Best Moment: The One Thing You Should Never Do Before Bed: Dr Cheri Mah

In this episode, Dr. Cheri Mah, a renowned sleep physician and performance expert, delves into practical strategies for enhancing sleep quality. She addresses common habits From how you can use sound to help you fall asleep, the ideal room temperature and the potential downsides of evening showers. She even shares snack ideas that won’t disrupt your sleep but will curb late-night hunger. this conversation is packed with practical advice that will leave you feeling refreshed and recovered. Listen to the full episode here: Spotify- https://g2ul0.app.link//wyJJsGgW9Nb Apple - https://g2ul0.app.link//aiEWOb3v9Nb Watch the Episodes On Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/c/%20TheDiaryOfACEO/videos Cheri Mah: https://www.drcherimah.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:03Steven Bartlett?

  I'm someone that tells myself that I sleep with something playing. I grew up with a radio in my room, so when I'm, as an adult now, I'm always looking to play something as I fall asleep. Is that gonna hurt my sleep quality?

• 0:14Speaker 01

  I would say if you're accustomed to this, I would say that's fine to continue to do so. I am not a fan of having the TV on and having the bright light exposed to you in that hour before bedtime, because it also can just be very psychologically stimulating. But if, like you said, it's a radio or it's a podcast that you feel is helping you relax, then I'm a fan of it.

• 0:34Steven Bartlett?

  Do you think Durover CEO will help people relax?

• 0:36Speaker 01

  It might. It might help you at least think about your sleep a bit more and challenge you to do maybe one, one change tonight.

• 0:44Steven Bartlett?

  We consider that to be a scientific endorsement of the podcast. Okay, so I've got sound down. You are a fan of the white, white noise machines.

• 0:53Speaker 01

  I am, because sometimes there's external noises like a garbage truck or construction that you're not always able to control. So if you can at least mask over it temporarily, that can sometimes be helpful to keep individuals more asleep during the nighttime. And there's even some now that are adaptive. So if the door slams, then the volume temporarily increases and then will decrease. So there's almost these smart white noise machines that are, that are coming out on the market. So that's from a noise standpoint, and earplugs are gonna be helpful if you're traveling. When you're at home, you can obviously use those to dampen down any external noise. From a, from a temperature standpoint, you want it to be cool. I think this is an area that a lot of people can benefit from because they often sleep in much warmer temperatures

• 1:36Speaker 01

  than what we know is probably more conducive to sleep, which is cooler. 60 to 67 degrees has been shown to help individuals stay asleep and fall asleep. That may be frigidly cold for some, but you have to find the temperature that's right for you. I would say decrease your temperature by, say, one degree or two degrees every couple of days, and then you can find the temperature that works well for you. And there's even technology now where there's mattress covers that can help you regulate temperature from much cooler to warmer. So if there's differences in bed partners, that's a way that you can actually accommodate both of their preferences.

• 2:12Steven Bartlett?

  So that's about 16 to 20 degrees Celsius.

• 2:16Steven Bartlett?

  What about when I shower or I bath? Because often I go and have a shower, then I get straight into bed after.

• 2:23Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 2:24Steven Bartlett?

  Is that good or bad?

• 2:25Speaker 01

  I would encourage you to shift that timing a little bit earlier into the night. So an hour and a half before you are planning to go to bed, I would shift your shower because when you are taking a hot bath or hot shower, it increases your core temperature. But when you fall asleep, your core temperature drops. So you don't want that competing signal to be right before bedtime. But if you back that shower up an hour and a half, that should be sufficient time that we think potentially there's an augmentation of helping that drop in temperature. And some smaller studies have shown that that can help decrease the time to fall asleep and also enhance deep sleep, which has implications for muscle recovery regeneration.

• 3:09Speaker 01

  And you get more of that in the earlier part of your night. So it's an easy fix just to tweak the timing of your shower and your hot bath to be just an hour or two before bedtime, not right before bed. So it's a strategy too, if you have difficulties winding down and relaxing, to implement that hot shower, hot bath earlier in the evening.

• 3:29Steven Bartlett?

  One of the problems I also have when I sleep sometimes is I, I hear people say you've got to, you can't eat like three or four hours before bed. However, I sometimes, you know, I sometimes get home at 10pm and I get home hungry as hell at 10pm.

• 3:44Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 3:44Steven Bartlett?

  And then sometimes if I order food, for example, it might come at like 11.

• 3:47Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 3:48Steven Bartlett?

  Which means I end up eating at 11 and then I really see it in my sleep scores.

• 3:54Steven Bartlett?

  I think as well that I'm someone that tends to fall asleep later. Again, this might just be me telling BS to myself, but that's what tends to happen. And I know I'm not supposed to eat before bed, but I'm so hungry. So is there anything that I can eat before bed that won't disrupt my sleep, but will get rid of the hunger?

• 4:10Speaker 01

  Yes, the preference is not to have a huge meal right before bed that's fried, fatty, you know, really heavy sitting in your stomach that hour right before bedtime. So if you're able to time them, be strategic, then that's obviously the preference. But I'm OK with you having a pre-sleep snack. A lot of times for my athletes, that means we'll go for something like 50% of a complex carb and like 50% of a lean protein. So for example, cereal and milk is an easy one.

• 4:37Steven Bartlett?

  Cereal?

• 4:38Speaker 01

  Yes, cereal and milk. Of course, we want something that's whole grain and not, you know, necessarily a sugary, you know, cereal. But cereal and milk is an easy one that many people have access to, or cottage cheese and fruit, or 100% whole wheat crackers and peanut butter. And the reason why is because I don't want you waking up in the middle of the night being hungry or even trying to fall asleep and you feel like you're hungry. But we want something that's slow digesting through the night because ideally you're going to be sleeping seven, eight, nine hours during the night. And we want it to be able to get you to the morning time and then you will fuel when you wake up. So a pre-sleep snack can be a great strategy if you're coming home late and you want to obviously be able to fuel before bed, or if you have a really early dinner

• 5:23Speaker 01

  and you're hungry before bedtime.

• 5:24Steven Bartlett?

  Yeah, that happens sometimes as well. Sometimes I'll eat dinner at about 5:00 PM.

• 5:28Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 5:28Steven Bartlett?

  And then I get to about 10, 11:00 PM and I'm still awake and I'm starving.

• 5:32Speaker 01

  OK, so what's a pre-sleep snack that you think you can grab for?

• 5:35Steven Bartlett?

  Some nuts.

• 5:36Speaker 01

  OK, yeah.

• 5:37Steven Bartlett?

  Does that work?

• 5:38Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, nuts have protein in them. Yeah, you can grab a good nut mix. Maybe you can partner that also with like some yogurt too.

• 5:46Steven Bartlett?

  Raspberry?

• 5:47Speaker 01

  Raspberries, yeah, fruit. Yeah, and some, yes, a, a protein and carbon there. And those are good, good pre-sleep snacks.