Lessons From Sleep: Part 4

Due to my long-winded nature, we had to break this up into 2 parts, enjoy!

This episode is the third in a series of podcasts on sleep. In this episode, we explore various topics related to sleep, including normal sleep patterns, sleep quality versus sleep quantity, sleep cycles, intermittent sleep, the ideal amount of sleep, the effects of caffeine on sleep, and of course sleep supplements such as alcohol, marijuana, and melatonin. In this conversation, we'll highlight some of the most popular sleep supplements and their impact on sleep quality. Then, we'll investigate the effectiveness of melatonin, highlighting that it may only have a minimal impact on sleep duration and might be more beneficial for older adults. Next, you'll get the lowdown on supplements like Magnesium, tart cherry, and kiwifruit. Finally, we'll the relationship between sleep deprivation and conflicts in relationships, emphasizing the importance of adequate sleep for maintaining healthy relationships.

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Transcript

Drew (00:19.406)
podcast where we explore the dynamic connections between sports, physical well -being, and personal growth. Next what we have is melatonin. Good ol' melatonin.

This is one of those where everyone and their mom is taking it. And the research does not back up everyone and their mom taking it. So why is everyone and their mom taking it? Because in the same way that caffeine doesn't give you energy, melatonin,

doesn't make you sleepy. So why do we take it thinking that, oh if I take this melatonin, it's going to make me go to sleep?

Melatonin works in a way that it basically just tells you it's time to go to sleep and it signals the body, hey, we should start shutting things down. And this is where you can get the tired but wired phenomenon to where your body is telling you, okay, sun is down, melatonin is kicking in. I think it's...

time for bed. So essentially, I think the way that Matthew Walker, the author of Why We Sleep, the way that he describes melatonin is that it's essentially the body getting into the starting blocks. You're not taking off going to sleep, you're just in the starting blocks, you're getting ready to go to sleep.

Drew (02:09.038)
you gotta do the rest on your own. And whether that's journaling or meditation or any kind of relaxation techniques that you prefer before you go to bed, you gotta do that. If you wanna combine it with the melatonin, that way your body can be signaled for that transition, sure, that could be beneficial. But again, the research doesn't support it.

unless you are of the older age, then it supports it. And they're defining the older age as 65 and up. And even in those folks that are older than 65 years old, the studies where they found a significant difference, it wasn't even that much of an increase in the change.

The change was only about three minutes, I believe it was. There's a three minute difference between taking melatonin and not taking melatonin, or maybe it was placebo. I don't which one it was, but regardless, either or, there's only a three minute difference between when those people fell asleep without it and when people fell asleep with melatonin. And on top of that,

A lot of the over -the -counter melatonins that people get at the store are about 10 times more than the normal dosage that you need.

And so why are we doing...

Drew (04:01.87)
So why are we taking melatonin at such high levels? If it, one, doesn't even really seem to be impacting anybody, unless you're older than 65, then it only has about a three minute difference, and two,

If you're taking melatonin at these arguably dangerously high levels for an extended period of time, again, it's like the boy who cried wolf. Like, if you bring in something from outside the body that's not supposed to be at that level, that wasn't prescribed at the right level for your body, the body's just going to be like, oh,

Here's some more melatonin. Alright, pineal gland, we don't need to send any more out. We're good. Let's just chill, bro. We're done with that. We have melatonin coming in every day. And so it just kind of slows down with that melatonin. And then you have more of a hump as opposed to a spike and an even ebb and flow.

like you normally would have in an otherwise healthy, normal person. And the reason why it works in older adults is because they already do have that little mound as opposed to a normal spike with a valley and peaks, anal mountain high, anal valley low, except for your melatonin levels, because you've been taking melatonin for years. Anyways.

The reason why that it works on older adults is that very point that I just made, to where it's just a mound. So in order to get that more defined peak, taking exogenous melatonin can be beneficial in some cases for that reason. But, like always, please, please, please contact your PCP. And not me.

Drew (06:15.404)
Moving on to magnesium. With magnesium, this is one of those that there is some emerging research out there that has some promising data to back it up. And from what we know from it now is that magnesium 3 & 8 is the main form of magnesium that you want to consume if you wish to have an improvement in your sleep quality.

And the studies show that it's not going to have a significant impact in terms of improving your time to fall asleep. But when you do hit that pillow, studies show that you will basically just be knocked out, be in a coma. Maybe not that severe, but you will be able to

have an improvement in your overall sleep quality and it has been shown to help you stay asleep. The way it does that is by helping increase your relaxation and reduce your anxiety. Works in a very similar manner that L -theanine does that we had mentioned before on when we were talking about caffeine. Works in a very similar manner. The next two I'm going to talk about,

actually have some pretty good research out there that support its benefits for sleep. However, they're still in the very early stages of the research on those certain things and more data needs to come out before they can definitively say that this does this 100 % certainty, even though in life,

And in most things, there's no such thing as 100%. But we can sure as hell try. Moving on into kiwifruit. Kiwifruit is one of those things that outside looking in might seem a little daunting because of all the fuzz on the outside and the juicy goodness on the inside. And that juicy goodness on the inside is actually not the most beneficial part of the kiwifruit.

