The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – Nobody’s Sleeping: 7 Proven Sleep Strategies for Better Health and Happiness by Bijoy E. John MD

Episode Date: December 5, 2023

Nobody’s Sleeping: 7 Proven Sleep Strategies for Better Health and Happiness by Bijoy E. John MD https://amzn.to/3t15nXn Sleepfixacademy.com We spend a third of our lives in bed. Doesn’t it make sense to ensure that our sleep is as deep and nourishing as possible? In Nobody’s Sleeping, Dr. John illuminates the intricacies of this vital, yet often under-appreciated, state of rest. Whether one needs minor adjustments to their sleep habits or a complete overhaul, Nobody’s Sleeping offers a comprehensive step-by-step guide. A night of restful sleep can lead to increased productivity, energy, and happiness. Good sleep, akin to a healthy lifestyle, should be a shared goal within a family. When a doesn’t sleep well, neither do the parents. Dr. John addresses both general and age-specific sleep challenges to improve sleep for the entire family. Pivoting from the temporary solutions offered by sleeping pills, Dr John champions a lasting, holistic approach to overcoming sleep obstacles. Within these pages, he empowers individuals with proven strategies to fall asleep quickly, maintain a deep sleep, and wake up feeling fully rejuvenated. Transform your sleep patterns, and in doings so, transform your life. Meet Dr. Bijoy E. John Well-accomplished, board-certified physician, currently in private practice with over 25 years of experience in Pulmonary/Critical Care and Sleep Medicine. I am the founder and medical director of Sleep wellness Clinics of America PLLC in Brentwood, Tennessee, offering newer diagnostic modalities and one-stop treatment for patients with various sleep disorders. I also founded Sleep Fix Academy, LLC which offers online courses, podcasts, and other resources to improve sleep quality. My latest book, Nobody’s Sleeping, outlines my seven proven sleep strategies for better health and happiness. It is an honor to serve my patients and help restore them to the best versions of themselves through healthy sleep.

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the 130,000 group on LinkedIn and all the other places that we have. We have the author of the newest book that will be coming out next year called Nobody Sleeping Seven Proven Sleep Strategies for Better Health and Happiness. Dr. Bijoy John is on the show with us today, and he's going to be talking about his book,

what goes in it, and what he's learned over the years that he can help all of us with. He's a board-certified practicing sleep specialist physician. He calls himself Dr. Sleep Fix. His aim is to heal the world by teaching folks how to sleep better, and he wants everyone to discover or reclaim the superpower of sleep. I love sleep. He is the founder and medical founder of Sleep Wellness Clinics of America and Sleep Fix Academy, offering various resources to help folks to sleep better sleep is vital to help with mental and emotional and physical well-being his book which

is trending number one on amazon teaches folks the seven proven sleep strategies for better health and happiness it's available on pre-order. And there he is to promote his life-changing book and to teach your audience how to sleep better. Welcome to the show. How are you, doctor? Thanks, Chris. It's a pleasure to be on the show. Thank you. It's a pleasure to have you as well. Give us your dot coms. Where do you want people to find you on the interwebs? www.sleepfixacademy.com and www.sleepwellnessinfo.com. There you go. So give us a 30,000 overview of what's inside the book.

I mean, growing up, we all have trouble sleeping. You know, we pick up habits that we think are good, but eventually it kind of erodes into that good sleep practices, you know, and, you know, those are the rituals I call the bad sleep habits that people pick up. I've discovered this habit of sound sleep from a very young age. My mom taught me that. So I'm able to get, you know, sometimes we fall off the horse, but I'm able to get back on it, right? So life happens to all of us as business leaders, owners, and, you know, as growing up, life happens, job, but then we will have a curve ball, but we need to know how to get back on it. So in my practice, I'm seeing this, I call the sleep problem, the new pandemic.

