Hi there, it's Matt here and welcome back to the podcast. Today, we're exploring findings from

what may be one of the most comprehensive studies on sleep and health in recent years. And after

you hear this, you might think differently about your sleep schedule. But before we dive into what could be

eye-opening for many people, let me discuss a framework that's been guiding my own understanding

of sleep science and practice for some time now. For several years, I've been thinking about good sleep,

not as a single number, not simply

eight hours of sleep.

Instead, looking at the research, there appear to be four key components of good sleep, or four

macros of good sleep.

Just like there are three macronutrients in food, fat, protein, carbohydrate. There are four macros of good sleep.

You can remember it by the acronym QQRT, which stands for quantity, quality, regularity and timing.

Think of these as the four legs of a chair that supports your health.

Remove any single leg and the chair becomes unstable, potentially affecting your well-being.

Quantity ensures you're getting adequate sleep for your body's needs.

Seven to nine hours for most adults.

But it's about finding your personal requirements

and staying consistent. The crucial part, the quantity that matters isn't time in bed. It's

actual sleep time. Many people confuse lying in bed for eight hours with sleeping for eight hours.

That's like confusing sitting in a restaurant with actually eating a meal.

Quality represents how well-structured your sleep cycles are.

You need adequate deep, restorative slow-wave sleep and proper REM sleep,

with smooth transitions between stages, poor quality sleep with frequent interruptions prevents you from spending sufficient time in the deeper stages.

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