Connect with Rob Bee:
- Website: https://theartofhealth.fit/
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Rob Bee is a father, grandfather, and former professional musician; Rob is a graduate of Yale in the Science of Wellbeing, has an Arts degree, and runs an Art Gallery. He keeps himself slim, trim, and happy without weird diets or difficult exercise regimes, but by doing a few simple scientifically proven things every day (and if you'd like to do the same, he'll show you how).

In this episode, Rob shares insights on the benefits of good regular sleep habits.

If you'd like to try Rob's Breakfast of Brilliance (it's inflammation-busting brain and body food!) - you can download the recipe here:
http://breakfastofbrilliance.com

Transcript:
Hi, Rob here. Welcome to another art of health podcast. Today. I'm going to talk about how essential sleep is to both your mental and your physical wellbeing. I'm going to quote from a couple of really interesting studies about this as well, but let me start by asking you a question. Who's heard the phrase, "you can sleep when you're dead" or "sleep's for the weak". Have you ever heard anyone say, "oh, I can manage quite easily on six hours sleep a night" maybe now and again, but consistently six hours.? It Just isn't enough. Let me tell you about these two studies. The first study was done by K Anders, Ericsson, and it's quite famous study of violin players. In fact, this study is what gave rise to Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000 hour rule. And of course the study found that it was the violinists who rehearsed for, for longer and better quality rehearsal that became absolutely brilliant. 

That's what set them above. They could have natural talent, but the people who rehearsed and practiced for hours and hours longer were much better violin players, but an overlooked part of that study was, (and equally important!) was the amount of sleep that the really brilliant violin players got - the best violin players averaged 8.6 hours of sleep in every 24 hour period. And also over the period of a week, the really good ones spent an average of 2.8 hours napping in the afternoons, apparently 20 minutes is the optimum time for an afternoon nap, but this helped them to concentrates as well. So by having enough sleep, the really brilliant violin players had a clearer mind. They had more focus, more energy. They were able to have better concentration, and this is what allowed them to rehearse better quality rehearsal for longer.

Another interesting study was done at Lüebeck university and this study was reported in NATURE journal - the scientific journal. Volunteers were recruited one afternoon, they were all shown a series of complex numeric numerical puzzles, which they were going to have to solve the next morning. And they were all told that there was an underlying hidden code that would actually solve them all. They were then split up. The volunteers were split into two groups. One group was allowed to have a very good night's sleep, good conditions, dark, quiet, all those things. The other half of the group were put in rather bad accommodation with which was too light and noisy and that sorts of thing. So they had the disturbed night's sleep. You can guess where this is going can't you, The ones who had a good night's sleep over half of them solved all of the puzzles.

They got the underlying code, the ones who had a poor night's sleep hardly any of them. I can't remember the exact amount something liket 5% of them managed to solve the puzzles. So sleep. What sleep does it enhances the integration and association and associated information in the mind. So it consolidates that  associated information, a good night's sleep actually increases cognitive function. It makes you more intelligent. That's what I'm trying to get at. So that was the two studies about the mental benefits of a good night's sleep of getting enough sleep. Stamford university carried out a study on basketball players. And in this study they, uh, got a group of basketball players and over a seven week period, they all had an extended sleep. So they were asked to stay in bed for 10 hours a night. Uh, they may not have slept for all of that, but they all got much more sleep than they normally would.

And of course the upshots of the study was that they all performed much better. They got more shots in and they had more stamina. So it increased their physical ability by having more sleep. So in conclusion, have you ever felt pressurised to just stay out for one more or, oh, it's been said, oh, come on. You can sleep when you're dead. Or (this is what happens to me) - A group of friends want to go out for a night out. And I know that the next morning I've got to get up and be bright and breazy, but I'm under pressure. So we're pressurised socially to not worry about sleep. But what I'm saying is you should prioritise your mental health and your wellbeing. It takes a lot of courage to stand up and prioritise that, getting enough sleep. So forget sleeping when you're dead, I say, sleep now, stay switched on and feel alive. Okay. Have a great week. See you soon. Bye.