Young and Profiting with Hala Taha - YAPSnacks: Sleep Solves Everything with Hala and Jordan

Episode Date: February 12, 2020

#YAPSnacks is a new series of bite-size pods hosted by the YAP team aimed to provide you with key information and actionable insights. Tune in to hear Hala Taha and Jordan Paris discuss why sleep is so important for your health and productivity, and hear their top tips for getting a better nights rest. If you're interested in this topic, go back to episode #12, "Unlocking the Power of Sleep," featuring sleep psychologist, Dr. Daniel Gartenberg. If you liked this episode, please write us a review! Want to connect with other YAP listeners? Join the YAP Society on Slack: bit.ly/yapsociety Earn rewards for inviting your friends to YAP Society: bit.ly/sharethewealthyap Follow YAP on IG: www.instagram.com/youngandprofiting Reach out to Hala directly at [e-mail] Follow Hala on Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/htaha/ Follow Hala on Instagram: www.instagram.com/yapwithhala Check out our website to meet the team, view show notes and transcripts: www.youngandprofiting.com   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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$0 delivery fee and percentage off discount subjects to older minimums and participating stores. Taxes and other fee still apply. Hey everyone, you're listening to YAP snacks, a new short series of bite size, digestible, and actionable content hosted by the YAP team. Today I'm joined with fellow podcaster Jordan Parris, who is the host of Growth Mindset University and who has come on board as my YAPSNAX co-host.

This week on YAPSNAX, we are talking all things sleep. One of my most popular episodes was number 12, it's called Unlocking the Power of Sleep with Dr. Daniel Gartenberg. It feels like I just uploaded this yesterday, but it was actually about a year ago. And every time I log into the back end of my platform, I check out my analytics, and I see all these people who are listening to this show, and I think it's actually new listeners

who are just searching for sleep content on iTunes and Spotify, and then just landing on this episode. And it made me realize that this is a topic that we've got to talk about, and it seems like a lot of people are looking how to improve their sleep, and, you know, we might be facing a sleep crisis right now. I thought that we could talk about, you know, some of the benefits of sleep, what happens when we don't get enough sleep, and then maybe give everybody who's listening some actionable insights on how to improve

their sleep. I am serious about sleep. It is a non-negotiable plans. Our canceled are declined. Yeah, I don't accept when we met up in New York. And I was like, yeah, this is like one of those times where, you know, how the wheeling get to see each other, like, rarely had, you know, there's not many opportunities to do so, living a thousand miles away. But I said, I was like, tonight, I'm more than happy to work on that, even though I, you know, I would never do that otherwise. Yeah, just to give you guys some context, we did some LinkedIn videos, and it was the first time we ever met met and I work a full-time job, so I could only do it like after 6pm and we ended up recording our last video as like 11pm or something super late.

Yeah, and then I had to go back from get catch the train out of New York back to Pennsylvania because I was staying with my family that particular weekend, yeah. Oh my God. Well, we got it done and it was really popular at least. So that worked out. So how much sleep do you typically get every night? Yeah, absolutely. I get between seven and eight and a half hours. I would probably say the average is seven and a half hours. I start winding down at, I mean, you're supposed to start winding down really like after six o'clock, like I'm,

you know, five six o'clock, like I'm done work, I'm done, you're supposed to start winding down really like after six o'clock, like I'm, you know, five six o'clock like I'm done work. I'm done, you know, I exercise at seven. I'm not moving anymore, but then nine o'clock, you know, I'm really really really starting to power down and by 10, 10, 30, I am in bed. Everything's done, you know, teeth are brushed and I am ready to go to sleep. And Tuesday, Thursday, I get up at 6.35 AM every other day. I get up between 7 and 7.40 AM, usually like average is probably like 7.15. So yeah, between 7 and 9 and that works really well for me. And it's, you know, there's this, so many people,

they're like, I don't, no, I don't need sleep. I'll sleep when I'm dead, you know, the hustle culture entrepreneurs. And there is, you know, there's this really small subset of the population that does function well on five hours of sleep. And that small subset is about 0.0%. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah, nobody's exempt from sleep.

I agree. So it's based on your description. It sounds like you're a sleep role model and I am the exact opposite of that. I really need to work on my sleep It's something that I made as a resolution for 2020 to get more sleep and to be in bed by 11 p.m. every night But I've already broken that rule and for example like the day before yesterday I went to sleep at 1.30 a.m. and I had to wake up at 6 a.m. And I had to function at work. And I'm getting away with it right now,

but there's going to be a point when I'm not going to get away with it anymore. And so I really need to figure this out. And for me, it's a matter of needing to learn how to delegate more, go more, only do things that are high priority. And also just forcing myself to sleep, because I'm so passionate about my podcast that I just, I just love to work on it at night.