That's why I wrote the title. Nobody's sleeping. Everybody is, you know, sleep deprived or walking with a sleep debt. So it can affect us in so many ways, our mental health, physical health, heart problem, diabetes, high blood pressure, you name it, you know, obesity. You know, if you don't sleep well, you're going to eat the wrong diet. So it affects head to toe everything. Cognition, you know, is one of the treatable causes for, you know, for Alzheimer's. So it affects everything. Yes, yes.

Yeah. So I found the seven proven sleep strategies and I even have an acronym for that. It's called the sleep now. So that's my own way of helping people to teach them to sleep better. There you go. How does that acronym break down? So sleep now. So the first S is the schedule. You have to have a schedule. Everybody asks me, what's the right schedule? I think the rough schedule is between 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. That's what we need to dedicate. Life happens, you know, you Friday night,

Saturday, you know, you party, but that should be your core. So the schedule is very, very important. We all have to have a schedule, right? So that's the one. The next in the acronym is the L. So low temperature in the bedroom should be low. The chemical hormone called melatonin that we secrete to help us sleep is only secreted in cold temperature and in darkness. So the bedroom, so people in tropical climates, they don't sleep well. If you go on vacation to a tropical, well, your sleep is kind of, you know, we crank up our AC, but it's not able to catch up. So it's 70, 72. So you will see that. So low, and also the hormone is only secreted in darkness. So low light,

low temperature, that's the L, right? So we got the SL. And the next is electronics, which is like a crazy thing that's going on. You know, what happens is that we are so addicted, you know, so people ask me, how do you know you're is that we are so addicted you know so people ask me how do you know you're addicted if you wake up in the morning and you're reaching out to your phone the first thing automatic your cell phone addicted my friends so that is imagine the blue light's a problem right it comes off the cell phone yes the light from the phone especially when you're in the bedroom where there's no ambient light it goes straight straight to the brain and tells the brain, hey, it's still daytime. Let's not go to sleep.

Morning, wake up. Yes, wake up. And then also I mentioned the melatonin is only secreted in darkness, so we're not going to sleep. So everybody wants to turn off the phone and then go to sleep right away. It doesn't happen. So I tell people to have a cell phone- free zone at least an hour prior to going to sleep and keep your phone away from your bedroom or away from your bed because you're going to look at it.

There's going to be dings. There's going to be, you know, and then you look up the time. Oh, God, it's three o'clock. Oh, God, it's only three o'clock. I can't sleep. I need to wake up. So I actually set an alarm and keep it in my bathroom. So literally, I have to wake up.

So this is the most important thing that we can do to help ourselves with our sleep. There you go. I know one of my problems is if I get up to pee in the middle of the night, I can't look at that phone. If I turn that phone on, just to peek at it, I'm up. That's it. I'm screwed. Yes, because your cognitive activity is increasing and you start thinking about the day and all those stuff.

So if you don't have it by your side, that's great. So the next in the E is exercise. You have to exercise at least four hours prior to sleep because exercise increases endorphins and cortisol and also your heart. So I tell people if you have a good time to exercise, perfect time is in the morning. But if you have to exercise in the evening, make sure you exercise at least four hours prior to going to sleep. So this is one of the methods to calming your body before sleep. All right.

Then we have to the P in sleep. So we are down to S-L-E-E-P. P is powering off your mind, which is actually the hardest thing. You can't power off your mind if you're on your phone, right? So you have to power off your mind, which is actually the hardest thing. You can't power off your mind if you're on your phone, right? So you have to power off your mind. And also I tell people to practice some of the strategies is vivid imagination. So this is my own technique that I tell people who are suffering to have your own imagination, watch a show. And then what happens, you do it on your bed not think about bills and

you know all this stuff so you have your own imagination and i also tell people to use something called yoga nidra nidra means nothingness you just lay down in bed with your hands up it's called the corpse pose you know that's how these are the two techniques i tell people to power your mind out so this is great techniques so you don't need a you know you don't need a sleep coach you don't need anybody you just lay down your bed with your heads up it's called the corpse you know you're like a corpse so you you know lay down so those are and go ahead you just imagine you're dead yeah that's it so your mind is so now we got the p so we got to go now so no no i've combined together so no is no to right? So you can't worry on your bed.

