Most replayed moment: Sleep myths that are ruining your rest | Dr Sophie Bostock

Sleep. It’s a bizarre process when you think about it. We lie down, close our eyes, and before we know it, we’re waking up the next morning with a head full of hazy dreams. Because of its mysterious nature, sleep has long been surrounded by all kinds of strange ideas and theories about what might help or harm it. From cheese causing nightmares to turkey making you sleepy. So today I’m joined by sleep expert Dr Sophie Bostock to separate fact from fiction. She’ll debunk common sleep myths and share simple, practical tips you can use tonight to improve your sleep. 🌱 Try our science-backed and tasty wholefood supplement Daily30 🌿Let your gut microbes snack on the ZOE Gut Health Bar Get our brand-new app and Gut Health Test designed by world-leading gut health and nutrition scientists to build healthy eating habits 👉 Join ZOE Follow ZOE on Instagram. 📚Books by our ZOE Scientists The Food For Life Cookbook Every Body Should Know This by Dr Federica Amati The Appetite Reset by Dr Federica Amati Food For Life by Prof. Tim Spector Ferment by Prof. Tim Spector Good Mood Food (preorder) by Prof. Tim Spector Free resources from ZOE The Smart Snacking Guide: How to feed your gut, fuel your day, and snack without guilt The Hormone Harmony Guide: Tuning Your Body’s Internal Orchestra Eating for Better Brain Health: Your brain-gut blueprint How to eat in 2026 - Discover ZOE’s 8 nutrition principles for long-term health Live Healthier: Top 10 Tips From ZOE Science & Nutrition Gut Guide - For a Healthier Microbiome in Weeks Better Breakfast Guide Have feedback or a topic you'd like us to cover? Let us know here. Episode transcripts are available here.

• 0:01Speaker 00

  Hello and welcome to Zoe Recap, where each week we find the best bits from one of our podcast episodes to help you improve your health.

• 0:11Speaker 00

  Sleep, it's a bizarre process when you think about it. We lie down, close our eyes, and before we know it, we're waking up the next morning with a head full of hazy dreams. Because of its mysterious nature, sleep has long been surrounded by all kinds of strange ideas and theories about what might help or harm it. From cheese causing nightmares to turkey making you sleepy. So today, I'm joined by sleep expert Sophie Bostock to separate fact from fiction. She'll debunk common sleep myths and share simple, practical tips that you can use tonight to improve your sleep.

• 0:46Speaker 00

  Can eating turkey help you get to sleep?

• 0:50Speaker 01

  Okay, so the theory here is that I think it's the tryptophan content in the turkey which supposedly is going to help you sleep. I believe I read some research that suggests that the amount of tryptophan in turkey that we get would not really be enough to influence your sleep. You'd have to, you know, consume 50 turkeys or something to really influence that. We've talked a little bit earlier about generally speaking, a healthy, unprocessed diet, which might include sort of protein, some lean meat, is probably going to be good news for sleep. I have not seen any research specifically on turkey that shows that it improves your sleep. What may be happening around Thanksgiving, you have, you know, lots of excitement, lots of food.

• 1:35Speaker 01

  As you're relaxing afterwards, you've had a very social occasion. There's all sorts of things that will reduce your stress response in that environment, perhaps lead to some good sleep. Might not be the turkey.

• 1:47Speaker 00

  Cheese, I grew up, everyone told me if you eat cheese before you go to bed, you get nightmares.

• 1:53Speaker 01

  So there was a paper that was published, I think just a month or two ago on this, and it was actually a survey. So this was a Canadian study and over a thousand students who got credit for taking part in the survey. And they asked them about the foods they ate and whether the people thought they influenced their sleep and their dreams. And out of a thousand people, I think only 1% suggested that dairy influenced their dreams. The study suggested that that population were more likely to be lactose intolerant. So of course, if you're eating something that really doesn't agree with you, it may well disrupt your sleep.

• 2:30Speaker 00

  What about supplements? The two supplements that were particularly came up in these questions were melatonin and magnesium.

• 2:36Speaker 01

  Okay, so both quite big topics. Let's tackle magnesium because in a way it's a bit less controversial. I think of magnesium as the Swiss Army knife of supplements, really. It sort of seems to do a bit of everything. It's involved in hundreds of enzymatic reactions in the body. There's no question that we need it. There's also no question that if we have a generally pretty healthy diet with lots of fresh fruit and vegetables, we will probably get enough magnesium in our diet. What we don't know from the research is whether magnesium has any impact on your sleep if you're not magnesium deficient. There was a study in December last year that looked at magnesium L3 and 8.

