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How to Manage Stress and Enhance Health with Heart Rate Variability Expert Dr. Torkel Færø

August 27, 2024 • Ahna Fulmer • Season 3

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Unlock the secrets to managing stress and preventing disease with our special guest, Dr. Torkil Færø, a renowned general practitioner and emergency physician. Dr. Torkil takes us on a fascinating journey into the world of heart rate variability (HRV), explaining its critical role in reflecting our body’s stress balance. Learn how monitoring HRV with fitness watches can serve as an internal stress checkpoint, helping you to manage stress more effectively and ward off stress-related health issues. This episode promises to change the way you perceive stress and relaxation, offering practical insights for a healthier life.


JUMP RIGHT TO IT:

1:18 Heart Rate Variability for Stress Management

11:56 Healthy Habits and Heart Health

28:50 Restoring Health Through Relaxation Techniques



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Buy the book! The Pulse Cure: https://amzn.to/4arv5UG 

Buy the watch!  Garmin VivoActive Health & Fitness Watch https://amzn.to/4caMy5v

Revitalize your faith and fitness with a morning routine that does not sacrifice your sleep and does start each day with God's Word and a workout. Join the community today at www.earlymorninghabit.com 


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Speaker 1:

Hello and welcome to the Imperfectly Empowered Podcast. I am your host, Anna Fulmer. Dr Torkel Farrow is a general practitioner and emergency physician, documentary filmmaker, author, photographer and globetrotter. With over 25 years as a doctor, he has worked all over Norway, had tens of thousands of consultations and has gained a unique understanding of the illnesses that afflict us. Here to share his expert advice on how to lower disease risk by monitoring your heart rate variability using a fitness watch. Welcome, Dr Torkel Farrow. I'm honored to have you. I thoroughly enjoyed your book.

Speaker 1:

For those of you watching, I apologize, I'm not in my normal studio. We are moving, so we are making do? We are recording on the fly? I have the book here. We're talking about the Pulse Cure. It's not really well, it's not really showing very well, but the Pulse Cure balance stress, optimize health and live longer.

Speaker 1:

I love on the title. It says the runaway Scandinavian bestseller. It should become a bestseller in the United States as well as an incredible book. I have not read anything like this yet and really what you talk about is this concept of heart rate variability and how we can monitor it in order to ultimately not just prevent disease but actually promote living well, less stress and more energy. But before we can even talk about how we do that, I think it's important to highlight what heart rate variability even is, because someone is already thinking oh, I just track how high or how low my heart rate is, which isn't incorrect, but it's a little incomplete, so talk to us about it yeah, so the heart rate variability shows the stress level, the stress balance in your body.

Speaker 2:

So, um, it is a combination between how the heart will react to breathing in and breathing out, and I can explain that. If you are in a relaxed state, in a recovery state that we are made to be most of the time through evolution, then the heart will beat a little bit faster as we breathe in and there is more oxygen in the lungs. And when we breathe out and there is less oxygen in the lungs, it will slow down a little bit faster. As we breathe in and there is more oxygen in the lungs. And when we breathe out and there is less oxygen in the lungs, it will slow down a little bit to save a little bit of power. And when we are stressed, it will not allow the heart, your, your body will not allow the heart to slow down. It will think that now we need to use all available forces because this organism may not survive the next moment, you know. So we need to push through, even if there is less oxygen in the lungs and the the pulse devices, they can measure this, measured in milliseconds, and then make an assessment of whether you are in the relaxed state or in the stressed state, and it's important because we don't really have a sense like this.

Speaker 2:

All our senses from evolutionary times are directed outwards, to the threats from animals, from enemies, from food that is contaminated or degraded that is contaminated, you know, or degraded. So this sense of our inner state would just be in the way of those senses. So it's not only that we don't have this sense really developed, but it's actually downplayed. So to not disturb the outward senses and this is why we end up in this we can go into a fatigue situation where we are totally burned out and you know, it can take years to come back and some may even not manage to come back to their state. So this is a really, really important thing to avoid the stress-related diseases, that is, the most common diseases these days.

