1
00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:02,400
Happy Monday and welcome to your
mental Health mini. 

2
00:00:02,720 --> 00:00:06,800
This week's guests are Heather 
Turgeon and Julie Wright, and we

3
00:00:06,800 --> 00:00:09,960
are talking sleep. 
Looking at the research on sleep

4
00:00:09,960 --> 00:00:14,360
and sleep deprivation, the more 
it became clear that teenagers 

5
00:00:14,360 --> 00:00:16,360
are the ones that are suffering 
the most. 

6
00:00:16,560 --> 00:00:20,480
They suffer far worse sleep 
deprivation than any other 

7
00:00:20,480 --> 00:00:24,280
population on the planet and 
anyone ever in human history. 

8
00:00:24,360 --> 00:00:26,400
Teenagers. 
Have a natural shift in their 

9
00:00:26,400 --> 00:00:29,920
body clock, meaning their 
melatonin and other sleepiness 

10
00:00:30,040 --> 00:00:31,880
hormones released later in the 
evening. 

11
00:00:32,080 --> 00:00:34,960
But of course, because the body 
is not ready to go to sleep 

12
00:00:35,120 --> 00:00:38,200
until a little bit later, but it
needs to sleep a little bit 

13
00:00:38,200 --> 00:00:40,720
later. 
And then we have increased 

14
00:00:40,720 --> 00:00:44,400
homework, ballooning homework 
for some students, increased 

15
00:00:44,400 --> 00:00:47,760
activities. 
Some kids pile on activities 

16
00:00:47,760 --> 00:00:51,680
just to show up well on their 
college, you know, applications.

17
00:00:51,680 --> 00:00:53,720
So this is pushing bedtime later
and later. 

18
00:00:53,720 --> 00:00:57,120
All these activities, all this 
homework, this natural shift in 

19
00:00:57,120 --> 00:00:59,880
the biological cock. 
Then you add technology to that 

20
00:01:00,080 --> 00:01:03,880
6 Bedtime is getting later, and 
later and later and later and 

21
00:01:03,880 --> 00:01:05,319
then on the other side of the 
night. 

22
00:01:05,319 --> 00:01:09,680
Most high schools in our country
start too early, making it just 

23
00:01:09,680 --> 00:01:13,200
mathematically impossible to get
even close to the sort of 

24
00:01:13,200 --> 00:01:16,360
baseline amount of sleep that 
teenagers can get by with. 

25
00:01:16,360 --> 00:01:19,680
We would love to see teenagers 
sleep between 9:00 and 10:00 

26
00:01:19,680 --> 00:01:22,160
hours. 
We say 8 is adequate, and that's

27
00:01:22,160 --> 00:01:25,920
because under 8 hours a night, 
you start to see correlation 

28
00:01:25,920 --> 00:01:29,520
with a lot of negative effects. 
So the risk of depression goes 

29
00:01:29,520 --> 00:01:32,920
up, anxiety, the body goes into 
a stress response when you're 

30
00:01:32,960 --> 00:01:35,120
low on sleep. 
But the average high schooler 

31
00:01:35,120 --> 00:01:38,160
gets about 6 hours a night. 
So we're talking about two to 

32
00:01:38,160 --> 00:01:40,880
three hours chronically of sleep
deprivation throughout the 

33
00:01:40,880 --> 00:01:44,760
course of the week, piling up to
12 hours by the end of the week.

34
00:01:44,800 --> 00:01:48,240
And that level of sleep loss, I 
mean, there's so many things 

35
00:01:48,240 --> 00:01:51,480
that it does. 1 is that while 
you're awake, your brain 

36
00:01:51,480 --> 00:01:54,520
releases a lot of byproducts of 
activity. 

37
00:01:54,520 --> 00:01:57,600
So that's like waste or toxic 
buildup in your brain. 

38
00:01:57,600 --> 00:02:01,560
And then when you fall asleep, 
this kind of cleaning mechanism 

39
00:02:01,560 --> 00:02:06,240
gets turned on and it starts to 
wash that waste away throughout 

40
00:02:06,240 --> 00:02:09,199
the time that you're asleep. 
So when you don't sleep enough, 

41
00:02:09,280 --> 00:02:13,200
essentially you've got waste 
build up in your brain that is 

42
00:02:13,200 --> 00:02:15,440
not properly, you know, cleansed
out. 

43
00:02:15,680 --> 00:02:16,920
And that kind of makes sense, 
right? 

44
00:02:16,920 --> 00:02:19,960
When you think about how you 
feel when you are sleep 

45
00:02:19,960 --> 00:02:21,960
deprived, you feel almost still 
sick, right? 

46
00:02:22,080 --> 00:02:24,520
So imagine that in a chronic 
way. 

47
00:02:24,520 --> 00:02:27,840
Over the course of the week, 
kids who sleep 6 hours a night 

48
00:02:27,880 --> 00:02:31,560
are twice as likely to have 
symptoms of depression. 

49
00:02:32,280 --> 00:02:35,600
It really changes the lens that 
you see the world through. 

50
00:02:35,760 --> 00:02:38,760
So you're more likely to have a 
negative assumption about, you 

51
00:02:38,760 --> 00:02:41,200
know, somebody does something. 
You're more likely to interpret 

52
00:02:41,200 --> 00:02:43,880
it in a negative way, and you're
more likely to feel hopeless 

53
00:02:43,880 --> 00:02:47,800
about the future and just not 
feeling like the creative juice 

54
00:02:47,800 --> 00:02:50,320
of I can solve this problem. 
I can do this. 

55
00:02:50,600 --> 00:02:54,480
The ties to mental health are 
just there are so many. 

56
00:02:54,600 --> 00:02:58,880
Sleep also helps with processing
emotions through dreams. 