• 3:17Speaker 01

  And that seemed to suggest, yeah, help people fall asleep perhaps 10, 20 minutes faster, improve sleep quality. So anecdotally, I know a lot of people who take magnesium and say it improves their sleep. I think the effects are probably not that strong. But if it works for you, try it. It's pretty inexpensive. It's pretty difficult to sort of overdose on magnesium. We're just going to excrete it out again. So it's one of those where I'm like, well, you may as well experiment with it, particularly if you are in a population that has experienced quite a lot of chronic stress. Because we know that that decreases your storage of magnesium. So any chronic stressor, and that might mean too, a lot of exercise or going through menopause,

• 4:03Speaker 01

  there are certain populations who will be at more risk of magnesium deficiency.

• 4:08Speaker 00

  Thank you. What about melatonin?

• 4:10Speaker 01

  Melatonin in this country, here in the UK, is only available on prescription from your doctor. I know a lot of people listening will be in the US and other parts of the world where they may well be able to buy it as a supplement over the counter. So the reason that it is only available on prescription here is, you know, it's a natural hormone. It's got very few side effects actually relative to other sleeping pills. But it does have physiological effects. So melatonin, we all naturally secrete from the pineal gland in the brain. And if you have regular sleep patterns, regular circadian rhythms, you'll typically release it about an hour and a half to two hours before your normal bedtime.

• 4:55Speaker 01

  It's often called the hormone of darkness. So if you're in very bright light, as we are recording in the studio, that would really interfere with your melatonin levels. And that could either delay the secretion of melatonin or reduce the amount that you get, which would make it a bit harder to fall asleep. As we get older, we produce less melatonin. So in this country, it can be prescribed for insomnia for adults over the age of 55. But the reason it's not really prescribed for adults below that age is because there's not really much evidence that it helps them, not for insomnia. So what melatonin is good at is changing the timing of sleep.

• 5:37Speaker 01

  So if you've got someone who has a circadian rhythm disorder where they are going to bed very, very late at night, their body clock is delayed by four or five hours relative to most of the rest of us, then melatonin is that tool that can be used to bring the body clock forward. So I would say that it's probably not going to help you very much if you have insomnia. And I think a lot of melatonin is purchased in the US by people who have that belief. The stuff that you buy over the counter is notoriously unreliable when they've done analysis of how much there is in particularly gummies, which often people buy for their kids.

• 6:17Speaker 01

  We know that the amount of melatonin in those is anything from 74% to 374% is what is actually advertised.

• 6:25Speaker 00

  Wow.

• 6:25Speaker 01

  And to get melatonin to actually work, you need to get the right dose at the right time. So if you do think melatonin might be helpful for you, and it might be a circadian rhythm issue, it may be that particularly for children with autism, ADHD, sometimes they have circadian rhythm issues as well. Go and speak to your doctor. I would always prefer that a medical professional is managing the dose, the timing, and also the quality of that melatonin that you are taking.

• 6:53Speaker 00

  I'd love to like pull this together now into sort of quite straightforward, actionable advice. And could you maybe describe to me, if you were trying to say, Jonathan, this is the sleep hygiene that you or a standard person should have. What is that?

• 7:07Speaker 01

  Let's keep it simple. Start first thing in the morning. Wake up at the same time as often as you can. So set your alarm for the same time each day. When you start to do that for a week or two, you'll find that you don't need the alarm anymore. But try and aim for consistent wake up time. Aim to get some natural light, ideally within the first hour after waking. That's going to kickstart your circadian rhythm for the day, tell the clock that it's wake up time. And the advantage of doing that is that if you get this bright light in the morning, it's going to banish the melatonin, so you're going to feel more alert. But automatically, 15 or 16 hours later, you're going to start to feel sleepy.

• 7:48Speaker 01

  Move your body during the day, whichever way makes you feel happy, but get physical, be active. There was some recent research actually suggested that yoga was one of the best forms of exercise for sleep. So it doesn't need to be super intensive. It just needs to feel good for you. Take some time out to relax during the day, particularly if you're a busy person that goes from A to B at 300 miles an hour. Just take 15 minutes for yourself, a moment to be and not do. And then as we come towards bedtime, try and have a consistent wind down time. I'm not bothered about whether you get into bed at exactly the right time, but try and have a consistent time where you start to switch off.

• 8:32Speaker 01

  So in that hour of wind down, you know, get done what needs to be done for tomorrow. Some form of relaxation, something to look forward to, whether it's a warm bath or reading a book or doing some breath work, listening to music, some intimacy with your partner, with your family. Social connection is often unneglected in terms of its role in improving sleep. And then during sleep, you want darkness. Use an eye mask or blackout blinds. Try and sort of banish light from your sleeping environment. And just let it come. Don't try too hard to sleep.

• 9:05Speaker 00

  That sounds brilliant. The one thing I haven't heard you mention, I'm curious about, is use of that smartphone. Because you said right at the beginning that like, that's the number one thing that's really changed everything and made this work.

• 9:18Speaker 01

  In my book, that wind down time, that's when I'd be switching off the phone. Ideally, the phone does not come with you into the bedroom. Buy a cheap alarm clock that has no smart functions. And this is something that actually can be really good for families. So parents will often say, you know, how do I separate my teenager from their phone? Well, if it's something that everybody does, it's just a norm. The phones don't go into the bedroom. That's not where they live. That just is a rule that you can make for yourselves.