Speaker 1:

So that is why it's so important.

Speaker 2:

And the heart rate. It has some connection to the heart rate, but it's usually called. It's like watching your heart rate with a magnifying glass and it tells you so much about this balance in your autonomic nervous system that is so important.

Speaker 1:

And I think a point that is well made in the book is that we often think that we are relaxed when in reality we're actually living with this elevated baseline of stress, and that's hard for us to recognize. I have said before in in my community, in my early morning habit community, that, especially as women are stressed is almost the new relaxed. We don't even realize that we live with this constantly elevated level of cortisol and we think we're relaxed when our bodies actually aren't, and it's why. So I did not realize you were an emergency medicine physician, I. You may or may not know this, but I worked in the ER for 10 years and so it's an interesting perspective for us, because we we have seen this so many times where people come in with this acute physical manifestation that we cannot diagnose via lab work, we can't diagnose via radiological exams.

Speaker 1:

Chest pain is what comes to mind the most, where there's actually no cardiac disease happening from the standpoint of there's nothing acute happening, but there's still this extreme tension and pain that somebody is feeling and, uh, you know they don't even report necessarily any type of like acute, but it's this ongoing chronic stress that starts to build up in our system that ends up manifesting physically even though there's no acute disease, which is precisely to your point, that this ongoing state of stress ends up leading to chronic diseases where inflammation is the underlying pathology. Monitor it tangibly, even if mentally we don't think we're stressed, but our body is saying well, actually you are. It really gives us a tool to intervene early.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so because when you really feel stressed, then it does come a long way.

Speaker 2:

So, this will pick up smaller senses of stress. So this will pick up smaller senses of stress. So it makes it possible to avoid, to manage it, you know, to navigate away from the possible ditch you know that you could end up in. So it's so important that our bodies are made for the acute stress for a short time and then to recover. So it has never in history, you know, has people been stressing all the time at some level. You know, if you see people living in natural conditions, they are relaxing most of the time, you know, in their hammocks or just resting and just talking and really relaxing. So we have gotten used to that. When we think it, just as you say that when we think we are relaxed, there's another big level below that, because we have just gotten used to that. When we think it, just as you say that when we think we are relaxed, there's another big level below that, because we have just gotten used to this high speed of our times.

Speaker 2:

And and we have to use these monitors to to find the peace, to find measurable rest and not what we think is rest, because you'd be surprised at what stresses you when you start monitoring.

Speaker 2:

You'd be surprised about the amount of stress caused by alcohol, caused by too much training or too little training, or your diet. You know, if you eat junk food and you eat ultra processed food, that will show on your variables, that will create an inflammation, a stress in your body that will sap your forces night and day. And once you can identify this, that you can see that, okay, I shouldn't eat this food, I should rather eat this kind of food. And when you see the result on your, on your watch, it's so much more motivating to take those hard choices, because we, you know, we all want to eat the ice cream and eat the chocolate and the crisps and everything. But when you see that it really ruins your day, then it's so much easier to to pick an apple or some vegetables instead yeah, I love you'd used a phrase that you just said measured rest.

Speaker 1:

We need to be able to measure rest and that's such a profound concept because we're not talking about sleep. We often think about rest in terms of sleep, but rest is so essential in our waking hours and, like you just said, we were designed to be at rest even during the day, designed to be at rest even during the day. And I mean, let me also, just for anyone that's new around here, I am preaching to myself. I am one that has had to do a lot of work to take that measured rest, um, and be intentional. Otherwise you are, you're just on the go all the time, especially if you're that type a productive personality speaking of myself there, type A productive personality speaking of myself there that does not rest. Well, you just be intentional.