So what I tell folks and clients who come and see me, you need to worry, take a dedicated time. I use that 6 to 8 p.m. as my worrying time and doing things. I'm going to be on the Chris Charles show. I have to do everything before 8 p.m. I ain't doing everything. Even last night, I'm done at 8 p.m. So you have to have a dedicated time. So if you're not able to do things, you write it down and then you do it the next day, right? So yeah, so this is a great technique that works for all of us. And then the last one is W. This is one of those things you have to win by losing yourself. You know, in life, we're always like, you know, energy, do this, do that. But for sleep, that's one thing in your life you have to pull back and relax. You know, simplify your regimen, make it easy, make your life a little bit easier.

So that's what I tell. So sleep now, you got the schedule, low temperature, you know, the exercise, the electronics, the powering off, no worries. And then win by taking your schedule easier. So those are my seven sleep strategies or the acronym sleep now. So I have one of those warming beds. It's called the eight seat bed. I don't know if you've heard of it, but it tends, I turn it up and it warms me up and sometimes a little too cozy, but evidently i need to run a cooler because what you can do i can you know i can run cold in it if i want but you know it's winter time man do you want me to freeze my butt off while i wait for that melatonin to kick in

yeah that's one of those things so there's some there's some there is also the truth is always in between in this process of writing and doing my research if you do the sauna you you your your temperatures increase and there's this other hormone called oxytocin that is kind of released in hot so some people that's what some people like that feeling of hotness you know you take a hot shower and go to bed so not all people are the same so you have to try that there is also truth to the sauna. If you spend like 30 minutes, you know, three, four hours prior to going to sleep. And in your case, the warmth might be able to increase the other hormone that is also putting you to sleep. So you can, you know, paint a broad brush on everyone. So there could be some, but in generally cold temperature is the best to sleep. Wow. That's really interesting to know. Maybe I'll have to play with starting out cool and on my sleep because my sleep

aid bed will go both ways you can you can make it really icy cold which is nice for if you've gone for a workout but i didn't know that it's the coldness that makes the difference what about circadian rhythms you know we've had some doctors on and talked about how you need to maintain your circadian rhythms in the morning and night so that your body wants to fall asleep. Is there any truth to that in your mind? Great question. Circadian rhythm. Our body is reacting to light. We are all creatures of light. If you have a small child that wakes up to the wake up crack of dawn, we're all rotating around the light. Circadian rhythm is that, you know, our body's response.

So we have two things that does to you. There are times that we are the most awake. There are times when we are vulnerable and sleepy, right? So the most time we are awake is 7 a.m. And the most time we are awake is 7 p.m. Same thing. That's why in the evening shows are called prime time. Everybody is because we are at our best at these 7 a.m. running to the 7 a.m. meeting and, you know, watching TV at 7 p.m.

And we are most tired at 2.30 in the afternoon and 2.30 in the, you know, 2.30 in the morning. Maximum accidents happens on the road at 2.30 in the morning. And same thing around 2.30 in the afternoon. We are. Have you ever gone to a meeting at 2.30 in the morning and same thing around 2.30 in the afternoon. Have you ever gone to a meeting at 2.30 in the PM? Wonder why? Yeah. You know, all over the world, people have siesta or they break for tea time. You know, I even see, you know, my favorite football team plays in the third quarter. I call it my book. If you sent your chapter, it's called the third quarter slum. So it is the natural body. So the reaction time is not, you know, the defense and the offense are not performing well at that time. So I'm the first one to call this out. Here we go. There you go. And people are sometimes, are sometimes like, Hey, that's, that does explain a

few football games I've seen. Yes. In your book, you talk about all these different elements and helping people and stuff. What do you do inside of your practice that when people go to your website and work with your practice, what do you do to help them over there? So I have my own clinic. So that's the Sleep Wellness Clinics of America. So I founded that to help patients. You know, I'm in Tennessee,

so people come and see me in the state here. So I see patients, you know, there are two types of sleep problems are simple but complicated. There are two types of sleep problem. One is, either I sleep too much or I cannot sleep, right? So, or, or I simplify it by, are you worrying or are you snoring, right? So when you're worrying, you have insomnia. When you're snoring, you have sleep apnea. So, so that's the broad, general, broad criteria. So most of the people, adults, you know, do have the serious condition called sleep apnea, where, you know where you're snoring, you're tired, your brain doesn't get the rest.

