WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

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- Hi, my name is Andre Zinchuk,
and today we're gonna talk

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about the importance of sleep
and what happens to our brain

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and our emotions when we
don't get enough of it.

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And then, in cases where
you can't get enough sleep

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for a short period of
time, I'm gonna give you

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some strategies that you can
use to help go through the day

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with as minimal disruption as possible.

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Every hour of sleep is
like money in the bank,

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and so lack of sleep contributes
to a lot of dysfunction.

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And because sleep is linked
to almost every function

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of our body, from in
the immune system to our

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neurocognitive system, it
really has broad implications,

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and so we feel this most
when it comes to our brain

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and how we interact with the world.

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A single night of sleep deprivation

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can impact our memory and our attention,

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and moreover, it can even
create false memories.

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And so one of the
easiest things to measure

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is the reaction time to specific stimulus,

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and so we know that people tend
to make A, longer decisions,

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and B, those decisions
tend to be more incorrect.

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But it's not just thinking that's affected

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by lack of sleep, it's also our emotions.

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As we all know, when we're sleep deprived,

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we tend to be more irritable
and tend to feel sleepy,

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and so those two symptoms,
over the long haul,

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can lead to things like
depression and anxiety.

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And on top of this, we,
when we are sleep deprived,

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have a hard time reading
other people's emotions,

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so we have a harder time recognizing

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whether someone is stressed or not,

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whether someone's excited or not.

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And so all those things
tend to impact our ability

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to interact with the world
in a healthy, meaningful way.

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Similar to analogy of money in the bank,

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every day of sleep deprivation
is like compounding interest

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on the loan that you
took, and so the effects

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of sleep deprivation build up.

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So for example, if you take
20, 30 year old individuals

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and deprive them of sleep for,
let's say, four to six hours

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a night and you do this for
14 days, what you'll notice

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is that with each single
day of sleep deprivation,

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their reaction times get
worse, their memory gets worse,

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their ability to do critical
thinking gets worse,

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and after about seven
days of sleep deprivation

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for four hours, it's kind of
equivalent to not having slept

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for two days in a row.

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Turns out that what we
perceive as irritability,

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lack of concentration, and
other symptoms tends to actually

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level out after a few
days of sleep deprivation.

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We sort of adapt to it.

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But if you actually do objective testing

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on performance and attention
and reaction speed,

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those decrements continue
to decline over time.

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For situations with short
period sleep deprivation,

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maybe one or two nights where
you can't get optimal sleep,

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there are a few strategies
that you can do.

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Number one is be be kind to yourself.

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Don't get frustrated that
you're not getting sleep.

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Number two is give yourself an opportunity

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to recover from sleep.

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Number three is take a cat nap.

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20 to 30 minutes can really go a long way

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to help you feel more
refreshed during the day.

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And other strategies that can
help you are being exposed

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to light during the day, using
caffeine at strategic times,

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especially before 2 or 3:00 PM,

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and then also exercise and some yoga,

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mindfulness practices
that can help us maintain

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alertness during the day.

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So what caffeine does
is it blocks activity

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of something called
adenosine, and adenosine

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is a body molecule that
controls sleep propensity.

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So meaning, do we wanna
sleep or do we not?

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And the way I think
about it is sort of like,

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if you have an hourglass of sand,

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and the sand in the
hourglass is adenosine.

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So when we wake up, the
hourglass is flipped upside down

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and this adenosine starts to
trickle down into our body

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and our brain to create
our need for sleep.

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And so by the end of the
night, all of that sand

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is at the bottom of the hourglass

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and we feel like we have to go to sleep.

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And so what caffeine does it
actually blocks the activity

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of this adenosine molecule,
and so it prevents us,

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for a short period of time,
from feeling as sleepy

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as we would be otherwise.

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And so that's how it works,
and if we use it strategically

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during the time that we feel
most sleepy during the day,

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it can help us stay awake.

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Now, just like anything
else in this world,

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there's nothing free,
and caffeine can have

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some side effects, and
probably the most common one

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is using too much of it at the wrong time.

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And so if we drink caffeine
after 3 or 4:00 PM,

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it can actually delay our
ability to fall asleep

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on the night of the recovery.

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And so for that reason, we
don't recommend use of caffeine

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after 2 or 3:00 PM, and
if you are gonna use it,

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use somewhere between 150 to
300 milligrams of caffeine.

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So that would be a regular coffee,

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or maybe a coffee and a
half in a 12 ounce cup.

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In addition, for some
people, caffeine is gonna be

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hard to handle, because
caffeine is a stimulant,

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and also it stimulates heart
rate and can promote anxiety,

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and so you really wanna
make sure you start

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with a lower dosage before
moving on to higher doses.

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So the bottom line is that
sleep is really important,

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and when we get less than
seven hours of sleep on average

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per night for an average human,
we tend to have consequences

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for how we think and how we
react to people around us.

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And so there are some strategies
for dealing with that,

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and if you have chronic sleep deprivation,

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I would strongly encourage
you to talk to your doctor

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or your sleep specialist
to help you deal with that.