Speaker 2:

Exactly, and that is so important because the ones that are most prone to go into a burnout situation are the productive people, the type A people, the ones who are on the go constantly and to lose them, lose their power, their, their contribution to, to society, you know. So it's not only that the people are sick and needs treatment often, uh, but you lose the ones that could be the most productive in our society. So it's like a double loss. Uh, so, and that is a, those are the ones that are most happy about the watches and that the watches often will tell you you should rest.

Speaker 2:

And that because they would not allow themselves to rest, they would feel guilty, they feel that they should do something, from the morning until evening, you know and they crash exhausted and we're just not made for that. It makes us sick. Our immune system is not geared towards that speed that it makes us sick. Our immune system is not geared towards that speed.

Speaker 2:

And because we are surrounded by machines. We think that we are machines, that we can go on in full speed from morning to the evening, but we can't do that. There'll be a price to pay.

Speaker 1:

That's so good and you're so right. I think technology has actually made us sometimes confuse the fact that we are not we're not machines. I mean, that's also such an impactful statement because technology, I think, has given us this idea that we can do infinitely more because the possibilities are endless due to technology, and we forget our own limitations and even the joy of having those limitations. Like you said, there is joy in rest and so, yeah, thank God we're not machines, that we were designed to rest, because there's joy there being able to relax.

Speaker 2:

And not only joy but performance. So when you look at the best performers across across, you know whether they are athletes or violinists or business people. They are good at rest because the rest is a very productive time. You think better and your brain in the default mode network will produce better thoughts. You're more creative. So it's not just downtime that is lost, it's actually the most creative time, so you can rest with a good conscience. You can still perform well.

Speaker 1:

I love that. That is literally the concept of my health and fitness program, early Morning Habit. It is helping women busy women start their day being still. It's that exact concept where we're tapping into that reality that we think we've been programmed to believe that going faster and harder is going to cause us to stress less because we can check off more on the to-do list. But it just feeds that ongoing cycle of hustle harder, do more, be better and then burn out.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, I just read the rushing woman syndrome. I don't know if you read that no no, you should read that. This is by libby weaver. Uh, the rushing woman syndrome that creates stress, and she says that many women needs to be everything for everybody all the time. You know. So they, they want to please everybody and you can't do that. You'll end up being stressed out. So the ability to relax will keep the women that you're talking about healthy and productive all their lives, you know, if they are able to mitigate the stress levels.

Speaker 2:

Amen, mm, hmm, amen, you, you know you point out in the book that there is a correlation between heart rate variability and nine out of the 10 deadliest diseases in the United States. Talk to me a little bit about that. If anyone is not convinced yet that this is important and relevant, talk to us a little bit about that. Yeah, low heart rate variability is a sign that your body is under stress, and when your body is under stress, the first thing that gets compromised is the immune system, and the immune system affects all the organs even the brain and degenerative diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's and many of those kinds of diseases.

Speaker 2:

So if you are stressed, you're not giving your immune system enough power to do its job. So it will result in all kinds of lifestyle-related diseases, including cancer. So you can Google different variations of cancer and add heart rate variability and you will find that your risk of getting cancer is connected to HRV. Your prognosis if you get cancer is connected to HRV. If you get cancer-free, your chances of having a relapse will depend on your HRV. So it's so important for all the big killers and death of all causes. But what is good about it is that what you need to do to have well-being in the moment is the same things you have to do to be healthy in the moment and over a long time. And using the wearables makes it actually more fun to do it. It's kind of a gamification. You get some scores for your sleep, you get your readings, you know are you exercising enough or too little? So it's kind of you're getting a game where your own life and health is at stake.

Speaker 2:

So most people, many people, think that this will stress them out. This, this will just be one more thing you know to just give them more stress, but but that is not my experience. Um, uh, people find a way to use these numbers and to maneuver. So if you could see that you're stressed and not had the tools to get out of it, okay, that would be stressful, of course, but in the post-cure in my book, I'm telling the ways to get out of it and the way to find this balance, and it works and this is why it has been a bestseller in Norway for almost a year and a half in Norway for almost a year and a half and kind of changing. So much about what health conscious people, particularly women, I must say it's like 85% of the ones who contact me, they're women.

