Did you know that 70% of the population has trouble sleeping? The more researchers study sleep, the more they realize how important it is. So much so that 5 different studies on sleep have come out in the last 48 hours!
When you don’t sleep properly, things start to happen in the body. Dr. Martin looks at all 5 of the studies that highlight what happens when you’re not getting enough sleep. From buildup of plaque in the arteries, to cellular aging of DNA, to teens consuming more sugar, not regularly getting enough sleep can be quite harmful to our bodies.
Join Dr. Martin to hear more of the latest research on sleep in today’s episode!
TRANSCRIPT OF TODAY'S EPISODE
Announcer: You're listening to The Doctor Is In Podcast, brought to you by MartinClinic.com. During the episode, the doctors share a lot of information. As awesome as the info may be, it is not intended to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent any disease. It's strictly for informational purposes.
Dr. Martin: Well, good morning everyone, and once again, welcome to another live this morning. Hope you're having a great start to your day. Okay, let's get going. Let's get going. Okay. Now, 70% of the population have trouble sleeping. These are all sleep studies. Okay? So one study, large study, and then two studies. Hold on. Now, how many more? Three studies, four studies, five studies on sleep that came out in the last 48 hours. Okay, five studies on sleep. 70% of the population have trouble with sleep, and the more they study sleep, the more they realize that obviously it's important, but it's really important because when you do not sleep properly, things happen in the body. Okay? Things happen in the body.
This first study that I wanna bring to you, okay, it says, new study link between irregular sleep found calcified fatty plaque buildup in the arteries in three places. Okay? What was the common denominator? Sleep. A lack of it. And they said, okay, there's calcified fatty plaque buildup in arteries, coronary carotid. Okay, so coronary around the heart carotid. These are your carotid arteries, right? If you get calcified carotid arteries or plaque build up around the carotid arteries, what is that gonna do? You're much more susceptible to having a stroke. Three, peripheral arteries. They narrow folks, your peripheral arteries around your ankles, peripheral away from the heart, those arteries get narrow with a lack of sleep. This was a huge study, guys, and again, isn't it important to sleep? Okay, now, that was one study.
Here's another study, large study, 470,000 people studied of those who slept less than six hours a night, okay? So the first study was on a regular sleep, meaning, you know, you just not consistent. The second study was on those who slept less than six hours. Listen to this, 470,000 people in a study they observed, okay? And here's their findings. 48% increase in coronary artery disease. Now, that relates to the first study too, doesn't it? 48% increase in coronary artery disease. For those who slept less than six hours a night, 30% increase in dementia, 15% increase in stroke. So probably because of the calcification of the coronary arteries, 50% increase in cancer, 50%, 95% increase in these 470,000 people. When they slept less than six hours, there was a 95% increase in depression. And the last one, a 750% increase in obesity, sleep. Think it's important. Really important, isn't it?
Now, here's what they said happens, okay? The first study talked about the arteries, the calcification, the plaque in the arteries when you get a regular sleep. The second study talked about their cellular aging of the DNA. So what they did, they actually took blood tests. They would see cellular damage, especially in the nucleus, in the DNA. One bad night's sleep changed the blood sample. One... Good news, one good night's sleep helped, plus one good night's sleep, increased telomeres. You know what telomeres are? You guys know this. If we've been, well, we haven't talked about telomeres in a while. You know what guys? I just wrote an article that was put into a book by a friend of mine who asked me to write an article about creation. And I wrote an article about telomeres. Uh, you know, listen, when I was in school, we didn't even know telomeres even existed. Telomeres, okay? They're able to actually look at these things. It's amazing. You know, the more powerful the microscopes become, the more it just blows you away of what you see, okay? And what these telomeres are, they're little like wick, you know, like, uh, get out a candle and look at the wick of the candle. Okay? We got that image in our minds? We have those in our bodies. We have little wicks <laugh>. They call 'em telomeres.
It's amazing. And they can tell pretty well how long you're gonna live by the length of your telomeres in your DNA. What? Yeah, I, I actually wrote an article for the book. He placed it in the book on creation. I said, well, man, if you don't believe in God, I, I don't know. I mean, that's like, I just, I'm amazed, okay? Fearfully and wonderfully made, that's a human being. Incredible. Anyway, here's what they found. Okay? In the article, one good night's sleep, they're talking about these 470, whatever it is, thousand people. They followed one good night's sleep, helped lengthen the telomeres. They were looking at this stuff every day. Can you imagine being in a study? They're every day they're taking your blood <laugh>, you know, like, and they're looking at it. Tremendous study. Okay?