Folks come to me in my office and I do a home sleep testing. Everybody's afraid to go to the lab, so I pioneered home sleep testing for the last five years. Really? Yes. They take a kit. It's like a watch-like device. They take the kit and they go home the same day and then they come back tomorrow and they wear it to the comfort of their home and then you're able to get the results. And so that's it.

And the insomnia is the difficulty in sleeping. So I teach the people my proprietary sleep now concept. So that's it. So then I said, how can I reach more people in a wider audience all over the world? So I started this company called Sleep Fix Academy, www.sleepfixacademy.com, where you will have the resources to podcasts, resources to sleep assessments, sleep journal, and I'm also developing a Sleep Now course. So all those things are available for the general public to have at it. There you you go and it's sleepfixacademy.com correct there you go it's great to have all these

resources how do you feel about these bipap machines and and and sleep apnea and stuff i mean great so the the gold standard treatment for sleep apnea is the use of CPAP, you know, this continuous positive airway pressure. You know, your back of your throat just, you know, collapses, the tongue falls back. And so we have to push it out. You know, that's the CPAP. BiPAP is a little bit, you know, a different algorithm where people, some folks cannot breathe out. So you put them on a double pressure. The bi is the double pressure. You know, I also use, you know, in folks who have breathing problems. So that's the CPAP and BiPAP. So the good news is those are not only the options. Today we have oral appliances to pull the jaw forward.

We have something called Excite OSA. It's a device you keep on your tongue when you're awake, strengthens the tongue so it doesn't, you know, go back. Then there's an implantable device called Inspire, which pulses the tongue to get out. So we have all this new technology that's available for the treatment of sleep apnea. Wow. So what is the deal on sleep apnea? Am I really going to die or be brain dead if I don't? Because the way some of my friends sell it to me, they have the have the bipap what i call the darth vader machines you know and they tell me that i'm basically going brain dead slowly which i think it's pretty evident that's happening or i'm gonna just die in my sleep one night and i'm just like actually it's not a bad way to go when you really think about it like like i'm not gonna if i do die

in my sleep it's not like i'm to be really aware of it at the time. I don't know. So, what's the skinny on that? All right. You know, the word is obstructive sleep. I mean, the tongue is literally obstructing your, you know, back of your throat. So, when air doesn't flow, the brain senses that and sense a chemical, you know, just flight or fight response to wake you up. So, even though you're sleeping eight hours, you're not sleeping that deeply because you're awake constantly.

So, imagine, Chris, what you're climbing, you know, steps. So what happens? The heart and the lungs work together. You know, you're short of breath. You're you're hot, speeding fast. But just imagine if there's if you're if you're breathing is not hired, the heart has to beat faster. Right. So that's the one that causes what we call the arrhythmias. And that's the number one cause of death in your sleep. So when you pause your breathing, the heart has to work faster, and then that can trigger an arrhythmia.

That's the cause of sudden death in most folks who die in their sleep. Oh, man. You know, recently I've been having a thing that I've noticed is sometimes when I get up in the middle of the night to go hit the restroom I'm 55 so that seems to be happening a lot lately and when I do I kind of feel like my heart's racing a little bit and maybe that's coming from that. Correct and one of the reasons why you use the restroom is you know when you have an apnea there's a negative pressure so there's a lot of fluid comes into the heart and the heart gets panic and sense and hormone to help to get rid of the you know the fluid that's coming in so that's why you pee so one of the the greatest the results of treating people with sleep apnea the use of restroom reduces dramatically at night

holy crap yes explains why i'm peeing like 5 000 times a night keep waking up because because the apnea triggers flow of blood into your more blood into the heart and it's trying to save you i'm just gonna muzzle myself when i go to bed i'm just gonna what's that chloroform i'm just gonna chloroform myself to sleep so let me let me ask you this have you have you seen this new thing that i've seen on like tiktok and stuff where people tape their mouth shut have you seen that that They actually make like band-aids for your mouth, basically. That's a great question. So there's a lot of misinformation out there.

