Healthy Sleep Habits: The Key to a Productive and Fulfilling Life

0:00 Dr William T Choctaw: Good morning. I'm Dr. William T. Choctaw, and I am delighted to have you with us today. Each month, we strive to provide you, our listeners, with mental, physical, and spiritual strength by giving actionable advice, tips, guidance, and information to help you achieve your own personal, professional, and spiritual goals. We consider the health of the mind, body, and spirit paramount. It's a single unit that provides a cumulative strength greater than its individual parts to strengthen you, the whole person. Today, we're going to talk about napping.

0:42 That's right, we're going to talk about napping. One of those things that you've done quite a bit, but probably completely ignored what some of the benefits may have been. So, sit back and spend the next few minutes with us as we go over this very important topic. As always, we like to start with our beliefs. I believe that life is about being of service to others. We're put on this earth to help other people. Two, I believe knowledge is power. The reason why we put time and effort and energy into these podcasts is that we want to empower you to go out and make a better world.

1:25 I believe the leaders can change the world that indeed, the more empowered we are, each of us, the better world we can make. So sit back and enjoy. As always, we like to put out an outline, and the purpose of the outline is to let you know what we're gonna talk about. And as importantly, to let you know when we're just about done we're gonna talk about the science of sleeping something we do every night, but we may give very little thought to how it works and how it helps us, how it helps us. We're gonna talk about the sleep cycle and define that for you, and then we'll. Progress to the role of napping.

2:06 Specifically, we're going to talk about power napping. Yes, there is something called power napping. And we're going to talk about how we individually can use the ability to intentionally nap during different times of day or during different days of the week to help us be more effective and to thrive. As you know, and as we frequently said, these Masterclass, these podcasts are part of our Masterclass series. We believe that it is important, again, that you learn information, particularly healthcare types of information.

2:47 Because we believe that you are in charge of your body, and the more you understand about your mind, a body and spirit, the more effective you can be as a steward of your body, mind and spirit and be productive to help others. Now, these podcasts are based on my 76 years of life and over 50 years of medical practice. For over 50 years, I was a practicing general surgeon, general trauma surgeon, actually. And there are a lot of things that I thought I knew when I started practice but it's been amazing to me, the things that I've learned from my patients, from my patients about life, about health and about Growing stronger and being more effective.

3:34 So much of what I'm going to share with you is information that I have learned over my years of experience. In addition to that one of the sources for a lot of the data, particularly the data from today will be from the Mayo Clinic. And so I would encourage you to go to your browser and look up sleep disorders or sleeping or napping and all those things. And you can get much more detailed information, but what you will get from me will be my opinion about how all these things impact your life. And based on my experience, as you know, the body.

4:15 And the mind and the spirit are all connected. And indeed, if there's anything that I have learned in the last 50 odd years or so, is that if you want to treat patients health wise, you have to address those three different areas the mind, the body, and the spirit. And so much of what we discuss will involve those different areas. We're going to talk about the science of sleeping. Think about that. The science of sleeping. Yes, there is a science of sleeping and we're going to delve into that so that we can understand a little more about how sleeping works and how we can use different areas of sleeping to allow us to be more productive individually.

5:13 Now, as you know, sleep is an essential It's essential for our overall daily health. Ironically, certainly growing up, we used to think, well, you know, sleep is not that important. I can just get a few hours of sleep and be just as effective as if I had gotten my regular number of hours of sleep. But that's not really true. Even though many of us felt that way, I certainly felt that way as a surgical intern. And partly because, like many of you our job was not designed so that we could get seven or eight hours of sleep every single night. And that's why we're going to address this and tell you what alternative things you can do that would allow you to be just as effective, if not more so, in terms of what you have to do.

6:02 One of the things that we have learned in the science of sleeping over the years, we used to think, we physicians used to think, that when we all went to sleep that the brain sort of shut down. That as we were resting that the brain itself took a rest. And what a number of studies have shown is that the reality is, is that's not true. And that indeed the brain is the very opposite when we're asleep. That when we shut down, the brain many times becomes very, very active in multiple areas. And so what, what we learned is that the brain during sleep does two very important things in two in, in different areas.

6:43 One, it processes our day's events. Now, I don't particularly understand why it does that. And I think I would argue that most of us don't really understand that, but we know that that activity does occur, that for some reason, part of. The longevity and the activity and the process by which the, the body and mind and spirit have to operate is that there needs to be some processing of daily events. The second area that the brain does while we're asleep, and remember when we're asleep, we are not conscious. Right? We are not consciously doing things. The body just operates on automatic pilot and that's sort of what sleep is, and we'll get into that a bit later.