Now, cellular aging of the DNA when you don't sleep, and if you get one good night recuperative sleep in a week, it really does help. It doesn't undo all the damage, but it does help in the length of your telomere. Okay? I love reading this stuff. <laugh>. Am I weird? Uh, probably a little bit. Okay? Now, here's something else they observed in this study. Okay? Now you guys are gonna have to say, Dr. Martin has been telling us that for a long time. Okay? You know what they found out, that if you take a sleeping pill to sleep, it doesn't do you any good. You're not getting a recuperative sleep, you're being sedated. There's a new drug out or a classification of drugs. They're called DORAs <laugh>. You know, I thought Dora was a, a cartoon character, okay? I remember my little granddaughters watching Dora. Am I wrong about that? I don't know. Seems to me they like Dora. They had Dora doll, okay? But these little pills, they're called DORAs, sleeping pill, the new classification of sleeping pills, okay?
And, you know, you got Ambien and you got all these, but this is a classification of the new ones called DORA. You know, medicine and their big words... dual orexin receptor antagonist drugs. That gives me a headache, just saying it. But anyway, we call 'em DORAs <laugh>. And people who took DORAs in this study, they put people on, some of them, they got sedated, and they didn't go through the five stages of sleep. They didn't get a REM sleep, they didn't get recuperative sleep. You know what they were saying at the end of the study is, guess what? They really don't work. They, they sedate you. They knock you out. But, uh, they don't give you what your body needs.
Now, guys, you and I know this because we've talked about the self-cleaning oven before, right? Your brain's got a self-cleaning oven and it only works when you're sleeping. You can take a sleeping pill, but your self cleaning oven, remember the brain makes a lot, it needs a lot of energy. And whenever you have a manufacturing plant that makes a lot of energy, you're gonna get a lot of waste in the brain. That's what happens. There's a lot of waste material. But when you're sleeping, your body, your brain has its own self-cleaning oven. Called your glymphatic system, not lymphatics. That's the rest of your body. You know your lymphatics, okay? You've got glymphatics, they drain the garbage out of your brain. Very important. That's why sleep is so important. That's why sleep is so important. It's one of the big reasons. Okay? Now listen to what they said. 95% increase in depression. 750% increase in obesity in these people, 50% increase in cancer. What happens is you're getting a lot of oxidative damage when you don't sleep. Okay?
Now there's more. There's more. So those are two studies. Let me give you another one, okay? In the last 48 hours, guys, on sleep. Teens, listen to this. Teens who slept less than eight hours per night ate an extra 12 grams of sugar daily. Sleep, cravings. And this amounted to close to 4.5 pounds of weight each year. Kids that don't sleep properly get less than eight hours of sleep. Teens who slept less than eight hours per night, eat an extra 12 grams of sugar a day on average. Sleep and cravings. Okay? Interesting study, isn't it? Here's another one, and we gotta connect this one. Decreased sleep, okay? This is a separate study. Decreased sleep, increase in the markers of inflammation. You know what they did? They took people in this study, this fourth study that we're talking about, they took people and they measured their CRP, C-reactive protein. Okay? Why do I love C-reactive protein? Because it measures inflammation.
Now, if you have an infection, let's say you're fighting in a cold, your CRP is gonna go up. Why? Cuz you have inflammation. It's part of your body's ambulance system. Let's say you fall and scraped your knee, okay? Your inflammation markers are gonna go up, that's normal. Your body's ambulance system. But what we're talking about here is inflammation markers that are destructive because it's silent inflammation. It's not a virus, it's not a trauma, it's not injury, it's inflammation when you don't sleep. You don't even think of inflammation. But you see, when they talk about heart disease, remember the first study, you got more plaque built up in your coronary arteries and your carotid arteries and your peripheral arteries get narrower. What happens? Why does that happen? Lack of sleep, inflammation. The body responds to it in an ambulance way. Problem is, if that doesn't go away, that same inflammation, that same inflammation can start to damage blood vessels. Understand that? Even in the brain, you don't sleep properly. Your brain creates an inflammatory. You know how many blood vessels you got in your brain? It's an electrical grid, but you got lots of blood supply up there and that gets damaged. Small vessel, you know, they talk about small vessel dementia, that sleep is important. Okay?
So that's the fourth study markers of inflammation. They check your CRP and people that don't sleep properly, they have elevated inflammation markers, very dangerous. Over a period of time. Tony Jr. and I, we, we talk about this all the time when we're together, we're boring. <laugh> We, we pick each other's brains. No, but he came out with this statement I don't know... 15 years ago. Inflammation is not Houdini. It doesn't just appear there's something that's happening. Okay? Yeah, we get it. Okay? A lack of sleep elevates your markers of inflammation. It, they didn't even tell you why, but I know why. You know what? Cortisol, you don't sleep your cortisol. What is cortisol? The fight or flight, right? That's cortisol. You don't sleep. Your cortisol goes up, your cortisol goes up, you don't sleep, your insulin goes up. Insulin resistance at the cellular level, when you don't sleep, that creates inflammation. Your cortisol goes up. That creates inflammation. Okay?
