David (00:00.726)
I recently made the assertion on the show that intermittent fasting is the most bang for your buck when it comes to building natural health. Well, if there was a close second or maybe even a tie for first, it would be today's topic. If you fail to practice this one thing, you'll accelerate the aging process, reduce your sex drive, gain weight, compromise your immune system, you'll worsen your memory and have trouble processing emotions. Can you guess what that thing is?
It's kind of obvious. It's good quality sleep. In our culture today, many people are burning the candle at both ends. Sleep is for sissies. I'll sleep when I'm dead. Well, you just might get to test that theory out more quickly than you realize if you ignore the advice I'm about to share in this episode. Let's talk about it.
David (01:00.974)
Welcome to the Christian Healthy Lifestyle Podcast, where I help you navigate natural health so you can stay out of the doctor's office, age gracefully, and live a more purpose-driven life. I'm your host, David Sandstrom, and I want to talk to you today about getting good quality sleep. I haven't mentioned this publicly on the show, but last year I had the chance to get back into the flying business. Last summer I went to training and I'm back in the cockpit flying from my old airline.
Now after almost four years out of the cockpit, you forget a lot. And training was pretty challenging. But I'm back at it, and I'm enjoying flying the big jets again. This time as a very senior captain. But I'm also four years older, and dealing with all the stress of being in a pressurized tube at high altitude for many hours at a time is even more difficult to deal with than it was when I was younger.
A couple of weeks ago, I did a red-eye flight from Los Angeles to Atlanta, and that flight really kicked my butt in terms of sleep. And that reminded me of the importance of good quality sleep. So that's what this episode is going to be about today. So today I want to talk about how important sleep is at protecting our health. Sure, you can get away with four or five hours of sleep once in a while, but do it chronically, and there's a serious health price to pay.
Without quality sleep, our bodies struggle to remove toxins, our hormones get out of whack, we have unhealthy food cravings, we don't process our emotions, we don't consolidate memories, and we don't adequately repair or replace old worn out cells. Poor sleep will increase our chances of developing almost any chronic degenerative disease known to man, and it just makes life more difficult than it already is.
Poor sleep is not just a physical issue, it's emotional as well. In the Journal of the American Psychological Association, researchers found a strong interaction between sleep and emotional regulation. This is especially true with depression and PTSD or post-traumatic stress disorder, which are both highly associated with poor sleep. Up to 90 % of people struggling with depression or PTSD also struggle with their sleep.
David (03:26.594)
The researchers used both clinical observations and brain imaging to confirm the connection between sleep and effective emotional processing. There aren't many factors of our being that can skate by unscathed with a poor night's sleep. A poor night's sleep increases our chances of getting into a car accident, According to this article published in the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, they get this to say.
Drowsy driving is not just falling asleep at the wheel. It is a profound impairment and it mimics alcohol impaired driving in many ways. Drowsiness leads to slower reaction times and impaired attention, mental processing, judgment and decision making. You know, as an airline pilot, this is kind of a big deal for us. We have regulations that strictly govern the amount of rest we can get before we show up to work because of this very factor that if we're fatigued,
our performance can degrade down to level of being intoxicated. That's pretty significant. So we have regulations that require us to get a minimum amount of rest or sleep before we go to work. A lot of times when that happens, it might be because of a delayed flight the night before, or maybe it was a weather delay or some type of mechanical issue that made us late. And we got in really late and we had an early report the next morning. So we have to delay the flight.
