#115 - Tricky Circadian Issues
If you didn’t know it was World Sleep Day on Friday (March 18th) - then I guess a whole bunch of us around the world didn’t do a good enough job letting you know.
Nevertheless, I saw some of our WINK Sleep Members doing radio talk shows, morning TV and lotsa promotion on social media - including what they learned at this week’s World Sleep 2022 conference in Rome.
In this week’s blog I wanted to highlight a couple of promotions I did that have a common denominator.
They both involve tricky ways to work with our circadian rhythms.
Jet Lag - Langham Hotels
At the end of World Sleep Day I did an IG Live with Amy Chan from Langham Hotels.
IG is code for Instagram btw kids …
Btw means by the way by the …. way …
I’m no historian, so from what I can tell, the first grand hotel in the UK was a Langham Hotel. But they’re not just in UK, they’re all around the world (langhamhotels.com).
So naturally Amy Chan and I chatted about something dear to a lot of people’s hearts.
Travelling.
I can imagine a lot of people have been saving their bikkies (aka, a lot of biscuits - not a large bearded man on a Harley). And that they wish to spend said bikkies on future travel.
But doesn’t it suck when you’ve got limited time overseas and you feel like sh#t?
So in this interview I spoke about:
what you can do to prepare for your journey,
what to do on the plane,
what to do when you arrive at your destination, and
how to drug your kids on the plane so other passengers don’t stare at you.
And the advice differs depending on whether you’re a Night Owl (late chronotype) or a Morning Lark (early type).
If you think you’re a Bear, Wolf or Dolphin - I guess you feel pretty good that you did a quiz, but you bought the wrong book …
And it also depends on whether you’re travelling East or West.
You can hear the interview hear … I mean here … (guess I didn’t get much sleep this week..).
On the Nightshift - The Paramedic Podcast
Another interview I did was with Marissa Rose on The Parademic Podcast.
Marissa is a paramedic in Queensland, so we spoke about a whole range of topics, including trauma, health ways to deal with sleep - and shiftwork.
I’m guessing a bunch of you reading this blog have done some form of night shift?
For me, I worked the ‘Graveyard Shift’ (midnight till dawn) at a petrol station in the 1990s (when music was good) - and if you study in a sleep lab there’s a fair chance you’ve worked every single hour of the night and day … every single day of the week.
But whilst performing night shift, I’ve never had to face the traumatic scenes that paramedics and other real heroes do (eg, firefighters).
And because a number of you enjoyed listening to last week’s blog with Matthew Walker - I figured you’d like to do more listening than reading - so here’s Episode 9 of the Paramedic Podcast.
CBD trialled in Australasia
I got connected to The Paramedic Podcast via my connection with a company I’ve been dancing with for the past year - Oz Medicann Group.
They have a pretty cool acronym (OMG) - the CEO John Leith cracks me up every time we talk - and COO Kerrie Field is the awesome steady rock moving the ship forward.
So I’m happy to finally announce that I am OMG’s Resident Sleep Expert.
This means I’ll not only be spreading the sleep science via OMG’s pharmaceutical and health-and-wellness arms, but I’ll also be involved in the first Trans-Tasman clinical trial of CBD for people suffering from insomnia (as a researcher … not a participant :(
The Therapeutic Goods of Australia (TGA) have expressed interest in CBD being available to Australians, even by going to see your local pharmacist.
Thus, if the evidence is convincing from this clinical trial, it will be great to see people in Australia being able to access pharmaceutical grade (as opposed to ‘backyard-grade’) CBD.
Conclusions?
Dealing with circadian rhythm issues is a completely different game to typical methods of improving sleep. It’s like comparing an ‘ingrown toenail’ to ‘creme brulee’, or a ‘rusty hammer and sickle’ to a ‘clear blue sky’. I could go on for ages, but …
It so happens that in last month’s Live Q&A we had for WINK Members, we spoke about Jetlag. The replay is available to Members anytime.
And this month’s Live Q&A for WINK Members will build upon these circadian issues by discussing shiftwork.
If you wanna connect with us, you’re free to do so at any stage. The JOIN tab of our website explains it all.
Hope to see you there?
Prof MG
Member’s Spotlight
Mollie McGlocklin
I stumbled upon someone in the USA who was interviewing not only sleep scientists, but also other people working in the sleep space. And she’s spreading the sleep science far and wide. So one day we connected and I got another opportunity to say the ‘real deal’ about technology use and sleep. At present, Mollie’s newsletter is the only other sleep newsletter that I have signed up for. And she also happens to be a WINK Sleep Member … and it was also her birthday this week (Happy Birthday Mollie!):
What are the services you offer - and how can people get in touch?
Sleep Is A Skill: Newsletters, Podcast, 90-Day Programs (cohort & 1:1) - www.sleepisaskill.com
What's the biggest thing you get from the WINK Membership?
I love the conferences that WINK hosts! Such a fantastic opportunity to learn from a high-caliber group!
Dr Els Van Der Helm
I usually ask people to use the ‘Doctor’ or ‘Professor’ title once - and then after that they can just call me ‘Mike’ or ‘MG’. And Els also seems like one of those people. Els studied under some of the greats in sleep. One genius you may not have heard of (Prof Eus Van Someren) - and another Professor you have heard of (Matthew Walker). Els runs the company Shleep in Holland - and this week she was at the World Sleep 2022 conference in Rome - learning all things sleep and passing it onto people. It’s really cool to have Els as part of the WINK Sleep community.