Drew (08:42.958)
The outside portion of the kiwi fruit is actually where a lot of the fiber lies. Yes, that hairy thing on the outside is what gives the kiwi fruit its fiber and its benefits. However, lucky for you guys that are yakking over there in the corner,

The kiwi itself on the inside is where a lot of the benefits lie. So you don't have to worry about eating the skin or anything like that. But just know if you want to have that extra fiber, you gotta eat the skin too. In terms of the actual fruit part of the kiwi fruit, the inside part of it, the research out there is limited, but some of the data that they

are coming out with seems to be pretty promising. This article that I found, it is fairly good in its design and everything that it has going for it. However, it was done during the pandemic, so it was kind of limited. And also they relied on a few of the subjective questionnaires and sleep journals and diaries and things of that nature, which decreases the validity of the study. However, again,

preliminary research, it seems promising. That being said, some of the benefits included increase in total sleep time, increase in sleep efficiency percentage, and a statistically significant reduction in number of awakenings throughout the night, which has been one of our major topics that we've been talking about because of how it impacts overall sleep quality. Now,

One of the things that they also looked at in the study is the ability to recover from exercise or a bout of training or from a match or whatever, because they did the study on elite athletes for the national team. And I believe it was rowers and middle distance runners, something of that nature.

Drew (11:03.214)
Again, study was small and it had some limitations, but the research is promising. So what they did was they had each athlete take two kiwis, have them, chop them up, eat them however you want them. One hour before they went to bed. And this is how they were able to find these statistically significant results. So.

If you want to give it a shot, let me know what you think. And remember, if you're eating the kiwi, the best way to do it is with the skin on that way you get the full nutritional value. It might not seem like it when you're eating it and you're getting all the fuzzy hair on there, but it's the way to go. Now, moving on to tart cherry. And this is not a sponsored ad.

But it could be down the road if Ladder Sports wishes to, you know, be so gracious and send me a little something, little extra. I'm not gonna complain. I love you guys. Love LeBron, Lindsey Vonn, Arnold. I see you out there still grinding. And yeah, they put some tart cherry in their whey protein. And anecdotally speaking,

Sometimes I'll take it before I go to bed. If I've had a long day or if I'm just kind of struggling trying to fall asleep. And personally, I've found some benefits to it. And there's some research that backs it up as well. Not only is it beneficial for recovery overall, but it does have some research to back it up. Again, preliminary research.

couple pilot studies and a very, we'll call it green study that has some holes in it but it is still has some value. And what the research has shown is that it has some anti -inflammatory properties that will be beneficial post exercise or post workout or post whatever physically demanding thing that you just did along with

Drew (13:31.758)
it also having the potential for an increase in the ability to stay asleep when you're in the bed, which as we know can improve overall sleep quality and it didn't impact the cortisol levels or the melatonin levels, which is great because then that means, like we talked about before, you don't have to worry about, oh yeah, I take some tart cherry before I go to bed, oh no.

It's not going to be the same thing like melatonin, is it? No. Not going to be the same thing like taking melatonin because our body doesn't naturally make tart cherry. So we're not going to have to worry about, oh man, my melatonin levels are not getting that nice peak anymore. It's kind of getting that nice little mound now. So we got to take some melatonin that way we can get those peaks and valleys.

Same thing with cortisol on the other side. Don't have to worry about that with tart cherry. Again, preliminary research, still very green, still a new area to explore, and you can do some personal exploring out there as well by taking out, taking a look at lighter sports. Check it out, see if you like it. I love it.

See, I could do promo ads for you guys. We could be a dynamic duo. All you gotta do is just call. As they used to say back in the day, this could be us but you playin'. Ladder sports, I'm lookin' at you. Speaking of relationships, down at UC Berkeley, Sophia Chen and her team made this statement that says, restless nights make for more brutal fights.

And what that means is basically that when you're not getting an adequate amount of sleep, you're more likely to be fighting with your significant other. They found that lack of sleep also reduces your empathy that you have when somebody's talking to you about a certain situation. And you're typically more likely to take a firm stance or what some might call

Drew (15:55.694)
stubborn stance on what your partner is saying as opposed to actually listening to them and being more empathetic and hearing what they're saying. So when you are missing out on sleep, you're also missing out on parts of your relationship. So that pretty much does it. That wraps up the series on sleep, the lessons that we've learned from sleep, from the research and

from I guess a couple times a little anecdotal experience as well but for the most part I hope you guys enjoyed what I had to share there and if you have any recommendations on future episodes please let me know don't hesitate to DM me on Instagram email me or you can hit me up on Facebook if people are still using that I just want to leave you guys with one last thing before I let you guys go and that is

If you are someone that has anxiety and that comes up before you go to bed, or if you are stressed out before you go to bed and you're not able to fall asleep, try journaling one to two hours prior to going to sleep. The research shows that it has been able to decrease the amount of time that it takes you to fall asleep by 50%. Five, zero.

So,

Drew (17:29.198)
try it out. Let me know. See what you think. As well as Latter Sports. I see you out there looking for that sponsorship. Let me know. That's all I got for you guys today. I'll catch you on the next one.