Speaker 1:

Interesting.

Speaker 2:

So it has changed the way they look upon health that you're not supposed to wait until you get sick and then you depend on the doctor's skills and the health care provider's skills and your money to get well. Rather, they would want to be CEO of their own health and take charge and avoid getting sick. And now we know so much about how to do that and and in my book I try to, in a very easy reading way, to explain the most important things that you can do for your own health and we're going to dive into exactly how to use a watch, because I know what you're thinking okay, that sounds great, but how, how do I do it?

Speaker 1:

we're going to dive into that in a second and talk about how to lower your disease risk and thrive by monitoring your heart rate variability. He has very specific, practical, tangible recommendations that you can implement. As soon as you are done listening or watching, we're going to play a speed round of would you rather? With Dr Torkel. He didn't know he signed up for this, so I'm going to ask you would you, you rather and it's very simple no stress, no stress, would you rather? Would you rather go to the beach or camp in the woods?

Speaker 2:

beach, but I would do both they would when you sail?

Speaker 1:

this is such an ignorant question. I clearly don't do a lot of sailing, although I would love to do. You like, um, but I would do both when you sail. This is such an ignorant question. I clearly don't do a lot of sailing, although I would love to Do. You dock your boat Is that what you call it? I don't even know and spend time on land.

Speaker 2:

I like to anchor, anchor and take the dinghy in and then go to the beach. Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so you're primarily living on your boat when you're sailing. Yeah, absolutely okay, so you're primarily living on your boat when you're sailing. Yeah, yeah, is there a lot of?

Speaker 2:

hiking around you, like when you go sailing. We love to, yeah, yeah, we love to to combine, to go sailing, go to the beach and then find somewhere some trails to go walking yeah, I'm also, I love to walk. I've done these pilgrimages, so maybe a month of walking to Santiago de Compostela and in Norway and in Rome and even to Jerusalem. So I like these long hikes. I would love to go to the States and do the Appalachian Trail and the Pacific Crest Trail and those kind of things.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, my parents are, as we speak, hiking on the appalachian trail. Over the last, like six or seven years, they have worked on hiking the entire trail, and this is their very last one and they will have completed the entire trail.

Speaker 2:

So it's a whole culture the appalachian is like there's a whole culture of people that do it and I'm sure, I'm sure that if you spend one week on the trail, you know you will live for four months longer. You know it's an investment in time, in lifetime I'm sure.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and memories, yeah. Would you rather coffee or tea?

Speaker 2:

Coffee.

Speaker 1:

Do you? This is so tell me about coffee in your area. Is there like specific? I've always heard Italy has the best coffee in the world, is what I've been told. But seeing as you've been a world traveler, have you experienced the best cup of coffee somewhere?

Speaker 2:

I've had coffee in Ethiopia. That was probably where coffee comes from, or so they said. So that was this different and interesting, uh, but I'm not really a coffee aficionado. Maybe it's brazil would be the nicest coffee, and even colombia, but in colombia they had nescafe, so they didn't really drink their coffee, or so it seemed yeah so, but I usually go for the straight, easy choice.

Speaker 1:

You know, get the normal coffee or americano is what I usually order yeah, yeah, when I lived in peru they drank a lot of instant coffee, which kind of shocked me.

Speaker 2:

I was like, oh, okay, even in colombia, where it comes from, they also almost only did instant coffee, but that was like 30 years ago, so that may have changed yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Um, if you had the choice, would you rather go to a concert or a musical. So either see like a concert. Is that what you said?

Speaker 2:

concert. Yeah, I'm looking very much forward to bruce springsteen's concert now in july in oslo or in in Bergen in Norway.