in order to comply with FAA regulations? Well, usually when we get to the airplane in the morning, the flight will be boarded and the flight attendants are on board already with the passengers. And we'll get some comments like, did you get your beauty sleep last night? You don't want to be in the back of an airplane with a fatigued, tired pilot crew. Trust me, it's not a good idea. According to the National Sleep Foundation, they say that adults between the ages of 18 and 64
need between seven and nine hours of sleep per night. So if we're getting eight hours of sleep, that means we're spending a third of our lives in bed. So I would say that's something worth taking seriously. If we're to spend that much time doing it, if we care about our health, I believe we should be doing everything we can to maximize our restoration and the productivity of our sleep. I want to start off a little story from my time in my MBA program at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
David (05:52.108)
In one of my classes, it was held at the Homestead Air Force Base. And as you might expect, a lot of the students in the class were F-16 fighter pilots. I was the only civilian there, or light airplane pilot. For an assignment, we had to give a presentation and have the other students critique us. Well, I started off my presentation with an explanation as to why this topic was important. Now, the pilots, the other pilots in the class, they absolutely roasted me during the critique. They said,
Why the diplomatic approach, In the Air Force, we just tell the student, either you do it or you're going to die, and then you move on. I usually share that story to help people understand my motivation behind explaining why this or that particular topic is important. Because if you know your why, then you'll find your way. But I share that today because in some ways, those fighter pilots were right, especially when it comes to sleep.
If you ignore your sleep, the health consequences are severe. Now, as an airline pilot for almost 40 years, I can tell you that fatigue is a profound impairment to our performance. In fact, after 16 hours awake, some studies show that a pilot's performance in the simulator is degraded about the same level as having two or three beers. Now, I don't know anybody that want to get on an airplane with a pilot that had three beers.
Yet we often drive our cars and run our lives in a state of sleep-deprived drunkenness without a second thought. Sleep is not just a period of off time for our bodies. It's a highly active, productive state. We sleep in 90-minute cycles that repeat throughout the night. We start in non-REM sleep and progress from light sleep into deep sleep, followed by REM or rapid eye movement sleep.
Stage one is the light transition between being awake and asleep. It usually lasts about one to seven minutes. Your heartbeat slows and your muscles relax. And that's where we sometimes feel those unexpected twitches. And then there's stage two sleep. And stage two makes up about 50 % of our time in bed. Our core body temperature has to drop. This is absolutely crucial to getting a good night's sleep. Stages three and four are considered deep sleep.
David (08:17.624)
Now this is the holy grail of physical restoration. This is where our cellular repair and detoxification takes place. It's often called slow wave or Delta sleep because our brains produce high amplitude Delta waves. Then there's stage five or REM sleep. This is where we dream and process emotions. During REM we move memories from short term to long term memory or to borrow from a computer term.
we move the data from the random access memory to the hard drive. One of the most important things to remember is that you get more productive sleep before midnight. Our deep sleep cycles are longer in the first half of the night and get shorter as the morning approaches. If you're a night owl and you stay up till 2 a.m., you're literally robbing yourself of your body's best opportunity to repair itself.
If you've ever been to Disney World or Disneyland, you may wonder, with all those people going through the park each day, how do they keep the place so clean? Well, as soon as the park closes at 9 p.m., cleaning crews come out and they pressure wash the streets and the sidewalks and do a deep cleaning every night. It's a massive job, but that's how they keep the park in tip-top shape. The same is true with our bodies. During the course of living our lives, we get a little dirty.
and our magnificent creator designed our bodies with a built-in cleaning crew that helps us start our day like a freshly cleaned Disney theme park, ready to take on another day. But if we don't get adequate sleep, it's like sending half of our cleaning crew home and expecting the park to be as clean as if they had a full staff. It just won't happen. We've got to give our bodies a fighting chance. Our bodies are very durable, but
there's lifestyle habits that can help our bodies do their jobs better. One of the most effective lifestyle habits is getting regular, good quality sleep. Now let's talk about brain detoxification. This is one of the most exciting areas of research. We have a lymphatic system that clears toxins from our bodies, but lymph fluid cannot access the brain because of the blood brain barrier.
David (10:37.858)
God gave us a specialized system for brain detoxification called the glymphatic system, and it's highly active during sleep. During sleep, our bodies pump cerebral spinal fluid through the brain to flush away toxins. And one of the most important toxins that gets removed is called amyloid beta, and that toxin is known to contribute to neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. But here's the really cool part.
