Habits and Hustle - Episode 350: Sleeping Smarter: How Light, Food, and Activity Impact Your Circadian Rhythm

Episode Date: May 31, 2024

Did you know that creating the perfect sleep environment can dramatically improve your sleep quality and, in turn, boost your overall health? In today’s Fitness Friday episode we’re throwing it back to quarantine and the dark days of Covid. But the health tips Dr. Darshan gives apply today, so this episode is one you don’t want to miss. We discuss strategies for maintaining optimal health like sleep, getting steps in, and grounding. Have you ever wondered why the goal is 10,000 steps a day? Well the standard is revealed, and it’s not what you think! So tune in now and get the details.  From trauma surgery to reconstructive surgery, Dr. Shah has seen and done it all. Dr. Shah's belief in continual education and self-improvement has earned him alumni status at Harvard Business School, Singularity University, and other prestigious institutions. What we discuss:  How to optimize your health when you’re stuck at home The importance of getting sleep. Your sleep routine starts when you wake up A perfect sleep environment  Why get 10,000 steps? The effects of long term exercise  Thank you to our sponsor: Therasage: Head over to therasage.com and use code Be Bold for 15% off To learn more about Dr. Darshan:  Dr. Darshan’s Website - https://www.drshah.com/  Dr. Darshan’s Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/darshanshahmd/  Find more from Jen: Website: https://www.jennifercohen.com/ Instagram: @therealjencohen Books: https://www.jennifercohen.com/books Speaking: https://www.jennifercohen.com/speaking-engagements Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hi guys, it's Tony Robbins. You're listening to Habits and Hustle. Crush it! Hey friends, you're listening to Fitness Friday on the Habits and Hustle podcast, where myself and my friends share quick and very actionable advice for you becoming your healthiest self. So stay tuned and let me know how you leveled up. So then let's get to like how to optimize your health right now, especially when we're all stuck inside. I mean, most for the most part, right? Like we get to go for our, you know, our our walk around the block like a dog. You know what I mean? Maybe three times a day. But for the most part, we're kind of like stuck indoors, right? What can we do? Like, if can

you give us a little bit of information on how to stay healthy? And then we'll get into like how to even get better immune health. But overall, Okay. So overall, it's really the stuff that you're talking about all the time, Jen. So number one, you've got to keep yourself moving. Now more than ever, it's really easy to become a couch potato and just watch Netflix and play video games all day. It is, it is, it wrecks your ability to fight off a virus. Right.

You not have adequate blood circulation to all your organs and your skin and your mucous membranes. So you've got to keep yourself moving. And, you know, I think I think if you don't have a step counter right now, you should get one. Make sure you're getting adequate movement. You and I we love our walking desks. Yeah, right. It's the best. It is the best go outside if you can socially distance adequately and get get a good walk in.

I think that's really important. I think also, the other thing that everyone now has time to do is focus on your sleep, right? Like, keep yourself- Actually, I don't think so, by the way. I think if you have kids, you have kids too, but like, I don't know, who are these people that have time to be watching, like,

binging on Netflix and Hulu and I'm busier now than ever. Right. You've got to be homeschooling your kids. You've got to be working but now using technology. So now you're spending hours upon hours more trying to figure out this whole thing. And you know what I mean? And then you have the kids to deal with. I mean, I don't know how people are like lounging and sleeping all day. It doesn't make any sense to me. I think not having kids is a huge factor. There's a massive difference between being someone who has

no kids and being because the people you're right, the people that I talk to sometimes who have no kids, they're like, Yeah, but nothing to do. I'm so bored. I'm just like, have you watched this? Have you done that? I'm like, watched what? watched what done what no and I'm not sleeping. Thank you very much. So I mean it's worse Your kids and my kids are the same age And so there's the age where they where when they see you they're less like constantly want your attention And they demand your attention, right? You you can't just be like, you know screw off

I want to like watch this or I want to like do that. I mean, it's exhausting. Right, exactly. Yeah, I have not watched any Tiger King at all. I'm not gonna let them watch that. That's funny. You said that's basically the only show I did watch, I gotta say. And that's why I'm not sleeping because I'm watching it at midnight. But then, you know, but I watched it took me like days and days to finish it. Oh my god, that shows crazy. But that's all a whole other podcast altogether. It's crazy, crazy.

