Enhancing Performance Through Sleep and Caffeine: Practical Insights

Professor Vincent Walsh has been at the forefront of exploring how our brains function in high-stakes environments, and served as Scientist in Residence at the Royal Academy of Music. Vincent is known globally for his research on sleep and applying this to elite sport and everyday life, and has contributed to over 300 scientific publications. 

He works across the corporate world, academia, elite sport previously consulting to Premier League Football and the English Rugby Union team), and the military. Vincent believes that real change demands serious thinking and effort, not just slogans or good intentions.

In this episode we dive deep into the intriguing intersections of science, creativity, and human performance;  exploring the neuroscience of sleep and how we can harness sleep as a weapon to improve cognitive function, weight management, mental health, leadership and communication skills, AND our sex life!

In this episode Andrew and Professor Vincent discuss:

2:00 Why Vincent doesn’t normally get up before 10am, the definition of sleep and why biohackers aren’t able to hack their way out of bad sleep.

7:35 Consolidating emotions during REM sleep, why you have strange dreams while you sleep and some of the crazy dreams Andrew and The Wizard have had.

12:30 Dreams come from things that happen during your day, the most surprising thing Vincent found during his studies on sleep and the people most at risk from poor health due to bad sleep habits.

18:55 The different types of chronotypes and how knowing yours can help your relationships, the cultural righteousness of morning people and why footballers are known to play their best games during Ramadan.

26:15 Do you really need 8 hours of sleep, how to find out the amount of sleep that is right for you and why blind people often go through life with a type of jetlag.

31:45 The best ways to monitor your sleep, have a good sleep routine and how to spot when someone is trying to spread bad information.

41:40 Are the benefits of sleep being undersold, we need to train ourselves and our children to get better sleep and why eating the right food at the right time can help you sleep better.

48:30 If caffeine was discovered today we would all be snorting it, think about your regular caffeine intake and how a caffeine nap works.

52:00 Lack of sleep can impair your judgement worse than alcohol, Vincents unique experience in getting a rugby team to take naps and do men or women sleep better after sex?

58:30 The misconception of the 10,000 hours rule, the power of napping and why the industrial revolution was the worst thing to ever happen to our sleep.

1:04:30 Take a 20 minute or 90 minute nap for optimal efficiency, Vincents love for making difficult subjects sound simpler and why our society isn’t good for developing teenagers and their sleep.

1:12:00 Roy Keane hates when people don’t try their best, sleep is a good predictor of injury rates in athletes and the true learning happens when you sleep.

17:20 Vincent’s project on sleep and menopause with Olympic athletes, some tips to improve your sleep hygiene and everything that matters takes a bit of time and effort.

You can find Professor Vincent at his LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vincent-walsh-15187b28/?originalSubdomain=uk
Get a copy of the books mentioned in this podcast:
https://www.amazon.com.au/Rhythms-Life-Biological-Clocks-Control-ebook/dp/B005LMSKAY
https://www.penguin.com.au/books/why-we-sleep-9780141983769
https://www.amazon.com.au/Take-Nap-Change-Your-Life/dp/0761142908

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