When we're in a restful sleeping state, our brain cells actually contract in size by upwards of 60%. And that creates more space between the cells, which allows the spinal fluid to move more freely and wash away the trash much more efficiently. If you aren't sleeping, your brain cells stay enlarged and that flush just can't happen effectively. Beyond our brains, sleep is
where our hormonal symphony gets tuned. Key hormones like growth hormone, melatonin, cortisol, and leptin and grelin that regulate hunger are all regulated by our sleep and circadian rhythm. Leptin is the satiety hormone. It tells us when we're full. Grelin is the hunger hormone. If you have imbalances here due to poor sleep, you'll struggle with hunger and unhealthy food cravings.
That's why poor sleep is a direct risk factor for obesity and type 2 diabetes. And then there's cortisol, our primary stress hormone. Now cortisol has gotten a bad rap. We actually need cortisol. We have a cortisol rhythm. It should spike around 8 a.m. That's what wakes us up and it gives us alertness and the ability to cope with stress throughout the day. But it needs to drop in the evening in order to promote good sleep. High cortisol at night is a major sleep disruptor.
And let's look at the immune system. Our bodies use killer T cells to destroy viral infected cells and cancer cells. To do their job, these T cells have to adhere to the unwanted cell using a sticky molecule called an integrin. Research shows that lower levels of stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol, which are lower during sleep, actually help the integrin molecules to stay sticky.
David (13:01.88)
People who sleep well have much higher levels of those sticky molecules, allowing their immune system to fight off pathogens much more effectively than those who stay up all night. We also have autophagy, which means self-eating. This is our body's cellular recycling program. When we're sleeping, we're fasting. And during a fast, the body breaks down cells it doesn't need.
Sort of like when a corporation is experiencing a downturn and they need to reduce staff. They'll try to figure out where the dead weight is and lay off those people first. Our bodies do the same thing. They get rid of old worn out cells that aren't doing their job as good as the others. They're not as efficient as they should be. And our bodies will replace them with new, healthier ones. I talked about that process in episodes 201 and 202 on intermittent fasting.
Antipatophagy is the ultimate anti-aging process. But if you eat in middle of the night or right before bed, you'll dial down the efficiency of the cellular cleanup. Now that we understand why sleep is so vital, how do we actually get a better night's rest? Well first, stop looking for the magic pill. Sleeping pills are often addictive and can cause daytime drowsiness, headaches, and digestive issues.
And not only that, just like alcohol, sleeping pills will help us fall asleep, but they interfere with the good quality deep sleep that comes later in the night. Now the best time to start preparing for sleep is during the day. Then there's sunlight. Get sunlight on your face during the day. This stimulates the pineal gland, which is responsible for serotonin and melatonin production.
It helps set the internal clock so our bodies know when it's time to be awake and when it's time to sleep. Now we've got to talk about caffeine and alcohol. We want to avoid caffeine afternoon time if we can. And again, while alcohol might help you fall asleep, it interferes with your body's ability to stay asleep and it'll disrupt your sleep cycles later in the night. We should practice a digital sunset.
David (15:17.802)
Our electronics, like cell phones and televisions, emit a lot of blue light, which is very stimulating, and that suppresses our melatonin production. So stay away from screens after dinner. If you must be on a computer, wear amber-colored blue blocker glasses that'll filter out the blue light. I also recommend turning your bedroom into a sanctuary. The first thing you want to do is remove the clutter. A messy room creates a messy mind.
Try not to do work or do exercise in the bedroom. Keep the desk and the treadmill out of the bedroom. You want your brain to associate that room with only two things, sleep and intimacy with your spouse. We've got to talk about temperature here too. Turn the thermostat down to around 70 degrees if you can. Your core body temperature needs to drop for you to enjoy restful sleep. If we're too hot and we can't get down, we can't drop that core body temperature, that'll interfere with restful sleep.