You know, there's non-experts trying to say something. So imagine, all right, the best way to breathe is through your nose. That's perfect. So if you are a perfect, healthy person, if you close your mouth, you're going to breathe through the nose you know humidification happens everything is great but why are you opening your mouth at night because you're suffocating you want to get the breath you're opening your mouth and imagine you're putting a tape on their mouth at this time you're going to choke and die so the tape mouth tape is excellent for young healthy you know people who open their mouth but it's not good for people who have lung problem,

heart problem, or if you're suffering from sleep apnea. You are struggling to breathe, and you're opening your mouth to take the breath, and now you're closing your mouth with a tape. You're going to choke. Not a good idea. Yeah, I mean, I'm more worried about sucking that thing down and choking on it. Correct. The tape piece.

I'm like, I don't know. I trust myself while I'm asleep. Does weight really affect sleep apnea or is it really just that tongue sliding back into the mouth? So the weight is proportionally distributed all over the body. So as you gain weight, the back of your throat also, there's more fat, it narrows the back of the throat. So yes. So a 10% reduction in weight will help with your apnea. So weight gain is an absolute, you know, treatable causes of obstructive sleep apnea. Yes.

Better put my throne on a diet. Yes. And also, you know, poor sleep alters the leptin and the ghrelin hormones that make you more hungry and less hungry. You know, leptin lowers your appetite and ghrelin increases your appetite. It's reversed when you don't sleep well. So by sleeping well, you will make better choices and your hormones regulated. So that'll curb your appetite. Yeah, I've noticed that when I don't sleep well, I have a harder time with intermittent fasting. And I'll have a harder time with just everything just to try and function and stuff.

Well, this is really insightful. I've had friends that have the CPAP machines, but it doesn't work well for them. They don't sleep well with the Darth Vader mask on. There are smaller masks. Now there is software that recognizes your face, and there's something called nasal pillow. Oh, really? Yes. A lot of new technology.

And the other technology I told you, the mouth, oral appliance oral appliance the pulse jaw the excite osa the tongue device so there are a lot of options and you know sometimes there are three reasons the way i approach you know folks not treating and not able to tolerate the c-pap is is the mask the problem is the pressure the problem or the person the problem right so if you if I can adjust the pressure and all the other setting in the machine, if you can choose the right mask, folks will tend to do better, right? So if the person is the problem, that's a challenge, which can be the case. So if I eliminate the other two, then I have to work with the person and try to give them alternative treatments.

There you go. That's interesting. I had one friend who got the Inspire, the one put in the chest, and even then he can't get that to work for him. I wonder if these people that are getting these machines, they're just still doing something wrong. Yeah, I mean, it has to be done by an expert. You know, I see those Inspire patients. Well, I hope he had the Inspire done by an expert. No, you have to dial it down and change things around and then we have to send them to the lab to make sure then we titrate the you know voltages it's it's a great alternative for

treatment but you have to dial it in huh make sure you get all the updates from the windows we can alter the world works on that on this that's why i tease him and i'm like does that thing run on windows 11? You might be screwed. Yes. But I don't know. I'll have to check in with him to see how things are going. Yeah, I was like, I don't think I want something put inside me that, you know, I don't know if it knows it works or not.

And then there's the Darth Vader machine. I'm not sure that I could live with a Darth Vader machine. Maybe I just need to read your book and learn the techniques. And then I did hear, I've heard about that thing that you can put in your mouth, and it's a jaw thing. I think we have somebody on the show about that. And it's the way your jaw sets. Correct. It's called an oral appliance.

