#221 ‒ Understanding sleep and how to improve it

The Peter Attia Drive

Peter Attia, MD

Health & Fitness, Medicine, Fitness

4.7 • 7.3K Ratings

🗓️ 5 September 2022

⏱️ 97 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

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In this special episode of The Drive, we have pulled together a variety of clips from previous podcasts with sleep expert Dr. Matthew Walker to help listeners understand this topic more deeply, as well as to identify which previous episodes featuring Matt may be of interest. In this episode, Matt gives an overview of why we sleep, the stages of sleep, and sleep chronotypes, and he provides tips to those looking to improve their total sleep and sleep efficiency. Additionally, Matt discusses the pros and cons of napping, and gives his current thinking on the effects of blue light and caffeine on sleep. Finally, Matt explains the dangers of sleeping pills and reveals what he believes are the most useful alternatives for someone struggling with sleep, such as those with insomnia.

We discuss:

Evolutionary reasons to sleep [2:15];
Stages of sleep, sleep cycles, and brainwaves [10:00];
Understanding sleep chronotypes and how knowing yours could help you [25:45];
Defining sleep efficiency and how to improve it [36:15];
Correcting insomnia: a counterintuitive approach [38:45];
Pros and cons of napping, and insights from the sleep habits of hunter-gatherer tribes [41:30];
Sleep hygiene, wind-down routine, and tips for better sleep [50:15];
The optimal room temperature and body temperature for the best sleep [59:30];
Blue light: how Matt shifted his thinking [1:08:30];
Caffeine: how Matt has adjusted his hypothesis [1:14:45];
The dangers of sleeping pills, useful alternatives, and cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia [1:19:45];
More.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey everyone, welcome to the Drive Podcast.
0:13.0	I'm your host, Peter Atia.
0:14.8	This podcast, my website, and my weekly newsletter, all focus on the goal of translating
0:18.7	the science of longevity into something accessible for everyone.
0:22.4	Our goal is to provide the best content in health and wellness, full stop, and we've assembled
0:27.0	a great team of analysts to make this happen.
0:29.4	If you enjoy this podcast, we've created a membership program that brings you far more
0:33.2	in depth content if you want to take your knowledge of this space to the next level.
0:37.3	At the end of this episode, I'll explain what those benefits are, or if you want to learn
0:41.0	more now, head over to peteratiamd.com forward slash subscribe.
0:46.3	Now without further delay, here's today's episode.
0:51.0	Welcome to another episode of the Drive.
0:53.1	As we've released so many episodes over the past four years, we realized we've covered
0:57.3	a lot of topics in detail.
0:59.6	Sometimes it can be hard to kind of keep up and try to piece it together.
1:02.0	We also realized that there are listeners today who weren't exactly listeners a year ago
1:05.5	or three years ago or four years ago.
1:07.4	So we did a test of this idea back in May of 2022 where we did an episode that pulled
1:11.4	a variety of clips from previous podcasts, but all on one topic, which was exercise.
1:15.3	The feedback we received from that episode was overwhelmingly positive and people asked
1:19.2	for more.
1:20.2	So this week we're going to do it again.
	...

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