so.
It doesn't take a month or twoor three to figure out whether a

(17:59):
cold bedroom helps you sleep orwhether waiting 20 minutes
allows you not to eat the secondhalf of that plate of food.
Okay, some final thoughts.
Many health and longevityapproaches may seem daunting.

(18:20):
They may seem too big, toodifficult, take too much
willpower.
Here I've talked about sixsimple things you can try.
If they work, great.
If they don't, you reallyhaven't invested too much in
trying them out.
Could this all be a placebo, drBobby, that none of these

(18:42):
things really work, even thoughthere's evidence to support them
?
Perhaps Episode 28,.
I talk a lot about the placeboeffect.
But if the goal is to sleepbetter or not eat as much as you
might have otherwise, whatdifference does it make how or

(19:03):
why it works?
Maybe it's real science, realevidence, really making changes
in who you are and how you areconducting your life, or
sleeping or eating.
Or maybe it's really just aplacebo-driven behavior change.
But if it works and itcontinues, so be it.

(19:23):
So I'm not here saying thatthese are these remarkable
changes that will forever makeyou a different person.
No, they may really work, theymay not work, it may be a
placebo, it may be somethingelse, but if they help you,
that's wonderful.
Well, let's end with a couple ofaction items.

(19:45):
First, choose one of the sixsimple tips, measure your
baseline, try it and see whathappens.
Action item two let me knowwhat happens for you.
I'd love to look at that, hearabout that and then I can share
it back with all of youlisteners.
Again, if you enjoy what I do,please tell your friends, your

(20:08):
colleagues.
It's wonderful when more folkscan find benefits.

(20:33):
So, on our journey to live longand well, sometimes key steps
might actually be pretty simple.
If you want to continue thisjourney or want to receive my
newsletter on practical andscientific ways to improve your
health and longevity, pleasevisit me at
drbobbilivelongandwellcom.

(20:53):
That's, doctor, as in D-R Bobby, live long and well dot com.