You know, you put it and snaps and then pulls the jaw. It's only indicated for mild to medium. If you have severe sleep apnea, then your choice is limited to CPAP or the Inspire. So you have to be careful to pick the right people and what we need to use them for. Yeah, I think it was a mouth guard that he puts in. It kind of looks like a retainer and stuff. And I'm just trying to get some damn sleep, man. Yeah, it adds to treatment of sleep apnea. It will add 10 years to your life. Really? Yes, yes. See, because Really? Yes.

Yes. See, because when you when you're sleeping well, your blood pressure tends to lower at night and you know, everybody's blood pressure is high during the day because of hustling and doing things. But at nighttime, you auto regulate and tries to go down. But without the without, you know, resting well, you're always under heightened and you know, you're you know, the norepinephrine release is high and then your blood pressure tends to be high. And the same response increases your blood sugar

and enough oxygen is not going to your brain. So, earlier in the show, I talked about, you know, Alzheimer's, one of the, you know, treatable causes is, you know, of, you know, dementia is a treatment of sleep apnea. Really? Yeah. So, if I don't get my sleep apnea fixed, I'm going to be more demented than I already am. Yeah, not to mention the low libido, you know, we didn't even go there. Oh, really? It affects your libido or your sex life, huh? Yeah, the same thing, the same phenomenon, less oxygen is going to, you know, the reproductive organs, the testes, you know, it narrows and, you know, one of the testes you know it narrows and you know one of the common things i see men in my clinic is low testosterone and one of the treatable causes for that is treating your sleep apnea the same phenomenon are you freaking kidding me i just started

testosterone treatment about a month ago yeah so you have all the simpson you know i'm giving you a diagnosis chris like telling me everything that's wrong with me at this point yeah it's and i actually wasn't too low on my main testosterone it was my free testosterone that was really low yeah there you go but you figured out why i pee so many times a night why i don't sleep and all that good stuff yeah i'm just gonna put a tube of four on my mouth and just suck on it all night no you just need to put one of those treatment that i mentioned you have four treatments saying chris you don't need you have better treatment options than that okay all right well i was gonna go the cheap two of war version but i

think your idea is better when people work with you can they work with you uh i guess telemedicine can they work with you all over the nation to have to come see you how does that work you know you know that's the practice of medicine is you know license the nation? Do they have to come see you? How does that work? You know, the practice of medicine is license-driven, and I have to be licensed in different states. But I can't see anybody outside the states I have license in. So folks have to literally come here to see me. But that's why I decided the online, people can do a lot of self-help. I'm visiting my you know

website and doing their you know trying to improve their sleep by themselves and then where are you located again so we clarify that i'm in brentford tennessee and so people can fly there if they need to and yes i guess consult with you etc etc i notice you do a lot of things on the interwebs too you've got an Instagram channel. Yeah, all those are coming up new because I'm just starting this process. And before the book comes, you got to get all the channels ready. I'm right in the middle of it. And then this book took off and then we are all scampering to do everything faster.

So there you go. Well, sharing the knowledge and sharing the love. What are some other tips about sleep or advice on sleep or thoughts on sleep that you want to share with the audience? Some of the things I tell people is caffeine. You know, caffeine lasts for six to two hours, but some people can last up to 12 hours. You know, my teenage girl, you know, my daughter, she drinks at 8 p.m. Then she wonders if she can sleep. Hey, when did you have your macchiato?

Dad, I had it at 9 p.m. I wonder why. Duh. You know, so I try to, if you have a problem, I try to tell them not to sleep and take the caffeine. You know, at least if you have a sleeping problem, I say to stop it by 12 noon to 1 p.m. So that's the, if you have a problem, you know, sometimes you can, you know. And then if you're alcohol, what happens is plenty of alcohol, alcohol metabolizes into something called a product acetaldehyde, which wakes you up.

So that's what happened. Alcohol can put you to drown your brain, go to sleep. But then you later, you know, it metabolizes and wakes you up. And then alcohol also makes you pee. And then it's a diuretic. So now you're dehydrated. You know, the chemical is working. And then, you know, that's the classic sign of the hangover, right?