We also want to try to achieve total darkness. I'm talking about pitch black. You shouldn't be able to see your hand in front of your face at night. I use blackout curtains at home and when I'm in hotel rooms, I use a chip clip to shut the curtains tighter. And I sometimes need to put a rolled up towel at the base of the door into the hallway because that'll block light from coming in from underneath the door. I also carry some black electrical tape with me and sometimes some of those
Smoke detectors or Wi-Fi routers in the room can shine light pretty fairly brightly in the room and sometimes it's even it's like a strobe So I carry some black tape to put over those lights That should really help if you're not sleeping like you want it may be time to implement some more next-level strategies They want to think about reducing EMFs electronic frequencies from Wi-Fi cell phones and smart meters can interfere with sleep
I recommend putting your phone in airplane mode and using a timer to shut off your wifi at night. Also, you want to consider grounding. Consider an earthing mattress cover. It connects you with the earth's natural energy, which has been proven to help normalize cortisol rhythms and reduce inflammation. Very powerful. Also, you can get an organic mattress. Standard mattresses are often soaked in toxic flame retardant chemicals.
David (17:41.206)
An organic rubber mattress with a wool cover is chemical free and it doesn't act like a metal antenna for EMFs the way a box spring does. We should also think about food sensitivities. If you're sensitive to certain foods, which is different from a full-blown allergy, it can cause low-grade inflammation that keeps you awake. I recommend the Mediator Release Test, or MRT, to identify those hidden triggers.
Now finally, we have to address the mind and the spirit. Many people can't sleep because of racing thoughts. If that's you, I suggest journaling. Writing your thoughts and your to-do list down in the evening gives your brain permission to let them go until morning. And then there's progressive muscle relaxation or PMR. This is a powerful technique where you tense and then release your muscle groups from your feet up to your head.
Progressive muscle relaxation has been shown to dramatically reduce sleep latency or the time it takes to fall asleep. We should also consider fear. Proverbs 3.24 says, when you lie down, you will not be afraid. When you lie down, your sleep will be sweet. Fear is a major driver of insomnia. So handing everyone and everything over to God in prayer
shifts your body out of fight or flight and into rest and digest. I suggest practicing little benevolent detachment. God didn't design us to have access to the whole world's problems with an electronic device in our pockets or purses. Yes, of course we pray for the people we care about, but after you've given that matter an appropriate level of attention or concern, you've got to let it go. We've got to practice benevolent detachment.
I like the acronym that Dr. Eddie O'Connor, who was a mental toughness coach and a certified sports psychologist, I had Dr. O'Connor on the podcast back in episode number 143. He has his athletes practice winning. W-I-N. What's important now? If you're lying in bed at night and you've got an important meeting the next day, the most important thing at that moment is to get some sleep. What's important now? Practice that. It's a good acronym. I love it.
David (20:07.086)
If you need a little extra sleep from supplements, stay away from the big box sleeping pills. Instead, try a homeopathic called rescue sleep. Rescue sleep is a spray, just a couple of sprays in your mouth, and it helps to stop repetitive thoughts. You can also get in liquid form as well as pellets. Also, magnesium helps the muscles relax. Magnesium malate is the best form of magnesium for that. Also, you could consider 5-HTP.
5-HTP is a precursor that helps your body naturally increase its own melatonin production. Now we've covered a lot of things today from the glymphatic flush in our brains to the sticky cells in our immune system. So it's really clear that sleep is a vital part of a Christian healthy lifestyle. It's a non-negotiable part of a healthy purpose-driven life. Now don't feel like you have to do everything at once. That will be overwhelming.
Start with the low-hanging fruit. Maybe it's moving the TV out of the bedroom or starting a consistent 10 p.m. Bedtime a plus or minus one hour If you've implemented everything I've talked about here and you're still struggling It may be time to see a functional medicine practitioner. You could have a hidden Internal infection like a fungus or bacteria or a parasitic infection that's jacking up your cortisol and Keeping you from the rest you deserve
So that's it for now. Thank you for listening. I appreciate you. Go out there and live abundantly. Be blessed.