Now, I gotta give you the fifth study, the fifth study on sleep. Vitderma. Now, they didn't call it vitderma, I'm calling it vitderma. Vitderma and sleep, especially sleep quality. Much improved. Well, you and I know that. Vitderma, the sun. The sun, and guys, even if you're living in the North Pole, Sudbury, Timmins, Kapuskasing <laugh>, okay? Even there when it's, uh, 30 below, okay? You can still get the benefits of the sun. Now, you're not going to get vitamin D from the sun, okay? Not in the winter, not unless you can sunbathe <laugh>. You know, you, you're not gonna get the benefits of the vitamin D, but just the sun coming in to your eyeballs on the lens of your eyes goes to the third brain. We call the pineal gland. And that gets your body to produce melatonin. Okay? A lot of people think melatonin. Oh, that, I get that in the health food store. Yeah, you can, but your body makes melatonin, okay? Your body makes it. And I like your body making it a lot more than melatonin on the shelf. Your body's a lot smarter than that supplement, though. A lot of people like melatonin.
To me, I gonna tell you my experience with melatonin over the years and years and years, I love melatonin, but not in a supplement. I just found, and I had given hundreds, if not thousands of patients, melatonin at one time. I geared locked in back in the nineties or whatever, but I found it had a shelf, like, meaning that it might have worked a bit, but then it didn't work anymore. Okay? But some people like it. If it works for you, good for you. But I'd rather you get melatonin from the sun, even if it's forty below when it's sunny out. And this is the one of the reasons, don't put on your sunglasses. Sunglasses are very stylish, but I make myself not wear sunglasses for about at least 20, 30 minutes, even on a bright day because I want melatonin to be produced in my body. Okay?
Now the other thing, melatonin, okay? When the sun's out and you don't look right into the sun, don't be silly, but you're getting the sunlight comes in through your eyes to your penial gland and your body produces melatonin. And guess when else it happens? Pitch black at night. Parents get them used to sleep. Not with the boogeyman, but pitch black. Why is that? Because when there's no light at night, isn't it amazing how smart your body is during the day? You make melatonin when you're in a pitch black room at night, pitch black, wear a night mask if you have to. Cover your eyes, what happens? You're making melatonin. It's a sleep aid, okay? It's a sleep aid. So these things are really important, and they studied them. The research is unreal now, what they're looking at in sleep, okay?
And I use the expression sleep is like low hanging fruit, meaning that if you wanna get healthy, one of the things that's, you know, at the bottom of the, uh, picking fruit is sleep. Do everything you can to get your sleep, to get regular sleep. Go past six hours. I mean, the research on it, you know, I'm, I'm right in between seven, eight hours of sleep, okay? Now you're into where your glymphatics are working. You know, if it's dark, your melatonin's coming in, your body's recuperating. You ever put your phone in airplane mode? Yeah, no data's coming in. Okay? I didn't know anything about it. <laugh> I think I told you the story of, you know, I'm on the plane and this is a, you know, several years ago, you know, five, six years ago it was texting with the office and, uh, the stewardess says, sir, you gotta put your phone away. Or she said, put it in airplane mode. I took my phone and I gave it to her. I said, what's that. <laugh> And, you know, I was in airplane mode. She said, now you're getting no data. Okay, I didn't know that.
Well, that's what happens when you're sleeping. Your body goes into airplane mode and your, your body's recuperating, your body's healing. Your body is self-cleaning your brain, especially self-cleaning oven. Okay? And isn't it amazing? Oh, I have so much fun with you guys, okay? Okay, okay, okay. Those are five studies on sleep. They're pretty incredible. I think you would agree. Okay. The importance of sleep. Big problem in our society today. You know, we live in a different world and there's so much coming at us, there's so much information, there's so much more stress. You know, there's wonderful things in the world, no doubt about that. But one of the problems in this fast-paced social media, TV and, uh, you know, all of that, just, it's really made a change in our sleep patterns, and not for the best, not for the best. So here's one of the takeaway things. Protect your sleep, protect it. It's important. Okay?
Okay. I'm breathing. I'm breathing. I'm glad I don't have one of those watches that tell me to breathe. I can't handle that. I'm breathing honest, <laugh>. Okay, guys, what's Friday? Question and answer Friday, tomorrow we'll do an afternoon session. Okay. That's what I'm planning. Did I tell you guys lately that I love you? Come on. I haven't? Okay. I do. Thank you for being the best audience in the world. I, I, I boast about you guys. You know, I tell people I said no. I, I've talked to other podcasters that you don't have the audience that I got. And I mean it very smart. The best that's you. And you've made this program such a success, and I thank you for that. Okay? Thank you for supporting The Doctor Is In Facebook and podcast. Remember, tell your friends about the podcast, The Doctor Is In podcast available on all smart devices. Now, don't ask me how to do it. Talk to you soon.
Announcer: You've reached the end of another Doctor Is In Podcast, with your hosts, Doctor Martin Junior and Senior. Be sure to catch our next episode and thanks for listening!