“Poor sleep impacts your functioning on a day to day basis”
How awesome to kick off the Sleeptember® expert podcast series with Dr Siobhan Banks, who is a Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Sleep Research at the University of South Australia. I love the science of sleep and I love when a scientist like Siobhan can keep bringing practical ideas that are easy to implement.
Inspire yourself with these essential insights from Siobhan
We spoke about
Sleep deprivation as a physiological stressor
The range of implications on your wellbeing
Impact of sleep deprivation on your body and your life
The double whammy of poor sleep and low metabolism
The relationship between sleep loss and chronic diseases
How readily the effects can be reversed
Benefits of quality sleep at night
Importance of different parts of sleep to health and cognitive function
Why ‘let me sleep on it’ works
The value of a good amount of regular sleep
Understanding the Circadian Rhythm to get quality sleep
Tips on getting better quality sleep
Importance in investing in the space that you sleep in
The challenges of working against our biology
Takes time and discipline to change your sleep habits
Impact of insufficient light during the day on mood and sleep
Supporting your natural biology to get back on track
Benefits of a relaxing wind down routine
Making sleep a priority and planning for it
The study Siobhan is conducting on helping shift workers
Value Quotes
“When you lose sleep we know that your cognitive performance suffers”
“Different parts of sleep – dreaming, deep and overall amount of sleep you get are all important for improving your health and your cognitive function”
“We are only beginning to realise that a number of important things go on during sleep. The brain is washed clean in a way and new connections are made.”
“I think there’s a price to pay if you are staying up late every night or if you’re not getting a reasonable amount of sleep over 24 hours.”
“If people say they can manage with short amounts of sleep they are either a very lucky person who is genetically blessed by not needing to sleep much or they catch up in other ways”
“Sleep is best at night. Your body is biologically driven to sleep at night.”
“If you are tired enough you will sleep anywhere anytime but it’s making sure that the quality of sleep and that you are able to stay asleep is best.”
“There’s a lot of habits around sleep.”
“With teenagers it can be quite tricky because they often want to go to bed late as it is and if they get bright light in the evening it can push there whole sleep cycle much later.”
“Your biology will take over and put you back on a good schedule if you allow yourself to go to bed at a good time and you prioritise your sleep.”
“We should not expect that we will rush around all day, then fall into bed and instantly fall asleep.”
“Most important thing is to keep sleep a priority. Keep a regular sleep schedule.”
“Almost see sleep like diet. You might have a couple of bad days of poor diet but with being aware and mindful about it you can make sure you can get on track again.”
“We just presume we can do without it (sic sleep) because we can for a little while but after a while it does catch up”
“We know that anxiety is the real bane of getting a good sleep so trying to be mindful, live in the moment but get good sleep.”
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Until next time fabulous podcast listener, I’m Bev and I invite you to live the fab life with me now!
Episode Links
You can find Siobhan at:
Website: http://people.unisa.edu.au/siobhan.banks
LinkedIn: https://au.linkedin.com/in/siobhan-banks-64419419
The Sleep Health Foundation has free sleep education resources and a services directory for sleep specialists in Australia
http://www.sleephealthfoundation.org.au/public-information.html
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