Speaker 1:

Yeah so he's a concert concert man. Um, would you rather you have an evening with your family? Uh, would you rather watch a movie together or go outside and play a sport?

Speaker 2:

um play a sport you have two girls.

Speaker 1:

Is that what you said you?

Speaker 2:

know one boy and or almost a man now he's 19 and a girl that's 17.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, okay, and are they in the area you said? They're in school yeah, they're in. They're in school still yeah, so when they come home you might play something outside yeah, or or maybe traveling or sailing. Yeah, I love that. My kids are 11, 9, 6, and 6. So we're not quite at the yeah, the relaxed. I can't even imagine sailing with my children at the moment. I'm afraid one of them would fall overboard and I'd never see him again.

Speaker 2:

I don't think so.

Speaker 1:

They would find a way to play. Yeah, that's awesome. Um, we've mentioned this idea of heart rate variability, monitoring it with a watch. You do have a very specific watch. Uh, we have several watch recommendations. Um, garmin was the one to me that seemed, at least from our standpoint, the most accessible, probably the name most familiar. Yeah, Garmin.

Speaker 2:

You know US watch, us product it's still. You know, two years after I wrote the book, it's still the best option on the market. Two years after I wrote the book, it's still the best option on the market, even if there is Samsung coming up with their products that maybe they will be approaching it. Apple, unfortunately, is not as good. You have the Aura Ring, you have the Whoop Band, but my favorite by far is the Garmin watches. That will give you your stress level in the moment, uh, easy to read the curve so you can see the stress throughout the day. You can identify that yesterday's stress was between two o'clock and four o'clock and that was after I was eating this or that, um, so it makes it so much easier to yeah to to see your whole stress balance throughout the day and night and they call it the body battery body battery.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, on the garmin watch on the garmin watch.

Speaker 2:

So it's a estimate of how much do you have in your fuel tank, how much have you charged overnight, how well have you slept, how much energy do you have to spend on this particular day? And the most important thing is to use only energy that you have saved up, so you don't try to to borrow forces or energy from tomorrow. That a lot of people do. We can do that, you know. As humans we have, we can pull ourselves together and uh and uh, you know, strain ourselves too much, you know, but at some point it will lead to a disease.

Speaker 2:

So, um, the body battery.

Speaker 2:

Then you can see that if you are charged more than you know 70, 80 you have enough forces to spend that day.

Speaker 2:

And then maybe you have been having some glasses of alcohol, you've been eating something you shouldn't eat, or maybe you just slept like five hours and you wake up with a body battery of 30 or 35, then you have to take it easy, or you should take it easy, so that you again can charge up in the next night to have enough power. So it makes it uh easier to to find your way. And everybody will get surprises and we're all different. We're all individuals so we will all react a bit different to different stressors. So a husband and wife, for example, can probably tell that this kind of food stresses one and not the other, and this kind of uh trip will stress one and not the other, not the other, and so on and alcohol and everything. So, um, it makes it so much easier in that, particularly couples and families you know they think it's fun. You know what's your body battery today. You know, is that breakfast? You know it's. It becomes kind of a game.

Speaker 1:

So, um, a valuable one, a very valuable.

Speaker 1:

This is my thing, you guys, uh, that many of you are already wasting time on silly games on your phone or, you know, binge watching netflix. You're already putting this time into assessing something else or gamifying something else. Gamify this and then benefit from it from a health standpoint. I that's what I love about it. Like you said, people seem to enjoy it, and it makes sense to me, because not only are you enjoying it, but it is also preventing disease and promoting more energy in your life. So that's more energy in your life. So that's it's such a great way to approach it. You pretty counter-cultural statement. However, research shows this time and time again, and yet people have a really hard time making the behavioral modifications necessary. But talk to us about alcohol being liquid stress.

