I’ve been a psychiatrist for a while.

It’s not often that I’m “wowed” by some new piece of information on a topic that has been the bread and butter of what I’ve been doing for almost 20yrs.

But reading this article about CBT-i had a fascinating sleep pearl that has nothing to do with the main topic which is how to use CBT-i to help get people off their sleep meds.

That magical little tidbit?

People who get 7hrs of sleep have lower all-cause morbidity and mortality.

Not 6hrs

Not 8hrs

7hrs.

Mind. Blown.

So does that mean I get an extra hour to play with every day?

An extra hour to not do more:

• tedious reworking of my screening call schedule
• cleaning cat food out of the sink drain near where they eat
• reminding my kids for the bajillionth time to check the mail/set the table/feed the aforementioned cats/put away their dirty lunch box dishes...

But that does mean an extra hour I can add to my wind-down time!

• reading something fun (like the new Carl Hiaasen book I haven’t had time to finish)
• working on my kawaii gingerbread family drawings (it’s never too early to make cute stuff for the holidays)
• actually watching the end of a Tampa Bay Lightning game (hockey, in case you’re wondering) because I always have to get to bed before the 3rd period is over!

So 7hrs! That’s interesting!!

I now have to shift my whole paradigm of my own sleep patterns.

Because who doesn’t want to set themselves up to live a longer, healthier life?

Yes, please. Sign me up!

And I have one more crazy sleep gem to share but I’m saving it until the end!

Ok, today’s video is casual discussion where go over the stuff in this really great article!

Find out more about CBTi and how it’s helpful when people are trying to wean off their sleep meds!

And here are some sleep tips besides the 7hr thing…

• Only use your bed for sleep (and sex)! If you’re awake + frustrated, get up, do something very boring and chill, and come back when you’re sleepy.
• Pick a fixed get-up time. It actually matters more than your bedtime (Wanh wonh. I know, sleeping in feels uh-maze-ing!!). Consistency builds your body’s natural sleep drive, which is a very good thing.
• Shrink your “in-bed” window. Lying in bed awake trains your brain to stay awake there. Time in bed should match your actual time asleep as closely as possible. Then you can stretch it out more later once you're sleeping longer!
• Stop trying to sleep. Effort = awake! Your job is to remove stuff that gets in the way of sleep (doom scrolling, after dinner PSL, late night Amazon must-haves, overthinking), not force yourself sleep.
• Normalize what feels like imperfection. Waking briefly multiple times during the night is a part of healthy sleep! It usually happens at the end of each sleep cycle every 90-120 minutes. Not a bad thing at all!

And I promised you that other magic which is… Sleep more, lose weight!

Not a lot more (sleep or weight), but in a different set of studies people who were getting less than 6.5hrs/night were eating up to 300 more calories per day!

For chronically sleep-deprived folks that can add up to a lot of cider donuts really quickly!

So maybe I’ll start with splitting the difference. I’ve been aiming for 8hrs but like the idea of shooting for 7. So let’s do 7.5 and see what happens! #Goals

Cheers to healthy brains,

Dr. B
Jessica Beachkofsky, MD, MSCP
Your friendly online psychiatrist!

PS Are you going to the 🌺 Aloha Summit next week? If so reply and let me know so we can meet up and chit chat! I’ll be the one super-excitedly talking about neurofeedback 🤓

PPS Here’s your CBTi video link

PPPS Here's the link to the article I based this video on!