7:25 But the second area is restoration of energy. And this is one of the reasons why that if you get a good sleep you feel better when you get up. You feel energized. You feel you're ready to take on the day. Well, that is not accidental. And so your body was designed to do it that way. It was designed to do it that way. And as I said, the exciting part of that is during sleep, we're completely unconscious. We are not in control consciously about what's going on. But yet. Your body has been programmed to take care of things and to maintain a certain level of efficiency that we are, are not directly responsible for.

8:12 So, let's talk about the sleep cycle. The sleep cycle. There are a number of physicians who, devote their lives to studying sleep and sleep ramifications and, and sleep issues and how that relates to healthcare and how they can improve the quality of health that we all get by understanding sleep. Well, there are basically four different areas of sleep or different cycles of sleep, if you will. There's called N1, which is a very, very light sleep. This is the very beginning. This is when we Cuddle up, let's say at night. We turn out the lights and we, we turn on our side, or we turn on our stomach or maybe on our back.

8:58 And, and we get ready to sleep. The second is in two, which is also light sleep. And when I say light sleep, what I mean is that we can, we're easily awakened. We're easily awakened. The slightest noise, the slightest movement, etc, etc. We're easily awaking. And then we get to N3. Now N3 is a little deeper sleep than, than light sleep, but it's not the deepest sleep. So we get to N3. Now, when we get to N3, we may do some dreaming. Not a lot, maybe, but we do, we may do some dreaming. And then the most talked about and probably one of the areas of sleep that's been studied the most has been REM sleep.

9:43 R E M. Rapid Eye Movement Sleep. Okay. This is where, this is our deepest form of sleep. This is where we do our dreaming. And, and as the, the name implies, our eyes move rapidly. They've discovered this in the sleep labs and when they do different studies on individuals. But it is believed that if you get your REM sleep, that you're in good shape. To say it another way, if you go to sleep, but you're only in light sleep and you're constantly waking up and you don't dream at all then you probably will not wake up completely rested. So needless to say, a lot of time and effort has been spent on understanding exactly what's involved with REM sleep.

10:30 Rapid high movement sleep. Okay. Another thing about sleep or the sleep cycle is that sleep is regulated by an internal body clock that the body operates with a certain clock to make sure again that we're maximal, we have maximal efficiency and we're maximally effective and what we want to do. both mental, physically and spiritually. And this body clock, if you will, is called the circadian rhythm. Now you may have heard of that. I would encourage you again to put that in your browser and look it up in terms of what is circadian rhythm. But in effect, it is an internal body clock that allocates different parts of our body, mind and spirit to allow us to be Have a certain level of functionality doing different hours of the day.

11:25 And if you want to know what that feels like or what's really involved with that if you have a job or if you get a job, where instead of working 9 to 5, you have to work 5 to say 9 a. m. where you have to work the night shift. It takes a while to get accustomed to that. And if you doubt that, you talk to some people who work that night shift, particularly the ones who've just started. They will tell you how long it took them to adjust to work in the night shift as compared to the day shift. And the reason why that occurs is that the body, the body clock has to adapt. Has to adapt it's circadian rhythm to having you having us being more functional in the, in the nighttime as compared to in the daytime.

12:14 My point is that none of this is accidental. So, so, and, and another way to look at it, if you get on an airplane, I'm, I'm in California. If you get on an airplane and you fly straight, say, six hours to Washington, D. C., say you have a meeting or, or you have a presentation it takes a while for your body sometimes to adjust. Now, each of us is different and so people, some people adjust faster than others. I would argue that the older you are. Probably the more challenging it is to adjust, but my point is that an adjustment needs to be made. So there are some tips to better sleep and just to go over a couple of these.

12:54 Some have suggested reduced smartphone usage, which makes sense. If you're trying to get to sleep, you probably don't want to. Be checking the stock market at nine o'clock at night to see what happened, particularly if it's in the red and not in the green, because that may disrupt your ability to sleep well that night. It's important to create a nightly ritual, maybe go to sleep around about the same time. Some say you want you to avoid caffeine and what I've learned is that caffeine has different effects on different people. There are some people who say they cannot drink caffeine at night late at night because it keeps them awake. Others have said caffeine helps them to go to sleep. So it depends on which one of those categories.

13:37 you fall into. There are suggestions that we shouldn't drink, drink or eat very late, right before we go to sleep, that that may very well prevent us from sleeping. And that we should probably sleep at the same time every night, roughly. Other thing to keep in mind is that depending on your age your requirement On average, for hours of sleep vary with the those of us who are 18 years of age and older, IE adults we basically require an average of about 8 hours of sleep, 7 to 9 hours in general and as we go younger. we require more sleep. Teenagers require 8 to 10 hours of sleep.