Speaker 2:

Yes, and that is the group band that I have on my one wrist here. They are tracking their consumers, data, the data, and they say that alcohol is by far the worst stressor for your body. It's not the alcohol in itself, because the alcohol, it will make you relax. So in the evening you feel very relaxed and mellow, and the problem is when you sleep the alcohol is converted into acetaldehyde in your body, which is a very poisonous toxic and your liver has to work really hard throughout the night to detoxify you. So when you wake up in the morning, you know and I used to drink a couple of glasses of wine every day, that used to be doctor's orders, you know, at the time then I would wake up really sluggish and groggy. I would think it's just a feeling, but when I look at my watches I see my has been as, uh, stressful as if I'm having a lecture. Uh, in the daytime I can have a heart rate that's 20 or 25, um, like 85 instead of 60 in the heart rate during the night, you know, just sleeping.

Speaker 2:

So, um, and of course there's so many diseases that are coupled to alcohol and probably the stress of it is part of it. And then people find out that without alcohol, they feel much fresher the next day and, according to Whoop, if you have like four or five glasses of wine or beer, it will take five days until your recovery state is back where it was before you were drinking. So then, if you drink like two times a week, you will never know your performance level. You, you will always underperform. So that is what is so shocking to many people when they see the physiological price for alcohol. Yes, and I used to, of course, love alcohol. I used to drink probably every day for for 20 years. Uh, it was even recommended, so that's how I felt I could do it, you know, with a, with a good conscience, but the red wine, yeah yeah, yeah, so, um so people but not everybody reacts in this way, so there will be differences, as I said.

Speaker 2:

So you will find out whether you can tolerate it or not.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, but I love that. What the concept that we're tapping into here is data over emotions. It's this idea of we're going to look at the science, not just the external sense of how we're feeling, but really diving into the numbers and allowing yourself to be open to what it is telling you and make the lifestyle modifications necessary. And I can tell you you know you guys listening and watching anecdotally the amount of people in my, you know, fitness nutrition program when I coached uh that ended up removing alcohol from even if it was just one to two glasses slept better and generally felt significantly improved. And actually a common uh, not just sleep, but also, um, general stomach pain or just discomfort interestingly tended to correlate with that. That could have been related to other strategies we were implementing, but it was interesting how often that went together.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I would say that if you feel sick from any cause or have some troublesome symptoms of any cause, the first thing I would cut is alcohol. Have some troublesome symptoms of any cause? The first thing I would cut is alcohol. Try it for like two months and you need maybe two months to see how you are functioning without alcohol. Yes, of course you can read a lot.

Speaker 1:

Only from a week you know you will feel something, but but the complete picture you would probably need two months without alcohol to to see what your performance level is then so, so, uh, someone goes out, they're done listening to this and they're like, yep, I want that Garmin watch, which you guys will make sure it's linked, by the way, in the show notes so that you can practically go right there and take a look at it.

Speaker 1:

Um, as well as his book, of course, the pulse cure, which is going to be your guide to walking through all of these steps diagnosing and then intervening in your own life. So they go in, they get the watch and they learn how to use the body battery and they're monitoring it and they start to see these trends. They're educating themselves on what is causing them stress, what is helping them to rest. But talk to me a little bit about kind of step number one how do they start intervening when they realize they are stressed? Let's say they think they're relaxed, they're doing something that they think allows them to rest, but they're realizing that they're not. What types of where have you seen you know your community make changes in their life that have been surprising? Um, maybe when it comes to stress and rest yeah, so you have two parts of um.

Speaker 2:

You know you have to stress lower. You know to decrease your stress and increase your de-stressing activities yes so to to.

Speaker 2:

I call it active rest in the book, and that would be like breathing exercises, breath work and breathe in general, breathing slower, breathing down to six breaths a minute, which is half the breaths that you would take. If you don't think about it. That would be maybe four seconds in and then six seconds out. That would calm down your nervous system. It would be the most effective way and you could do it, you know, for like 10 minutes at a time, but you can also do it just five breaths here and there throughout the day. Get used to calm yourself down by using your breath.

