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Summary
On episode 108 of 40+ Fitness, Coach Allan sits down with Shawn Stevenson, creator of The Model Health Show, which has been featured as the number one fitness and nutrition podcast on iTunes, and founder of the Advanced Integrative Health Alliance.
Shawn was diagnosed in his early 20s with degenerative disc and bone disease, told by a doctor he had “the spine of an 80-year-old.” He credits regenerating his health, and eventually his career, to finally deciding to fix his sleep rather than just wishing it would get better.
The conversation covers why sleep medications carry real risks, how shortened sleep damages your telomeres and speeds aging, and practical tools, meditation and deep breathing among them, for quieting the “inner chatter” that keeps people awake.
Links
- https://sleepsmarterbook.com
- https://themodelhealthshow.com
- https://www.amazon.com
- https://www.barnesandnoble.com
Key Takeaways
- Time in bed is not the same as quality sleep. Shawn describes years of taking Tylenol PM to get “an extra hour or two” of sleep, not realizing his objective sleep quality was falling apart even as time on the mattress increased.
- Sleep deprivation shortens your telomeres. Citing Nobel Prize winning research from Elizabeth Blackburn, Shawn explains that telomere length is tied to lifespan, and chronic sleep deprivation is one of the biggest culprits in shortening it, quietly speeding up aging.
- Prescription sleep medications carry a real mortality risk. Shawn cites research showing that taking just 20 hypnotic sleep pills like Ambien in a year roughly doubles your risk of dying early, with a BMJ study finding a 3.5 times higher risk of premature death tied to their use.
- Over-the-counter sleep aids aren’t a safe substitute. A study published in the journal Neurology found that consistently taking a combination sleep aid like Tylenol PM increased the risk of mild cognitive impairment, and taking two doubled that risk.
- Inner chatter is your brain doing its job too well, not a personal flaw. Habitually staying active and stimulated in the evening trains the brain to stay “wired” at bedtime, so it needs to be deliberately retrained to wind down.
- Meditation measurably improves sleep. A study in the American Academy of Sleep Medicine found that just 10 minutes of daily meditation over two months improved how fast people fell asleep, total sleep time, sleep efficiency, and symptoms of depression.
- Moving meditation works too. For people who won’t sit still to meditate, Shawn points to Qigong: a Journal of Health Psychology study found a month of daily practice increased sleep duration and other markers of well-being.
- Deep belly breathing switches on the parasympathetic nervous system. Breathing in for five seconds and out for five seconds, for three to five cycles, activates the “rest and digest” system that counters chronic fight-or-flight stress and supports better sleep.
- The book’s 14-day sleep makeover applies changes gradually. Rather than overhauling everything at once, Shawn’s plan layers his 21 strategies in step-by-step, starting with the easiest wins first.
“Sleep is supposed to heal your brain, not hurt it.”
Shawn Stevenson