But like I'm saying, like this sleep is so important. And what do people do when they are with like you or like me who have to be like on with their kids and like it's hectic. And you're not able to sleep in until nine or 10 in the morning. And you know what I mean? So, you know, it's all about routines and finding a new routine in your life. And then when you do get to the bedroom

and you have to focus on your sleep, then it's time to focus on your sleep. So, you know, like, I hate to say it, but you gotta get that TV out of your bedroom and stop watching TV before you go to bed, especially those binge shows, because that would ruin your sleep. And so, you know, at my household and many of my clients

and patients that I'm advising, your sleep routine starts from the minute you wake up, right? And you wake up, you gotta to set your circadian rhythm, you got to get outside, look at the sun, be outside in nature for five, 10, 15 minutes, whatever it takes to set your circadian rhythm to the first part of its rhythm. And then your sleep cycle has to start an hour

before you actually get into bed. So an hour before you got to wind down all electronics off and then you go into a sleep environment which is perfectly made to get the best sleep. No TV, no electronics, as dark as possible, completely dark and having no noise whatsoever and colder than 69 degrees. So 67 to 69 degrees somewhere in there. Cool your room down. And so those are the high points. And there's a lot a lot of other things you can do for sleep. But if you can just hit those high points, guaranteed to get better sleep. And I think tracking your sleep, there's a lot of great

sleep trackers out there is going to help you make those like small improvements day to day to get better and better sleep and more deep sleep. So really, it's the same things like overall like forget about being quarantined and COVID but it's like the sleep moving every day. Do you still say 10,000 steps a day is optimum or? Well you know 10,000 steps is based on nothing really it's just I was going to say who's even thought of 10 why 10,000 like why not? I know why I can tell you why. Yeah, why? The first company that came out with a pedometer was in Japan.

They based this pedometer on the pedometer. It was like one of the little electronic digital things that just clip onto you. Remember those? I totally remember. Yeah. I totally remember that. The watches and all that stuff. They based that 10,000 steps, because they called it the 10k

pedometer. They based it on this one study that was done on the healthiest people in Japan who lived in this little town and they all worked in this factory. All those people walked to work every day because there were no roads to get to this factory. Someone went there and tried to figure out why these people were so healthy. Why were they living to their 90s and into their hundreds? And they figured out it's because they walk to work every day. And so they walked from that village to the factory. It was 5,000 steps and 5,000 steps back. Oh, I didn't know that.

That's why it was 10,000 steps. And that's why when the first pedometer that came out of Japan was called the 10K pedometer, and that's how they got that number. Oh, my God. Well, I just learned something really new. I had no idea. It's a great story. So that's a little story, right? It's a great story. I think that's because I think it's such an arbitrary thing where everyone's like,

oh, 10,000 steps. But no one's ever asked the question like, well, why 10,000? Why not nine? Why not 11? Yeah. And now we know why. So is there an amount or not? It's going to be different for everybody, but I think it's a good marker. I think it's, I think it's an adequate amount of moving around and really, you know, it's not about getting that 10,000 steps all in one sitting, which you really have to do. Where's my egg timer? I have an egg timer on my desk over there, my walking desk.

Let me see it. Get up every 45 minutes. You want you want me to go run and get it? I knew you have. You've got great little hacks like this. Yes. This is what I like about you, Darshan. Remember when you first saw a walking desk, you came to visit me in my office. I was actually gonna say, you were the first person

who I saw actually have the first walking desk. That was so many years ago. And I was like, oh my God, what is this? And you told me what it was. And then it became like kind of cool, like two years later or something. You were like, you're ahead of the trend. That's why I love you. Exactly trend. That's why I love you.

Exactly. And that's why I love you. You always have great information. I always learn something from you. Today I learned about the 10,000 step story and now we're gonna learn about this egg timer. So what do you do? You gonna set it and?

This is it, it's shaped like an egg but you can use whatever you want and it goes up to 55 minutes. And it's really important that every time you sit down or you're standing on your walking desk, that you do that activity for a certain amount of time, and then you stop and do something else. And then you come back and you set your timer again. And the reason for that is any activity done in too much of a prolonged state is going to cause more damage than good. All right. So walking for a really, really long time, two or three hours in a row, which I used to do when I was when I was at my walking desk, it can cause joint problems over time can cause times.

Right. So, so you want to do it for 45 minutes and then you wanna stop, and then you wanna do, and then sit down for 45 minutes, and then go back to walking or doing something else. It's really, it's called the Pomodoro technique actually, is actually great for even your brain health to focus for some amount of time, and then defocus and then refocus as well. And it just keeps you moving just mentally and physically. And it works for me, just anecdotally,

but I also know it works for a lot of patients. There's a lot of research behind it as well. That makes total sense. So basically, that's a great, I love that. I'm going to use that because does that mean that people who are marathon runners and ultra marathon guys, all these people, like that actually, people think,

oh wow, you're able to like move that much your cardiovascular system, your heart, but actually it's doing more damage than good. Oh my God, I can't even tell you some of the most unhealthiest people I meet are these ultra marathoners. They're incredible. I mean, they're absolutely incredible,

but you look at them biochemically and it's almost like you're gonna die if you keep this up. They're incredible. I mean, they're absolutely incredible. But you look at them biochemically. It's almost like you're gonna you're gonna die if you keep this up, you need to stop. I agree. Like I don't I don't get that. Why would anyone even subject themselves to running an ultra marathon runs 100 miles minimum at a time, even like a marathon like I never run and I'm like, obviously very into like fitness stuff. But I never understood the reason behind a marathon because I knew it's bad for your joints, it's bad for your back, bad for your knees. What's the purpose? Like it's just going to break down your body faster.