And I, I just have to force myself to stop sometimes. In my experience, you know, the five hours of sleep that you mentioned there, the, you know, even under seven for me, it's the quickest way to depression. I just, and I almost feel throughout the day, how I'll know that I'm like more susceptible to negative thoughts. It just pop up. My way of thinking is just so much more pessimistic

and negative when I'm on less sleep. I'm not like a great person to be around when I don't have my sleep. It's actually a funny story. When I was coming back from Israel, we had a weird, we left for the airport at 2 a.m., had a flight at 6 a.m., Israel time. And then, you know, the flight is, gosh,

I mean, we were going to Austria and that's about three and a half hours. And then back from Austria to New York to JFK is, I think it's about nine and a half hours. So I, and then with the time change too, you know, it's a, I think from Israel to New York, about a seven hour time difference. And I, so I calculated it, calculated it out. And I went 42 hours without sleeping. And I got back and my mother picked me up. I was, I was like, delirious.

I don't have, I barely have like have like memory of being in the back seat of the car there. And I was literally like laying down, you know, no seatbelt, and I slept the whole car right home. But in my sister and my mom were like telling me things I said and I was like, it's horrible. I felt like hell. Well, they say that 19 hours without sleep

has been shown to be impairment equal to 0.05% blood alcohol content. So it's still safe enough to drive, but you're basically as if you've had a couple drinks. And so 42 hours, you were like wasted. Yeah, it has real effects on your memory too. I don't have the research, but even over time. I mean, think about it, like during sleep,

one of the things that goes on is essentially memory consolidation. And if you're not sleeping, you're not consolidating your memories and you're just not like storing as many memories if you're not sleeping. Yeah, I know sleep definitely has so much impact on our mental states. It definitely makes us more sensitive to our own pain and it also makes us unable to relate to others. So we basically reduce our ability to have empathy and we make riskier and rash decisions. And so it's just really bad for our personality and our ability to be positive and to make good decisions.

And for our ability to get on here on a podcast and perform, I before, like the day before an interview, I got to get that sleep. Right. I got it like really good sleep too. I can't go to bed at 1 a.m. I can't get six hours of sleep. I got to remember as much information as possible. I got to have as much information as possible like I can be able to pull from off the top of my head.

I got to be able to remember that. I got to have time to consolidate while I'm sleeping on all the things I studied over that day in the previous week. So it's just of the utmost importance to me. It fits right into my top priority in this world, which is health and just high performance. Young and profitors, do you have a brilliant business idea

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Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease. Obesity for sure, yeah. And how about sleep and exercise? I find that if I don't get enough sleep, first of all, I'm not productive during the day. Second of all, I always end up skipping my gym class because I'm just too tired. And so I just feel like it's just like a vicious circle. You don't get enough sleep, you're not productive,

you don't get exercise, you get fat, you get disease. Yeah. Nothing good comes out of it. Yeah, and I'll be very, you know, I say, you know, I decline plans because of sleep, but actually tonight is one of those very, very rare exceptions where I'm gonna be out till about 11 p.m. tonight. And my 7 a.m. workout class the next morning at F 45, I still need to get, you know, my 7 to 8 hours of sleep. So I might not be there. I might have to,

and I have some other things going on the morning. I might have to do it at 12, 15 and do that class and say, if I do it, if I get any time to do it at all. So you can see how, like if I were to do this every single Wednesday, be out to 11 PM every single Wednesday, I'd be getting less workouts in,

and I'd be missing things. Yeah, totally. Let's talk about how to improve our quality of sleep. Are there any tricks that you do to get a better nights rest? Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Okay, glad you asked. Yeah. I have, looking at them right now, my reading glasses that are prescription, they are also blue light-blocking glasses. But then, I can't use my reading glasses to watch TV. I used to do that when I first got my glasses, and then I totally screwed up my eyes, and they had to go, I had to not use my glasses for a little bit so they could adjust back. But now I have just regular, probably $15, $20, actually like maybe $10, blue light blocking glasses. Just non-prescription that I got on Amazon. You just look at blue light blocking glasses. And so if I'm going to be watching

TV past like 6 p.m. I will be wearing those blue light blocking glasses. If I'm on my phone, pass that time. If I'm on my phone, pass that time. If I'm on my computer, pass that time, which I'd not always am, I've got one of my two blue light blocking glasses on. So because for every minute that you are exposed to blue light, for every minute that you're staring into your phone, that you're staring at the TV at night,

you're delaying the onset of melatonin two minutes. And that's from, I picked that up from Dr. Sean Stevenson. And he has this great podcast called The Model Health Show that I listen to a couple of times here. I don't listen to it all the time, but so it's really important that if you're going to be staring at screens at night, that you have those, you protecting yourself so that you don't delay that onset of melatonin, which of course is what gets you to sleep. I think it's also really important to also pay attention to the temperature of your room. So I think the suggested temperature is like 60 to 67 degrees Fahrenheit. Yeah.