So if you're going to have, you know, drinking, make sure you drink very, very early that it washes out of your body, not like close to bedtime. So that, you know, so those are some of the things that I tell people. And also the light, evening sunlight is good for you to help people to sleep better. You know, the radiation or the gamma rays from the sun in the evening, it's very good for you to help with your sleep. Wow. Wow. There you go. Yes. you know, from overcasts and, you know, you live in London or Seattle, are there ways that you need

to try and augment that where maybe you get some light machines or something? Yeah, there is a light box, you know, so seasonal affective disorders are very common and also folks have a delayed or advanced, you know, problems with their clock. They go to bed later. Some people, you know, go to bed earlier. So we can change all that. You know, the major problem that we are having in this country is the daylight savings time. You know, remember that we lose a lot of sleep problems happen around the change, you know, especially in fall when we lose time, you know, it gets darker and, you know, yes, a lot of accidents are happening, you know, in the morning because it's still dark and, you know, a lot of heart attacks happening in the morning because it's still dark.

And a lot of heart attacks also happen during this time change because your circadian rhythm is altered by one hour. And for our body to adjust naturally, it will take one day to adjust. So to answer the question, the darkness and all, it's a problem. Yeah, it's still screwing me up. It just changed, what, a month ago, a couple weeks ago? Yes. And it's still screwing me up. Like I'm just sitting there going, why is it dark outside?

Is it 10 o'clock? Correct. You know, it's 6 o'clock or something. And in the morning, I'm like, where's the sun? Correct. And yeah, I just wish we quit that whole thing. It just mucks up everybody. Yeah, we're trying our best, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, and everybody's trying to petition.

It's still in the Congress, but it's, you know, the Congress has other things to. My, yeah, well, you know, they got to fight over, I don't know, some stupid crap. My understanding is I thought we decided to change that like in 2020 or something. Still, nothing has passed. Nothing has passed. Like who the hell is supporting not changing too? So the main thing is in summer, we have more time to shop. So that's the commercial industry is the one.

Yeah, you think they'd be supportive of that? I don't know, man. It's, it's a crazy world. So you, you recommend these therapies through, through your service, the, the BiPAP machines. Do you do the stuff where they put the inspiring people if they are interested in that? Yeah. I work with the local surgeons here. The EMT surgeons who typically do those.

So you, you don't do them yourself you no i don't i just take care of the before and after care i program those there you go in my office yes there you go now you have something on your site called the excite osa what is that oh so that's the device the tongue device that i told you about it strengthens your tongue so that you know remember the tongue's the device, the tongue device that I told you about. It strengthens your tongue. So remember, the tongue's the problem. It's like a tense unit to the tongue. It strengthens the tongue so it doesn't fall back. So that's one of the, you know, it's been FDA approved for about three years. Really? That's the first awake treatment when you are awake.

You don't need to do it. You can be on your phone or your computer and, you know, do that. Yeah, I'm seeing the pictures of it and it looks it looks kind of funny actually really but hey if it works it works it so it's basically like a gym for your tongue and correct get your tongue working out there and just i imagine gene simmons never has this problem but that's another thing gene simmons is the band kiss if you're familiar with that his giant tongue um so this is this is really interesting the excite osa huh and then does that have to be clinically prescribed i guess yes that's a during yeah every those are durable medical equipment you know it's

a physician yes it just exercises your tongue wow Just like if you work out your muscles, your muscles stay in tone for about 12 hours. So it's the same technology. So the big muscle is called the genioglossus. It just strengthens and it doesn't fall back. It is wild. You know, the CPAP pushes the tongue from the back end, you know, by pushing air through it. So it's all about moving the tongue away from the back of the throat. Yeah.

I'm just going to sleep with one of those tongue depressors in my mouth the whole time. I don't know. I don't know. It's funny. So these people that use this Excite, they don't have to sleep with that thing in their mouth. They can just use it before bedtime or something like that.

Correct, or during the day. But it's only for mild, though. It's not for medium or severe. It's for snoring and mild sleep apnea because there are other things that play in them. The back of the throat is more relaxed. So it does not work in moderate to severe sleep apnea. So how did we...