Yeah, they're certainly impressive. And I think at a certain age, you have so much reserve capacity, like in your 20s, to do this kind of stuff, it probably doesn't matter too much. But as you turn 40 and above, it's been scientifically shown that especially in your heart, your cardiac muscle, over stress with too much exercise, and you can actually die sooner if you go longer into your years with intense exercise, and not just I'm sorry, intense was the wrong word intense exercise is actually good for short periods of time, right? Intimidate training, but long periods of

intense exercise is really bad for you. Like an ultra marathoner or like a marathoner. So okay, so if you're using your treadmill desk, that's a good example. So every even if you're on that and you're moving, even that every 45 minutes, you'll jump off and do something else for 45 minutes. Do you have do you have to even that, every 45 minutes, you'll jump off and do something else for 45 minutes. And then go back. Do you have to have that break being 45 minutes

or couldn't it be less? It could certainly be less. Yeah, absolutely. The next break, I mean, the break doesn't have to be any more than 15 to 30 minutes. But you do want to take that pressure off your joints. You want to give your joints some time to relax, you want to rehydrate yourself all of that.

That's great. And what's that thing called again? You said it's a palm adoro test. adoro technique P o m o d o r o. I like that. Thank you. I love that. Okay, so then let's go back. So sleep is obviously very important. Moving, you know, walking, getting your blood circulating. First thing you're saying something about setting your circadian rhythm is that you're saying go outside first. Is that

the first thing you were saying that to is very important. Outside in the sun first, right? Exactly. And you know, there's a lot of talk about grounding. Have you heard about grounding? Yeah. Yeah. Yes. A lot about grounding. Yeah. So you know about grounding. So you know, you want to go outside barefoot. Just because I know about ground. Tell us, say what it is,

basically, it's putting your feet on the ground, basically, I've been like in bare feet on the ground. Right, exactly. Grass? Does it have to be grass? Or does it? No, no, it can be anything. It can be it can be grass can be dirt, it can be, you know,, whatever just having some connection to the earth um helps us set your circadian rhythm as well and um, then your circadian rhythm There's um, there's a lot of research on the circadian rhythm right now and a lot of great articles

I can send you but it has a lot to do with three different things. One is light Okay, so getting the right frequency of light, light at the right times of day to set your circadian rhythm. Secondly, yeah, secondly, of eating. So when you eat your meals has a lot to do with your circadian rhythm as well. Okay. And thirdly is the activity level that you have. So sitting around all day wreaks havoc on your circadian rhythm, because your your brain doesn't know that you've been moving, it thinks your brain certain parts

of your brain thinks you're just still in bed. You know, like, you're like a couch potato, your brain, your brain signals couch potato, and it has different biochemical pathways based on what signaling is getting. So those are the three things that you really want to have in rhythmic control on a day-to-day basis to keep your circadian rhythm set correctly. So do you mean you have to eat at the same time? Do you have to put your, do you have to be doing the grounding at the same time every day? Yeah, yeah, exactly. So I would say, I would say, you know, try to keep your meals, your grounding, your exposure to light

fairly consistent so your body doesn't get confused. I think, you know, in the evening especially, you want to make sure that you're mostly exposed to like sunlight, sundown colors, you know, like oranges and reds versus LED lights that are really bright and white. That tells the cells in the back of your eye that it's morning again, and you don't wanna send those mixed signals. Wow.

So what happens if someone lives in it, like, you know, I'm Canadian, Toronto, Winnipeg, wherever I was living, it's dark six, seven months of the year, right? And like, especially now when people are like all, you know, quarantined to stay home, how are they supposed to get the light to do that one step? Is there other ways they can?

Yeah, I think, you know, I think, so I think different areas of the world, people's circadian rhythms are set differently. And so it doesn't mean that everyone needs to have the same rhythm, it just you need to be in some sort of rhythm that's appropriate for the part of the world that you live in, right? Now, what you said secondly is really important. Now that we're all quarantined, we have to figure out like how do we get the sunlight in the morning? A lot of times we don't even do that in our normal life, right? You go from your house to your car to the office and you never set a second out in the sun. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. So I think it's just being mindful of it

and making sure you have the opportunities. Even if you live in New York City, if you can get out to the rooftop of your building or just even outside for a little while, it's really helpful for setting your circadian rhythm.