- (1:20) Tomorrow is Stella’s 2nd Birthday!
- (2:10) Like Dr. Jones told us, “No matter how good or bad it is, it is going to change. They usually go in 2 week spells, where 2 weeks they may be wonderful or terrible and two weeks later, it will be the opposite.”
- (3:22) The best part of the birthday for Jake is the cake!
- (3:33) Today’s topic is going to be sleep and the importance of it
- (4:01) There’s a difference between quality sleep and just laying there for 8 hours with your eyes closed. Restful sleep vs. non-restful sleep
- (4:24) Why is quality of sleep important? Brain function, muscle recovery, gaining lean muscle mass, being able to burn fat. Sleep affects our metabolism
- (5:10) We can summarize all that by just saying recovery. Sleep helps our body recover
- (5:34) When you are in your deep REM cycle of sleep, that is when your brain is most active in a recovery type of state.
- (6:00) Importance of the REM cycle in your sleep
- (7:18) Most important reason of sleep is so your body can recover
- (8:00) We sleep for ⅓ of our life… so don’t you think it should be quality?
- (8:36) Main causes of not getting quality sleep
- (9:18) Number 1 cause we see in people not getting quality sleep is blood sugar instability
- (10:01) Your body doesn’t want you to sleep during low blood sugar
- (11:46) Big factor that plays into sleep is controlling blood sugar throughout the day to help with blood sugar stability at night. It’s a metabolic issue
- (12:27) Another one that is easy to fix is a magnesium deficiency. Magnesium helps the body relax, recover and helps with bowel movement
- (12:52) Those who have a magnesium deficiency deal with interrupted sleep
- (13:43) High cortisol (a stress hormone) levels affect your sleep
- (14:32) When we have high cortisol levels can cause very interrupted sleep, it doesn’t allow you to get into a deep sleep
- (15:07) It is just an accepted fact in America that stress levels are high, however it is not okay at all. Back in the cavemen days, stress stimulates the fight or flight response, where if you see a saber tooth tiger over there, you have to decide if it’s time to fight or run. That’s the same response being elicited when you’re stressed.
- (15:41) That is supposed to be a short term response, seconds to minutes then that response should be over. When we have that response affecting our body for a prolonged period of time it wears you down
- (16:13) One of the best things that helped Jake out with stress was when one of his mentors told him, “The reason why you’re stressed is because you don’t know what the answer to the problem is.”
- (17:17) When you can see what the answer is, it can help with stress a lot
- (17:33) When Jake feels stress coming on, he thinks to himself, “why am I feeling this?” He’s feeling this because he doesn’t know what the answer is going to be. Once he realizes that, he thinks to himself what’s the worst case scenario and when you say it, 9/10 it is not that bad
- (18:28) What else can we do about cortisol levels?
- (19:14) L-Theanine, a natural amino acid that most of us have but in times of stress, we don’t release enough of it, is also a supplement, can be very helpful with cortisol levels and lowering stress
- (20:33) Importance of sleep position. Jake wasn’t a believer in this at first because he was a tosser and turner
- (21:17) When your body is in a completely neutral position it is completely relaxed and your brain won’t wake you up and roll you over
- (21:34) Laying on your side
- (22:26) Laying on your side is not good for a good night of sleep because you’re putting your body in a non neutral position for hours
- (23:08) First time Jake tried it, he woke up in the same position he fell asleep and was amazed it worked and didn’t wake up once
- (23:36) How do you know you are in the right position? What is a neutral position?
- (24:18) This is for side sleepers – Use Pillow Wise pillows, we sell them at the office. It helps with the neck and keeps you in the same position the entire night. Also, put a pillow between your legs. We want the pillow to go from your knees down to your ankles.
- (25:29) If you are sleeping on your side on not using a pillow between your knees, you have tension in your lower back
- (25:45) The 3rd pillow! A nice fluffy one and that’s one for you to hug (still if you are sleeping on your side)
- (26:08) Side sleepers you should be sleeping with 3 pillows, one under your neck, between your knees to ankle and then one thicker one you wrap your arm around
- (26:40) I know there are people listening right now going, “hell no!”
- (26:45) Jake’s recommendation
- (28:08) NO stomach sleeping
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Berman Physical Therapy is a physical therapy clinic in Naples, FL. Founded by Dr. Jake Berman, PT, DPT, Berman Physical Therapy’s mission is to help people aged 50+ keep ACTIVE and FREE of pain medications…even when their doctors and kids are telling them to “just take it easy!” Our specialists use rare Functional Manual Therapy techniques to find natural solutions to pain—without prescribing addictive painkillers or recommending dangerous surgeries. Maintain the active lifestyle you deserve.
Dr. Jake Berman
After graduating from the University of Florida, Dr. Jake Berman, PT, DPT sought out mentorship first from Bob Seton in Destin, FL and then from Aaron Robles in Jacksonville, FL. Both of these mentors have 20+ years of experience helping people keep active and mobile so they can enjoy high quality active lifestyles. What Jake found was that back pain was by far the most debilitating pain and the highest factor leading to decreased physical activity later in life.
These experiences are what inspired Jake to specialize in helping people aged 50+ keep active, mobile and pain free despite the aging process. There is nothing more rewarding than being able to alleviate somebody’s back pain so that they can get back to living their best life- especially in Naples! Over the years of helping 100’s of people aged 65-75 become stronger and pain free, one thing for sure has become apparent: “he who rests rots”.
Jake is a firm believer that we become stiff then old, not old then stiff. Seriously, think about it...
Latest posts by Dr. Jake Berman (see all)
- Episode 141: The Easiest Way to Maintain a High Quality of Life - April 15, 2024
- Episode 140: 1 Simple Tip to Avoid/Resolve Pain! - April 8, 2024
- Episode 139: “MRI Stands for Might Require Incision” - April 1, 2024