Speaker 2:

Another way is to use cold, to take a cold shower, a cold bath. It can even be in summertime if it's, if the water is well. It depends in fahrenheit. Maybe 70 degrees Fahrenheit probably will still work well to ease, to calm down the inflammation in your body. So that would be the two go-tos.

Speaker 2:

And then, of course, you need to lower your stress, maybe to do things less intensively, like if you do housework, you know, do the dishes, and just do it more slowly, more mindfully. You don't have to do everything quick to move on to the next thing on the to-do list. So just to slow down the speed, because what a lot of people find out that they are racing at the physiological speed of 110 miles an hour, you know. And once you get that speed down to 90, it's all manageable. So if you can just do things a bit more slowly, a bit more mindfully, then that is half of the job, you know. And then in between, take this breath works, takes moments of silence, lie down, close your eyes, listen to music, read a book. So if you're very obsessed about being productive, you know also, the reading time can be very, very restful. Yeah, so, uh, so you can read a book, listen to a naughty book, listen to a podcast, and and so on go for a walk.

Speaker 2:

Walk is also rest, um rest for your brain. So uh, so uh, that can be another strategy.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's interesting that you mentioned reading something that, since I've become a virtual entrepreneur and stepped away from emergency medicine, the danger is that I can work anytime, any place, and so I actually work more.

Speaker 1:

I enjoy it more, but I work more, and so it has really been a challenge to figure out how to rest because, to your point, there can be physiological rest where I'm not necessarily working as fast but my mind is still going as quickly. And so for me, what I discovered with reading is that it is the one time that I am I cannot multitask the concept of sitting, not even an audio book, because I can still multitask on my laptop or whatever where, if I am just sitting and reading, I physically it's helpful to be still, it's a little hard to move and read at the same time. You can do it, but it's a lot harder. But it also mentally turns me off, because I'm fully engaged in the story and I'm not thinking about picking up this person from here or everything that I need to do here for work. So reading has been one of the most like plopping myself in a chair and actually just reading has been really restorative for me.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and it's probably a bit like walking. You know that you have this speed. You have the speed of reading. You cannot, you cannot speed read it. So you have to keep the pace that you are reading for that time a half hour or an hour or so. So if you can do that before you go to bed, then you will calm down your nervous system and then you will sleep more effectively, because that is how we are designed to be.

Speaker 2:

Throughout evolution, the nighttime after the sun was down, there was not so much to do to relax and then fall asleep. So I used to think that if I worked really hard all day and go to bed really exhausted and sleep, you know, almost before my head hits the pillow, that's good sleep. But but that's not true. You can see it immediately on your watches that your stress levels will be high throughout the night. So, um, so, winding down in the evening, dimming the lights, reading a book uh. Stay away from social media and laptop screens, uh.

Speaker 2:

Having the bedroom cool, uh, from I from 60 to 65 degrees or so would be good. In Fahrenheit and really dark, you should not be able to see the hand in front of you in the bedroom. Even a little bit of light can disturb the melatonin hormone in your brain. So if you do that, that will ensure that you get enough sleep and make sure that you sleep, you know, between seven and eight hours. That's so important. So, uh, and then reading can be then a part of the winding down process yeah, you guys write this down.

Speaker 1:

Write this down. Um, I, really it was an honor to have you here. We're going to make sure that the link to the watch specifically, you guys I'm going to link the, the garmin watch, and then, uh, his book, the pulse cure I, I value your perspective, I value the way that you are bringing this type of information it's so practical and using data to help us rest. We just don't do it well. It is counter-cultural. So I just I thank you for the lives that you're changing. I pray God's blessing over your heart and your home and your sailing and your son and your daughter.

Speaker 2:

Thank you, but thank you so much Talking to you, thank you.

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Ahna Fulmer

Host