Fix your sleep with the Royal Marine's sleep consultant Dr. Sophie Bostock

**Jonathan** (0:00)
Welcome to ZOE Science and Nutrition, where world leading scientists explain how their research can improve your health.
We're living through a global epidemic of fatigue. Like zombies, we trudge through our busy days, yearning for rest. But when bedtime finally comes, we either put it off to claw back more me time, or we struggle to nod off as we writhe sleepless in bed. Meanwhile, burning the candle at both ends has become a badge of honor. And for those who struggle to fall asleep, the internet is awash with pseudo science and unhelpful hacks. Almost all of us are sleep deprived. But how much damage is this doing to our health, our well-being and our performance? And how can we break free from the chains of poor sleep and insomnia? Well, help is out there. Dr. Sophie Bostock is a health psychologist and a sleep scientist with a PhD from University College London. Today, Sophie coaches teams and individuals to improve their sleep and boost well-being and performance. Her simple, actionable advice has helped countless organizations, including Google and the UK Royal Marines, to become more successful through the power of good sleep. So whether you struggle to fall asleep, often wake up groggy, or just want to feel sharper and more resilient, Sophie has the tools that you need. Sophie, thank you for joining me today.

**Dr. Sophie Bostock** (1:40)
Thank you so much for inviting me.

**Jonathan** (1:41)
It's a pleasure. Now, we like to kick off our show here at ZOE with a rapid-fire Q&A with questions from our listeners. Are you ready to give it a go?

**Dr. Sophie Bostock** (1:50)
I'm very nervous, but I'm ready.

**Jonathan** (1:52)
And you told me you often listen to shows, so you know the rules. Yes or no, unless you absolutely have to give us a sentence. Okay. Can eating cheese give you nightmares?

**Dr. Sophie Bostock** (2:05)
Unlikely.

**Jonathan** (2:06)
Is blue light from screens important for preventing good sleep?

**Dr. Sophie Bostock** (2:11)
Often overestimated.

**Jonathan** (2:13)
Can eating more fibre improve your sleep?

**Dr. Sophie Bostock** (2:16)
Yes.

**Jonathan** (2:17)
Is sleeping too long linked to poor health?

**Dr. Sophie Bostock** (2:21)
Yes.

**Jonathan** (2:22)
Does a lack of sleep make couples more likely to argue?

**Dr. Sophie Bostock** (2:25)
Yes.

**Jonathan** (2:26)
I like that as another explanation for my life, okay. And finally, what do most people get wrong about sleep?

**Dr. Sophie Bostock** (2:33)
I think most people underestimate the importance of our sleep beliefs and our mindset around sleep.

**Jonathan** (2:41)
So I was thinking this morning, I was really looking forward to this, because like most people, I feel I don't get enough sleep. I was actually on holiday last week, so I was like sleeping in to my natural rhythm later, and it was a huge shock to wake up early enough this morning to do this podcast, Sophie. And I know I'm not alone in this. I think lots of listeners are in exactly the same place.

**Dr. Sophie Bostock** (3:03)
Well, and you have the advantage of all of these wonderful conversations with scientists telling you how to sleep well. If you can't get it nailed, Jonathan, what hope is there for the rest of us?

**Jonathan** (3:13)
Poor willpower, I think.

**Dr. Sophie Bostock** (3:15)
Well, let's unpack that. I think we often blame willpower, but when we're sleep deprived, our self-control reduces. We sabotage our own sleep by being tired. You know, the moment that you have a poor night of sleep, the following night, it becomes harder to switch off Netflix or whatever the streaming service that you use. And so we can get into a negative pattern.

**Jonathan** (3:38)
Can we actually talk about what happens if we don't get enough sleep?

**Dr. Sophie Bostock** (3:43)
I think everyone's probably familiar with the superficial aspects of what happens. You know, we get a bit more irritable. Our emotional control centers, no doubt, become more sensitive, more dysregulated. You asked me earlier about, do sleep deprived couples argue more? And we know that they do. Not only are they more argumentative, but also they're more accusatory in their problem-solving approach. We tend to increase our perception of threat when we're sleep deprived. And I think this is an incredibly important theme that will probably sort of run through this conversation, because that sense of threat, that is not just psychological, that is very much physiological. So if your brain and your body are feeling on edge, then what happens? You amp up that sensitivity of the stress response, this physiological cascade which has evolved to help us to fight or flee or freeze in the face of danger. And for most of us, that means increasing adrenaline, increasing cortisol, increasing blood pressure, increasing the blood flow to the muscles, perhaps making us sweat a little bit more, mobilizing blood sugar, blood glucose, so that we're fired up for action. So that is an evolutionary response to being in an environment where we couldn't sleep well. So if you think about our hunter-gatherer ancestors, if they were camped out next to a den of saber-toothed tigers, there was an evolutionary advantage in being in this increased state of fight or flight. They were much less likely to get eaten. And over hundreds of thousands of years, our brains have learned to associate sleep loss with potential danger. And so we are more on edge. So that helps to explain those emotional responses, also the physiological responses that over time, our immune system becomes dysregulated, more like to be exhausted almost, because we're constantly ramping up our immune response ready to fight infection. We also see that we're at increased risk of hypertension, of inflammation, these diseases which help to increase risks of heart disease, of diabetes, disrupted blood sugar. I could go on.