14:17 So if you have a teenager who's sleeping longer than what you sleep, that's normal for him or her. And of course, when, when you go all the way down to the newborns and the infants, they sleep 12 to 17 hours of sleep. And you know, this, you know, as you've taken care of your children when they were babies. So, so it really does vary depending on your age. But the point I want to make, and this really drives home what our topic is, that when you fail to get that normal amount of sleep that you need, for whatever reason, learn how to take a nap. Let me say that again. When you fail to get that normal amount of sleep that you know, that you need, learn how to take a nap.

15:03 So what we're going to talk about is napping, N A P P I N G, or what I like to call power napping. Okay. And so what we're talking about is that how you can supplement your normal regular nighttime sleep hours. If for some reason out of your control something happens or you have to get up or you get a phone call that's disturbing or whatever. And so that you're not able to get your regular amount of sleep at night. If you are able to learn how to power nap or how to nap, that can supplement that sleep that you did not get and allow you to be more efficient and effective as the day goes on.

15:45 So I'm going to define, and I like to give definitions, napping is, is equal to a brief sleep. Okay, so what do we mean by a brief sleep? And the other thing about napping is that it's a backup system for poor sleep. Right? A backup system for poor sleep. And we'll, we'll define this a bit more as we go along. One of the things to keep in mind, and you know this the naps are not uncommon, are quite common in a number of other cultures outside of the United States of America. A lot of cultural traditions have what they call a coffee nap. Some countries have siestas.

16:26 And when I talk about this, I'm talking about In the middle part of the day, I'm not talking about at night. I'm talking about during the day. Some European, Middle Eastern, Asian cultures have napping that's built into their normal process, recognizing that many times that is effective in terms of helping us be more efficient. Mentally, physically and spiritually. And I can tell you certainly as a, as a physician, as a surgeon, trauma surgeon I, I did a lot of napping, I had to and, and, and all of us did. So my point is that since we probably do it anyway, inadvertently, why not understand how to use it, how to control it?

17:11 and how to make it work best for us. And that's really the essence of what I'm trying to get across today. And indeed physicians as in, in, in other areas survival naps. You know, patients don't just get sick or require surgery or emergency surgery between nine to five. It happens in the middle of the night or early morning. And so we have to adjust to doing that. And so you may very well be have a job where, where you have to work that night shift for whatever reason, either for an emergency or just as a routine for. The job that you have to do. The other thing that we know about napping and again, this is work from the, the Mayo Clinic and, and other distinguished areas, is that it does decrease stress.

18:00 And it is also believed that it does improve memory. Most hospitals, the most large hospitals major. Health care centers have sleep labs and sleep labs is where many times individuals who have difficult to sleep and or they may have some cardiac issue or some other issue. A number of patients are evaluated for their sleep activity and how that interreacts mentally, physically, or spiritually with their normal health. And so this is where also where a lot of this data comes from. So napping helps to decrease stress and improve memory. And again, when you don't get enough. Sleep, something wakes you up and you just, when you wake up in the morning, you just don't feel like you, you're relaxed and you're, and, and you, you, you don't feel rested then think about power napping and, and this is what we're going to, we're going to talk about in detail.

18:55 Well, and so I'm going to define power napping is napping with intentionality. Let me say that again, napping with intentionality. So that means is I wake up. I don't know, let's say six o'clock and I just feel tired, you know, and I normally wake up at six o'clock, but this time, let's say I just, I just don't feel fully rested. Then I need to figure out if I can implement some power napping during that day. And we'll go, we'll talk about that. So some tips on power napping. Number one, it is not right for everybody.

19:36 Okay, so one of the first things you need to determine is are you a person who can power nap? It may be that it's just not right for you, that it just doesn't work. You don't like it. It makes you uncomfortable, et cetera, et cetera. That's okay. What we know is that each of us is individually unique but if power napping is for you and you're able to do it, then. Very good. Second, Tim, is obviously you got to do it at the right time. Now, if you have a job where you have breaks, depending on how long those breaks are, that may be where you may, when you might want to consider it.

20:22 Sure. Power napping. But again, again, there are a lot of other things that have to come into play there. What type of job do you have? What do you do on your break time? Do you break alone or are you with a group, et cetera, et cetera. So the first, the first tip about power napping is, is it right for you? Figure that out. Second thing is you need to time it correctly. The third tip is you need to create a calm space. So if it's right for you, and if you can figure out the right time, you need to figure out the right environment. Is what I'm trying to say maybe if, if you work in a building and you can walk across the street and there's a park there, maybe, maybe that's the right, right place for you.

21:09 Maybe a number of hospitals particularly when I was Surveying for the Joint Commission as a position surveyor, I have restrooms or meditation rooms. I was surprised at that. I didn't know that was, that was a thing, but indeed more and more hospitals are getting smarter and smarter. About the importance of taking care of caregivers, nurses, doctors, lab technicians you know, on and on and on in terms of providing space. So, if you are fortunate enough to work for an organization that provides that space and that solves the problem, most of us probably are not, and you're probably going to have to get creative. And the fourth tip is that you should probably practice power napping before you actually do it.