57
00:02:58,880 --> 00:03:03,320
When we dream, our brains 
consolidate date positive 

58
00:03:03,320 --> 00:03:07,680
memories and sort of dampen down
more negative memories. 

59
00:03:07,680 --> 00:03:10,880
And when teenagers have to wake 
up, you know, hours before their

60
00:03:10,880 --> 00:03:14,400
bodies want to wake up, the 
sleep a most miss out on is 

61
00:03:14,400 --> 00:03:17,080
dream sleep. 
So they're missing out on this 

62
00:03:17,080 --> 00:03:21,840
really important emotional 
processing, filtering things 

63
00:03:21,840 --> 00:03:25,480
out, organizing how memories are
formed and how memories are 

64
00:03:25,480 --> 00:03:29,080
stored, so we forget things more
easily. 

65
00:03:29,080 --> 00:03:32,360
And the most common sleep issue 
for teenagers definitely is 

66
00:03:32,360 --> 00:03:34,920
difficulty falling asleep. 
And that's partly because what 

67
00:03:34,920 --> 00:03:37,600
Julie said about the shifted 
biological clock. 

68
00:03:37,600 --> 00:03:41,240
So the main thing that we get 
teens to do is wake up at the 

69
00:03:41,240 --> 00:03:43,680
same time on the weekends. 
Don't sleep in more than one 

70
00:03:43,680 --> 00:03:46,640
hour. 
That's ideal if you are so sleep

71
00:03:46,640 --> 00:03:48,800
deprived that you have to sleep 
in two hours. 

72
00:03:48,840 --> 00:03:51,520
Do that for one day during the 
weekend, but not 2. 

73
00:03:51,640 --> 00:03:55,160
And then go outside, even 
through the clouds on a cloudy 

74
00:03:55,160 --> 00:04:00,240
day, the sun is 1000 times more 
powerful than your indoor 

75
00:04:00,240 --> 00:04:03,160
lights. 
Sunlight presses go on the 

76
00:04:03,160 --> 00:04:07,040
internal clock, so it's a timing
queue that tells your brain, OK,

77
00:04:07,040 --> 00:04:10,960
the day has started now get 
ready for the night to come. 

78
00:04:11,320 --> 00:04:15,160
So get 5 to 10 minutes of sun, 
even if it's cloudy. 

79
00:04:15,160 --> 00:04:19,800
It's really intense sun and I 
think those two pieces of advice

80
00:04:19,800 --> 00:04:23,240
for teenagers are sometimes and 
the and the cut off of caffeine.

81
00:04:23,480 --> 00:04:27,120
The half life of caffeine is way
longer than most people think. 

82
00:04:27,120 --> 00:04:30,040
So if you're really having 
trouble falling asleep, the 

83
00:04:30,080 --> 00:04:34,040
waking up within an hour of your
morning wake up time, 5 to 10 

84
00:04:34,040 --> 00:04:37,880
minutes of sun and 2:00 PM cut 
off for for caffeine is going to

85
00:04:38,320 --> 00:04:40,840
do a lot. 
I think if you just really trust

86
00:04:40,840 --> 00:04:45,320
your body and believe in your 
body and brain and know how 

87
00:04:45,320 --> 00:04:49,240
capable they are of helping you 
sleep well and knowing how much 

88
00:04:49,240 --> 00:04:53,080
sleep you need, that's a really 
great way to sort of think about

89
00:04:53,080 --> 00:04:55,160
it. 
Not like, oh, I have to do this,

90
00:04:55,200 --> 00:04:57,680
but my body wants to do it and 
it can. 

91
00:04:57,680 --> 00:05:01,600
And I just need to clear the way
a little bit so that my body can

92
00:05:01,600 --> 00:05:04,680
get the sleep it needs. 
And like, I think even just 

93
00:05:04,680 --> 00:05:07,960
after a few nights of good 
sleep, the difference is so 

94
00:05:07,960 --> 00:05:10,080
profound. 
You're more efficient and you 

95
00:05:10,080 --> 00:05:12,200
can study, you can remember 
better. 

96
00:05:12,280 --> 00:05:14,320
You know, all that 
procrastinating and taking 

97
00:05:14,320 --> 00:05:17,520
really long time to do things 
really improves when you sleep 

98
00:05:17,520 --> 00:05:21,280
well, you feel like your skin 
looks better, you relationships 

99
00:05:21,280 --> 00:05:24,200
improve because you're not as 
short tempered and you see 

100
00:05:24,200 --> 00:05:26,760
people in a more positive way 
and you want to be around 

101
00:05:26,760 --> 00:05:29,200
people. 
So all the things that teenagers

102
00:05:29,200 --> 00:05:32,000
are staying up late trying to 
achieve, they can actually 

103
00:05:32,000 --> 00:05:35,760
achieve better and more 
efficiently if they sleep well. 

104
00:05:35,760 --> 00:05:39,200
And just give yourself that gift
of feeling that way. 

105
00:05:39,320 --> 00:05:41,200
If you enjoyed this week's 
Mental Health Mini, you can 

106
00:05:41,200 --> 00:05:44,640
listen to the full episode. 
It is episode 104 featuring 

107
00:05:44,680 --> 00:05:46,920
authors Heather Turgeon and 
Julie Wright. 

108
00:05:47,000 --> 00:05:49,040
A link to the full episode is in
the show notes. 

109
00:05:49,120 --> 00:05:52,200
And as always, make sure to 
leave a review, subscribe, share

110
00:05:52,200 --> 00:05:54,800
with a friend or family member, 
and follow at ACHI Persistent 

111
00:05:54,800 --> 00:05:56,440
Podcast. 
Thanks for listening.