Sleeping your way to better health
11/10/22 • 29 min
“Only sleep when dead.” That’s the rationale that tribes of people, from party animals to early morning exercise devotees, have used to explain their sleep habits. But we may be putting more at stake than we realise when we regularly cut our Zs short because sleep is not just a black hole of downtime. Most adults need about seven to nine hours of sleep a night for optimal performance and health—six if you are among those who really don’t need much shut eye.
So, in this episode of MEDICUS – the Podcast, we explore the science behind good sleep, what goes on when we are sleeping and the hidden cost of cutting corners.
We also get some handy tips and strategies to help improve our sleep routine and deal with jetlag.
We’re discussing all this with:
Associate Professor Joshua Gooley, who leads the chronobiology and sleep lab at Duke-NUS
Ms Hana Yabuki, a research assistant in Gooley’s lab who sometimes sacrifices her sleep to study the state we spend a third of our lives in
Liked this episode? Check out our other ones, in which we explore topics including how to die a good death, what mosquitoes have to teach us when it comes to finding effective vaccines and treatments for diseases like dengue and Zika or how we can stay a step ahead of the next deadly virus outbreak. And so much more!
To discover more scientific insights and personal stories from Singapore with impact on the world, go to: www.duke-nus.edu.sg/medicus
“Only sleep when dead.” That’s the rationale that tribes of people, from party animals to early morning exercise devotees, have used to explain their sleep habits. But we may be putting more at stake than we realise when we regularly cut our Zs short because sleep is not just a black hole of downtime. Most adults need about seven to nine hours of sleep a night for optimal performance and health—six if you are among those who really don’t need much shut eye.
So, in this episode of MEDICUS – the Podcast, we explore the science behind good sleep, what goes on when we are sleeping and the hidden cost of cutting corners.
We also get some handy tips and strategies to help improve our sleep routine and deal with jetlag.
We’re discussing all this with:
Associate Professor Joshua Gooley, who leads the chronobiology and sleep lab at Duke-NUS
Ms Hana Yabuki, a research assistant in Gooley’s lab who sometimes sacrifices her sleep to study the state we spend a third of our lives in
Liked this episode? Check out our other ones, in which we explore topics including how to die a good death, what mosquitoes have to teach us when it comes to finding effective vaccines and treatments for diseases like dengue and Zika or how we can stay a step ahead of the next deadly virus outbreak. And so much more!
To discover more scientific insights and personal stories from Singapore with impact on the world, go to: www.duke-nus.edu.sg/medicus
Previous Episode
Tangoing with mosquitoes to end dengue's deadly dance
In this episode, we venture into a veritable mosquito haven—the Duke-NUS insectary, where healthy mosquitoes are grown to help researchers shed light on how new vaccines and even treatments impact the dengue virus when the virus is inside the mosquito.
We also find out which common insect repellents work and which ones will leave you scratching countless bites.
Joining us in this episode:
Dr Milly Choy, Senior Research Fellow, Duke-NUS Emerging Infectious Diseases Programme and head of the insectary core facility at Duke-NUS
Ms Menchie Manuel, Laboratory Technologist at the insectary at Duke-NUS
To never miss another podcast, subscribe MEDICUS: https://www.duke-nus.edu.sg/medicus/subscribe
To listen to all our previous episodes, go to: https://medicus.buzzsprout.com
And to read about what else the folks at Duke-NUS are up to, go to: https://www.duke-nus.edu.sg/medicus
To discover more scientific insights and personal stories from Singapore with impact on the world, go to: www.duke-nus.edu.sg/medicus
Next Episode
From ragweed to dust mites: we navigate the sneezes and wheezes of allergies
As part of this issue of MEDICUS’ wider focus on how the environment affects health, the MEDICUS team is taking a deeper look into what’s going on when the body perceives things from the environment as a threat. We’re, of course, talking about allergies. And joining us on this episode are:
- Our special, preteen guest co-host Juno Young, who had a million questions about allergies
- And immunologist Ashley St John, an associate professor at Duke-NUS who leads the laboratory of immunity and immune pathology
This episode was produced by Nicole Lim, senior editor at Duke-NUS for MEDICUS.
To discover more scientific insights and personal stories from Singapore with impact on the world, go to: www.duke-nus.edu.sg/medicus
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