The Importance of Sleep for Creative Problem Solving

“The idea that resting is productive sounds silly, but I think a lot of people in our hard working culture need to hear it.”

- Dr. Azure Grant

Dr. Azure Grant is a researcher in metabolic and hormonal health, a post-doctoral researcher at Helen Wills Neuro Institute, UC Berkeley, a scientist-in-residence at Crescent Health where she is advising on measurements of energy levels and subjective sleep drive, an avid runner, and what might not come as a big surprise to you at this point…an avid self-tracker. And in today’s conversation we demystify sleep, circadian rhythms, ultradian rhythms, and how all three affect your ability to be more productive & creative.

If endless sleepless nights and long hours have led to burnout, chronic brain fog, or you feel like you can just never catch up and feel rested again, Dr. Azure Grant is an amazing resource to help you better understand how to both collect the proper data about your health but also interpret it and make better lifestyle decisions. We talk about the specific rhythms and processes each of our bodies are going through in a 24-hour cycle (i.e. Ultradian rhythms), and how you can better organize your day to get more done when you have the energy but then use other portions of the day for busy work when you’re just not feeling it. We also dive deep into how you can use self-tracking to optimize your own unique daily rhythms by creating YOUR ideal schedule of productivity, movement, creativity, and ultimately rest.

Whether you’ve been feeling the effects of too many tasks with too little sleep for weeks or decades, or you just want to nerd out on self-quantification, Dr. Grant will give you simple, practical steps to bring you back to balance by resetting your sleep and energy cycles. Her seemingly endless supply of information that comes from extensive, science backed research will give you all the tools and motivation you need to become a sleep ninja.

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Here's What You'll Learn:

• The hypocrisy that a vast majority of health professionals don’t have the time to manage their own self-care
• Is it really true that some people only need 6 hours of sleep per night?
• The surprising truth of what happens in our brains while the body sleeps
• The damaging effects poor sleep has on your body both short term and long term
• How to make sure you’re sleeping enough (and at the right time) for your body
• The detrimental effects that occur when changing time zones or rapidly shifting schedules
• The science behind what makes someone a night owl vs a morning person (and to what extent you can shift it)
• How to balance your natural rhythms with the fixed 9-5 rhythm of society
• KEY TAKEAWAY: The key to getting more done is energy management, NOT time management
• How to hack your body’s internal clock to make it work better for you
• The downsides of self-tracking and why you shouldn’t rely strictly on wearables
• KEY TAKEAWAY: Looking at long-term data and patterns, rather than daily numbers, is the key to self-tracking properly
• Which specific daytime behaviors can be affecting your sleep (or lack thereof) the most
• What you should (and shouldn’t) be doing if you want to track your sleep schedules
• The very first step to take if you are burned out and sleep deprived

Useful Resources Mentioned:

Azure Grant's website

Oura Ring

Fitbit

Quantified Self - Self Knowledge Through Numbers

One Sleep Tracker to Rule Them All…the Oura Ring | with Chuck Hazzard

Levels - Metabolic Fitness Program

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Guest Bio:

Dr. Azure Grant

Dr. Azure Grant is a researcher in metabolic and hormonal health, a runner, and a big fan of self-tracking. She studies connections among metabolism, reproduction, and the autonomic nervous system (ANS) to better understand these connections and, in the process, empower individuals to make more informed decisions about reproductive health, family life, and aging. She also helps individuals learn to ask and answer rational questions about their own bodies by developing methods of participatory research. She is currently a Research Design Lead at Levels Health and Scientist-in-Residence at Crescent Health.

Show Credits:

This episode was edited by Curtis Fritsch, and the show notes were prepared by Debby Germino and published by Glen McNiel.

The original music in the opening and closing of the show is courtesy of Joe Trapanese (who is quite possibly one of the most talented composers on the face of the planet).