And that's because your body temperature decreases to initiate sleep. So that's why you really need like a cool room to help your body signal to your brain that it's time to go to bed. Yeah. And you're just helping your body get to that lower temperature. So Sean Stevenson, and I don't know what's right. You say between 60 and 67, 60 sounds a little cold, but 69 is what. Sean Stevenson says, I think 67's great too.

I've heard that before. So right before I go to bed, I walk out and bring the thermostat down from 73 to 69 or 70. And then I wake, it is pretty cold in the morning. I'm not gonna lie, it's really cold in the morning when I get up to that. And then I just put it back at 73. I think something else to keep in mind is that sometimes I fall asleep with the lights on,

and I do this a lot because I'm the type of person who just works, works, works, works, and then I just pass out. And that's terrible for you. It is. Absolutely terrible because you need to get your body used to when it's time to sleep and dark signals it's time to sleep. I would definitely suggest to no matter what, try to turn off the lights at a consistent time every night and try not to fall asleep at the lights on. I have this friend, God bless her, who always complain about getting up in the middle of the night. And I'm trying to like diagnose this with her over like a period of a couple of weeks and

and she's like, and I find out she falls asleep, falls asleep with a TV on every night. And I'm like, duh, like what are you doing? You're you're literally stimulating cortisol, the awake hormone, the entire night. Like, what are you blue light? This alien-like blue light is emanating from this gigantic TV onto you, the entire night. Of course, you're gonna get up. And so what does she do? She tries not going to sleep with a TV on and ban.

It works like a charm. Like quick, easy fix. You know, my dad, you know, whenever we're, if we're on a vacation somewhere, or we're traveling, and the rare times we end up having a like share a room, whole like have the TV on. And I just, I get, he knows I get so mad. I'm like trying to go to sleep and the stupid TV is on.

I cannot sleep with the TV on. I actually stopped. I used to always go on trips with my friends and whatever and it's becoming harder and harder now because they all like to sleep with the TV on and I literally cannot fall. I can't fall asleep with the TV as long. I just can't do it.

Yeah, I think maybe for you and I too, it's more, we get a double dose. It's more than just the cortisol it's stimulating. It's also the fact that we just get worked up about it. Like, I get really worked up. My heart starts beating and like, oh. And there's some obvious other things that you should do like caffeine intake.

Trying to reduce that caffeine intake. I think one cup of coffee a day max, early in the morning when you first wake up, max. I got something to say about that. I'm so glad you bring it up because and everyone's body metabolizes caffeine differently. But the average, the half life for caffeine is six hours. So let's say, you know, you consume, and this is low,

you know, you consume 140 milligrams of caffeine at, let's say, you have a, you know, you have a noon coffee, right, you know, at noon. And so six hours later at 6 p.m., you still got 70 milligrams of caffeine buzzing around your system. And then six hours later at midnight, right? Midnight, yeah, yeah, it's midnight.

You then have 35 milligrams of caffeine still buzzing around when you should, you should well have been asleep for the past two hours. And yeah, you may, there's a difference between going to sleep and knocking out, passing out. You can very well go to sleep at 10 o'clock with 45 milligrams of caffeine buzzing around in your system. You can very well knock out and no big deal.

But you're not hitting all of your optimal sleep cycles. There's different parts. You're just really screwing up your sleep. And then you wake up the next morning and the people wake up the next morning and they wonder, why do I feel so restless? I just got, I just cut eight hours of sleep. I feel restless. Yeah, and it's not just coffee. It's also like, for example I had a year bimote for one of the first times the other day. I was wired. I was so wired. I didn't sleep until like three in the morning that night. And I was like, so screwed for the next day. You've got to be careful when me check out what things have caffeine. Even taramisu has espresso in it. And I always

can't sleep if I have taramis. Yeah. So even chocolate, you know, dark chocolate will have about about a quarter of the amount of caffeine is coffee does. So if I have any caffeine, it's at, you know, 9 a.m. and I'll have a little bit of dark chocolate. And it's just such a marginal amount that it's just perfect. But you know, as I was saying, you know, people wake up restless in the morning and they're like, I need all the more caffeine. You know, I'll double, I gotta have,

yeah, I gotta have three cups of coffee, I gotta have like 300 milligrams. And then, and so it's just this vicious, vicious cycle where you're always tired and wired. Yep. All right, well, I hope you guys enjoyed this episode about sleep. If you're interested to learn more head over to episode number 12 featuring Dr. Daniel Gartemberg where he talks a lot more about the things you can do to improve your sleep.

This is Hala and Jordan signing off. Peace. Are you looking for ways to be happier, healthier, more productive, and more creative? I'm Gretchen Ruben, the number one best-selling author of the Happiness Project. And every week, we share ideas and practical solutions on the Happier with Gretchen Ruben Podcast. My co-host and Happiness Guinea Pig is my sister Elizabeth Kraft. That's me, Elizabeth Kraft, a TV writer and producer in Hollywood. Join us as we explore fresh insights from cutting-edge science, ancient wisdom, pop culture,

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