00:00Hello, everyone. I'm Charlene Gamaldo. I am a professor of neurology at the Johns Hopkins
00:06School of Medicine. And actually, I'm the first black neurologist professor in the history of
00:14Johns Hopkins. So I'm so pleased to be a part of Essence, this workshop, and thrilled to get the
00:21question from Tiara LaShawn today. So as a sleep neurologist, we always get really interesting
00:27questions. And the one from Tiara LaShawn is no different. Tiara, you make a great point that
00:36how do we reconcile what's going on with the information we get online or in the media about
00:43electricity and laptops? And then we hear things about how certain brainwaves, certain wavelengths
00:52could be better for our sleep. So I'm going to distill it down to this. Essentially, we know
00:59that there are three things that are really important to be an excellent sleeper. It's making
01:05sure that you are in tune with your body in terms of how much quality of sleep you need, how much
01:11quantity of sleep you need, and the window period for which you should get that sleep. So it's always
01:18important, and Tiara LaShawn would certainly appreciate this as a free flower yoga and herbalism
01:27specialist, that we have to be attuned to our body. Most people need about seven and a half
01:32to eight and a half hours of sleep per night. But everybody is, we're all individuals, and we can
01:39free float somewhere in between that. Some people need more, some people need less. It's important for
01:46you to figure that out. And the best way to figure that out is to figure out what amount of sleep you
01:51can get where you can wake up without an alarm clock and feel rested and restored and ready to start
01:57your day. That involves the quantity. How about the quality? The quality means that you can get to sleep,
02:07you're not having problems with pain, restlessness, any problems with breathing that would make that
02:14difficult. The other aspects of what's important to your quality of sleep is also making sure that the
02:22environment around you is conducive for you to be able to sleep. So this is where the issues with
02:28electronics come in. Because electronics can affect the environment around you, and the environment
02:36is in terms of being conducive to going to sleep. We know that the electronics, they have light that
02:42comes, that's emitted out. And the electronics, whether it be your TV, whether it be your computer,
02:48whether it be your laptop, whether it be your iPhone, all of those things now have completely
02:53intruded upon our bedroom. What happens is much of that light is in what we call a spectrum of light
03:02in the color spectrum that's called blue light. That blue light will then go into the back of our eyes,
03:09and it impacts certain hormones, and certain chemicals that are really important for us to get
03:16to sleep. One of these chemicals is called melatonin. And some folks may have been familiar with seeing
03:23melatonin as a natural supplement that you can use to help you go to sleep. Well, guess what? Blue light
03:31and the light that comes from the computer is exactly what blocks your body's natural ability
03:37to release melatonin, to absorb melatonin. So for somebody who really cares about getting natural
03:45sleep, and once you use natural herbal medicines, and they take melatonin, that guess what? That
03:50melatonin is completely like drinking a glass of water. Your body does not respond to it because you've
03:56just put a computer right in front of your face. So that's the big reason why the electronics
04:02are not a good idea. It's because of the blue light that comes from the screen. And then finally,
04:08we talk about the timing or the window for which you go to sleep. So folks may be familiar with,
04:15we have all of us have our natural clocks, our natural rhythms. These are called our circadian rhythms.
04:21That's the third and essential component of being the best sleeper you can be,
04:25is you want to go to sleep in the window that your body naturally wants to sleep. That's called
04:31your natural biorhythm, your natural sleep rhythm. Some people it's 11 to seven, most people,
04:38but everybody can deviate plus or minus. That's why it's really important for you to understand your
04:44body and learn what's the natural window for you. So again, you want the right quantity,
04:50the right quality, and the right window. Those are the three components to be the best sleeper you can be.
Comments