Moment 185- The One Thing You Should Never Do Before Bed: Dr Cheri Mah

0:00Q1 is often when businesses start implementing new systems and processes in hopes of creating efficiencies for the year ahead. And over the course of my career, I've learnt just how crucial having the right systems in places, one which has helped me across many of my investments is NetSuite. They're also a sponsor of this podcast. NetSuite is the number one cloud financial system through their streamlined platform. You'll find all of your accounting financial management inventory and HR in one place. Their technology has been a real game changer, especially for my team at Flight Studio. As over the last year, we've moved out of startup mode and into scale at mode.

0:35We no longer have to juggle multiple systems and having everything together has reduced the number of manual tasks and errors. Over 41 ,000 businesses have chosen to future proof their business with NetSuite. So if you'd like to learn how it can help your business, head to netsuite .com slash Bartlett and free download the CFO's guide to AI and machine learning. That's netsuite .com slash Bartlett.

0:59I'm someone that tells myself that I sleep with something playing. I grew up with a radio in my room. So as an adult, now I'm always looking to play something as I fall asleep. Is that going to hurt my sleep quality? I would say if you're accustomed to this, I would say that's fine to continue to do so. I am not a fan of having the TV on and having the bright light exposed to you in that hour before bedtime because it also can just be very psychologically stimulating. But if you said it's a radio or it's a podcast that you feel is helping you relax, then I'm a fan of it. Do you think Daria Vasea will help people relax?

1:33It might. It might help you at least think about your sleep a bit more and challenge you to do maybe one change tonight. We consider that to be a scientific endorsement of the podcast. Okay, so I've got sound down. You are a fan of the white noise machines. I am because sometimes there's external noises like a garbage truck or construction that you're not always able to control. So if you can at least mask over it temporarily, that can sometimes be helpful to keep individuals more asleep during the night time. And there's even some now that are adaptive. So if the door slams, then the volume temporarily increases and then will decrease.

2:11So there's almost these smart white noise machines that are coming out on the market. So that's from a noise standpoint and ear plugs are going to be helpful if you're traveling. When you're at home, you can obviously use those to dampen down any external noise. From a from a temperature standpoint, you want it to be cool. I think this is an area that a lot of people can benefit from because they often sleep in much warmer temperatures than what we know is probably more conducive to sleep, which is cooler. 60 to 67 degrees has been shown to help individuals stay asleep and fall asleep. That may be frigidly cold for some, but you have to find the temperature that's right for you.

2:47I would say decrease your temperature by say one degree or two degrees every couple of days and then you can find the temperature that works well for you. And there's even technology now where there's mattress covers that can help you regulate temperature from much cooler to warmer. So if there's differences in bed partners, that's a way that you can actually accommodate both of their preferences. So that's about 16 to 20 degrees Celsius. What about when I shower or a bath? Because often I go and have a shower then I get straight into bed after. Yes. Is that good or bad? I would encourage you to shift that timing a little bit earlier into the night.

3:26So an hour and a half before you are planning to go to bed, I would shift your shower. Because when you are taking a hot bath or hot shower, it increases your core temperature. But when you fall asleep, your core temperature drops. So you don't want that competing signal to be right before bedtime. But if you back that shower up an hour and a half, that should be sufficient time that we think potentially there's an augmentation of helping that drop in temperature. And some smaller studies have shown that that can help decrease the time to fall asleep and also enhance deep sleep, which has implications for muscle recovery, regeneration.

4:06And you get more of that in the earlier part of your night. So it's an easy fix, just a tweak the timing of your shower and your hot bath to be just an hour to before bedtime, not right before bed. So it's a strategy too if you have difficulties winding down and relaxing to implement that hot shower, hot bath earlier in the evening. One of the problems I also have when I sleep sometimes is I hear people say you've got to, you can't eat like three or four hours before bed. However, I sometimes get home at 10pm and I get hungry as hell at 10pm. And then sometimes if I order food, for example, it might come at like 11.

4:45Which means I end up eating at 11. And then I really sit in my sleep schools. I think as well that I'm someone that tends to fall asleep later. Again, this might just be me telling BS to myself, but that's what tends to happen. And I know I'm not supposed to eat before bed, but I'm so hungry. So is there anything that I can eat before bed that won't disrupt my sleep, but will get rid of the hunger? Yes, the preference is not to have a huge meal right before bed. That's fried, fatty, you know, really heavy sitting in your stomach that hour right before bed time. So if you're able to time them, be strategic, then that's obviously the preference.

5:21But I'm okay with you having a pre -sleep snack. A lot of times for my athletes, that means we'll go for something like 50 % of a complex carb and like 50 % of lean protein. So for example, cereal and milk is an easy one. Serial? Yes. Serial and milk. Of course we want something that's whole grain and not necessarily a sugary cereal. But cereal and milk is an easy one that many people have access to or cottage cheese and fruit. Or 100 % holy crackers and peanut butter. And the reason why is because I don't want you waking up in the middle of night being hungry, or even trying to fall asleep and you feel like you're hungry.

5:59But we want something that's slow digesting through the night, because ideally you're going to be sleeping seven, eight, nine hours during the night. And we want it to be able to get you to the morning time and then you will fuel when you wake up. So a pre -sleep snack can be a great strategy if you're coming home late and you want to obviously be able to fuel before bed or if you have a really early dinner and you're hungry before bed time. Yeah, that happens sometimes as well. Sometimes I'll eat dinner at about 5 pm. Yeah. And then I get to about 10, 11 pm. I'm still awake and I'm starving. Okay, so what's a pre -sleep snack that you think you can grab for?

6:32Some nuts. Okay. Yeah. Does that work? Yeah, yeah. Nuts have protein in them. Yeah, you can grab a good nut mix. Maybe you can partner that also with like some yogurt too. Roseberries? Raspberry's? Yeah, fruit. Yeah, and some, yeah, a protein and carbon there. And those are good, good, good, pre -sleep snack.

6:57Q1 is often when businesses start implementing new systems and processes in hopes of creating efficiencies for the year ahead. And over the course of my career, I've learnt just how crucial having the right systems in places, one which has helped me across many of my investments is net suite. They're also a sponsor of this podcast. Net suite is the number one cloud financial system through their streamlined platform. You'll find all of your accounting financial management inventory and HR in one place. Their technology has been a real game changer, especially for my team at Flight Studio. As over the last year, we've moved out of startup mode and into scale at mode.

7:32We no longer have to juggle multiple systems and having everything together has reduced the number of manual tasks and errors. Over 41 ,000 businesses have chosen to future -proof their business with Net suite. So if you'd like to learn how it can help your business, head to netsweep .com slash Bartlett and free download the CFO's guide to AI and machine learning. That's netsweep .com slash Bartlett.