• 9:47Speaker 00

  If I do all of these things, if I'm not in the insomnia, but I'm in that 50 to 60% of people are not getting their best sleep, can it really transform my sleeping?

• 9:56Speaker 01

  All of those things might help a bit. I don't want to overdo the sleep hygiene piece because I also know there are some great sleepers out there who have pretty poor sort of sleep habits. They're all part of this picture of positive sleep health. I think if there was anything to add to that, it's just that I would love people to believe that sleep is important, but also to believe that they are good sleepers. A lot of what I do is help people build confidence. So if you do those habits, what happens is that you build confidence that you are going to sleep well. So that helps to ease the anxiety. If you're someone who has been anxious about sleep in the past,

• 10:40Speaker 01

  the danger of this advice is that it's too rigid. And that if you haven't had 15 minutes of daylight within an hour of waking up, you start to get anxious. If your phone's accidentally gone into the bedroom, then you might have a terrible night's sleep. So these are guidelines, they are recommendations, they are not strict rules.

• 11:01Speaker 00

  What about wearables that track sleep? They're obviously very popular. Can they help?

• 11:08Speaker 01

  I'd say they absolutely can help. It depends what you're using them for. So I believe they can be a brilliant accountability buddy. So if you set yourself a goal around improving sleep consistency, for example, and you are tracking that, that is a behaviour that's actually very easy to change over time, that is going to be linked to better quality sleep. I think where they can become a little unhelpful is where people become fixated on the numbers. And there is very real condition called orthosomnia, which is an obsession with the perfect night of sleep. Ultimately, the most important thing is how you feel during the day. And although wearables can give you some useful indicators, it's really about how you feel is the most important metric that we have.

• 11:52Speaker 00

  I was going to ask your own sort of sleep habit. What are the critical things that you try and make sure you do?

• 11:59Speaker 01

  For me, it is about doing exercise in the morning, definitely getting some bright natural light and as much natural light actually during the day as possible. I recently broke my collarbone. And so for at least a week or so, I wasn't getting outdoors as much as I normally would. And I really noticed it. Obviously, I was in pain as well. And that wasn't very helpful for my sleep. But I noticed that as soon as I started reintroducing just walking, not even intense exercise, my mood improved, my sleep improved. So for me, that's an absolute must. But also, I would say just taking that scientist approach to my own sleep, testing, trying new things. We talked about magnesium earlier, do an

• 12:41Speaker 01

  experiment with that. I'm currently trying a sauna blanket to see whether that improves my sleep. You know, I think taking that curiosity, what can I do? Does it make a difference for me? Because we're all different.

• 12:52Speaker 00

  Final question. If you were going to say like, one thing for the listener could sort of start doing today, what would you say?

• 13:03Speaker 01

  I'm going to give you something a little bit different here. So there's a technique to help you fall back to sleep called cognitive shuffling. I've talked to a few people recently, and they've found it really useful. So this comes from research that compared what happens when good sleepers fall asleep versus poor sleepers. And the good sleepers will describe seeing very visual things which are not rational, not related to each other. Whereas a poor sleeper will often describe planning thoughts, anxious thoughts, thinking about, I've got to do this then. So to try and promote the mind state of a good sleeper, this cognitive shuffling technique involves thinking of a random word, any word. So last night, my

• 13:48Speaker 01

  word was leprechaun. And then with each letter of that word, thinking of another random word. So my L might have been lemons. Every time I think of that word, I try and visualize it. So I go from lemons to elephants. I wasn't actually quite sure how to spell leprechaun, but I was asleep before I got to the end of the word. So it didn't really matter. But that technique might be useful.

• 14:13Speaker 00

  As you can imagine, hosting this podcast, running Zoe, juggling family life, it all keeps me pretty busy. So I try as best I can to stay energized and show up well in all those parts of my life by fueling my body with the right food, by exercising, and by adding a scoop of Daily 30 to my meals every day. If you haven't heard of Daily 30 yet, it's the gut supplement designed by our gut health scientists here at Zoe. It's made of over 30 high quality, handpicked plants, including seaweed, fungi, and different types of fiber. Better yet, it contains ingredients to support gut health, digestion, and energy,

• 14:53Speaker 00

  which is ideal for packed calendars and busy lives. Simply add one scoop a day to any meal for an extra boost of fiber and plant diversity. And because it tastes delicious on just about anything, and adds a satisfying crunch, it quite quickly slots into your life, becoming a daily healthy habit you'll always have time for. By the way, whenever we talk about Daily 30 as a good source of fiber, we're required to say that it contains four grams of total fat per serving. Obviously, that's all amazing healthy fats from plants. So order yours today at Zoe.com/daily30. Thanks for listening and see you next time.