Tell me this. How do we live as a species for, I don't know, millions or billions of years, whatever the math is, and somehow in the last 20 years, we all need these machines? Riddle me that. Great question. In some cultures, snoring is considered a good thing. You're sleeping deep, right? Yeah. But snoring is actually churning the blood and making it into micro droplets that can embolize.

So snoring is churning. So as science evolves, we are able to learn more and more. Right. And then, you know, when you have sleep apnea, you're not sleeping well. The lack of sleep also affects all the parts of the body like blood pressure, diabetes. So the awareness, the clinical research. And then, you know, as a culture, as a society, we are also becoming more overweight and obese.

You know, if you look at the past, everybody... That's true. Correct. The weight is a major problem too. So the weight, the awareness, and the implication of poor sleep on various, you know, organs are the reasons why we are here. Crazy.

That is, well, a lot of stuff makes sense now. Yes. And yeah, everything's interrelated. Damn it. What a weird thing. Yeah, sleep is a superpower. Once you do sleep, you get seven hours, eight hours of sleep, you can conquer the world. So I want the world to discover that we go to the gym, we do this and that, you know, we train our mind and body and, you know.

But if you can sleep well, you know, you heal well, right? That's true. And then you can do a lot more in the, you know, the time you're going to be more productive. What do you think about this? You know, there's some people that have this argument that you only really need probably seven hours of sleep. And then a lot of people are like no you need eight is there is there any merit to either one of those that's a that's that's a great question so some people are born with short sleep they're short you know sleepers like you know president

trump president obama elon musk those people have a gift you know they go into that solid sleep for the few hours but most of us need at least seven or eight hours of sleep. You know, so if you sleep, how to answer the question is, how do you feel like the next day? If you sleep seven hours, do you feel great? Then seven hours works for you if you need. But if you're needing more than eight hours, then there is a problem. You have a sleep disorder or some other medical disorder that's causing you's causing you to you know to sleep more there you go well i think president trump's thing is adderall snorting adderall evidently but that's a different story and i'm not sure he sleeps whatever considering i mean he didn't show up in the

office till like noon every day and left at three when he was in the golf course but yeah i mean there's a real snorting adderall problem over there i think it's family-wide from what i understand and from what i know the family so very interesting and then your sleep fix academy.com deals with all sorts of different variations and available online access people you know everybody can go and you know i have a lot of materials that you can learn from podcasts you know to study your sleep pattern and also that you can learn from, podcasts, you know, to study your sleep pattern. And also you can do the Sleep Now course if you want to take that. Oh, there's a course on there? Yes.

It's coming up. It's all, you know, it's all cooking. It's probably there by the end of this month. Okay. All right. Sounds good then. Final thoughts as we go out to doctor and pitch out to everybody on how they can reach out to you and work with you. Yes.

You know, I have the, you know, the gift and the knowledge of sleeping. Well, I want to share with everyone so that you can discover your own superpower, right? So I have devised the Sleep Now course and the Sleep Now acronym and the seven proven strategies. I've written a book about it. I've been in practice for 25 years. So you can visit my website, www.sleepfixacademy.com or my my clinic, www.sleepwellnessinfo.com, to learn more. So sleep well, be well, and let's go sleeping. There you go. Well, we've learned a lot. Thank you very much, Doc.

We really appreciate having you on the show. Chris, I really appreciate it. Thanks for having me. It was my pleasure. Thank you. And thanks to my audience for tuning in. Go to goodreads.com, Fortunes Chris Foss, LinkedIn.com, Fortunes Chris Foss, and all those crazy places we're at on the internet.

Thanks for tuning in. Be good to each other. Stay safe. Order up the book wherever fine books are sold or pre-order it right now. Nobody's Sleeping, Seven Proven Sleep Strategies for Better Health and Happiness. It sounds like some good ideas for me.

Thanks for tuning in. Be good to each other. Stay safe. We'll see you guys next time. Thank you. Good night.