21:54 Okay, because you don't want to be on a job where you have a break and you go to power now, but then you wake up two hours later. That, that, that would not be a good thing. So you want to practice it. So how do you do that? Well, obviously you practice it at home and maybe in the evening or maybe on weekends. And one of the suggestions is you take an alarm clock and, and you practice setting the alarm clock for the amount of time that, that you want to, you want to power now. Now, which gets into another part of the definition of power now. How long are we talking about? How long actually is a power nap?

22:34 Well, there are many studies about this, a number of studies about this, but it, it, it appears that a power nap should be within the range of 15 to 30 minutes. Now, obviously it can be a little above that or less. But, but you want it to be, you, you want it to be just in that timeframe or just in that timeframe that gives you a feeling of being re energized, but where you're not feeling groggy or sleepy, if you will. And the belief is that if you go too much beyond 30 minutes so that, and, and you wake up. that you may not feel completely rested.

23:14 And we've all had that feeling of grogginess, if you will. So I'm going to suggest that you keep your power nap in between 15 to 30 minutes, roughly. Probably, probably about 20 minutes would be in the sweet spot if you can do that. And that's why it's important for you to practice with alarm clock at home until you really get it down to a science so you can do it well. Another suggestion in terms of to be able to nap efficiently is it's believed that the most effective time to power nap or to nap During the day is probably between one and three o'clock. Many times it may be after lunch if if you have that flexibility, it's your job but you certainly don't want to do it too late.

23:58 You don't want to look at power napping between two or three hours before bedtime, because that, of course, that is going to be difficult for you to go to sleep for a full seven or eight hours. Use the alarm clock liberally. If you like to wear a face mask or something to make the area more convenient for you to sleep, by all means do that. Obviously you want a quiet place. And again, I would say a maximum of 30 minutes. A maximum of 30 minutes, but some say 15 to 30 minutes. And so that's probably a good time frame for power now. And then that's again, the whole issue of caffeine again, some can drink a cup of coffee and it relaxes them.

24:40 And then they can get in there 15 minutes of power napping or 20 minutes of power napping. Others, the coffee completely wires them and wakes them up. And it has the very opposite effect. So you need to see what type of person you are and whether that really sort of works for you. But it is important for us to get good sleep because it really does enhance our physical and cognitive performance. But again, we may have some work to do to figure out which category we fit into and how we can do that most effectively.

25:20 Let me also say that a full sleep cycle is 90 minutes. Now again, going back to when you're sleeping at night, those seven or eight hours, most of us sleep in 90 minute cycles at night. We sleep 90 minutes, let's say we go into REM sleep where we're dreaming, we wake up and then we go back to sleep for another 90 minute cycle. So it is normal for you to go to sleep and then wake up from a dream and then go back to sleep. That is normal. That is not abnormal at all. So that's the normal sleep cycle. But again, the nap probably should not exceed 30 minutes.

26:03 And more likely than not, it should probably average about 20 minutes. Some have said that tired minds don't plan well. Sleep first, plan later. This is a quote from Walter Reich. There are other relaxation techniques you can practice that can help you to relax that may not involve sleeping. Some meditate, and that's fine if you're comfortable with that and you like to do that. But basically mindfulness, mindfulness is just finding a place where you just think positively and you just sort of take a, a mental health break, I like to call it. So my, so meditation is, is a method of achieving mindfulness, if you will.

26:51 So, in summary, the science of sleep has taught us that indeed the brain is very active when we're sleeping because it has a lot of work to do to prepare us for our awakeness the following day. Next that, Good sleep obviously allows us to decrease stress and improve memory. The power nap can help to supplement situations where you are not able to get a good, good night's sleep. And usually the power nap should average about 20 minutes, but we like to say in a range of 15 to 30 minutes. If you go over the 30 minutes, then it's, it's like a regular sleep where you may. Feel groggy.

27:32 And so you probably don't want to do that in the middle of the day. The best time for the power napping is probably between 1 and 3 p. m. if you're able to. But please be careful and, and understand what your job is and the environment where you work so that you. You do not necessarily put yourself in any distress because of your power napping technique. Practice it at home first, after you've decided if you're a napping person or person who can do this, practice it at home and if it works for you this may very well be an excellent technique to allow you to get through sometimes what may be challenging days.

28:16 As always, I like to end with my basic principles. My first principle is God is in charge. I'm a physician of faith and it has indeed been my faith in God that has sustained me these 50 plus years of practice and 76 plus years of life. I don't have bad days, second principle. I've learned that bad days are good or bad when I say they are, so I stopped saying they were. Third don't sweat the small stuff. Most stuff is small. Fourth, forgiveness is therapy. And number five, everything is a relationship. And relationships are based on three things. Mutual respect, mutual trust, good communication.

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