Lessons from Dr Michael Mosley: Sleep

Dr Michael Mosley has left an incredible legacy that will continue to inspire a movement for better health. We will honour his legacy by reflecting on the lessons Michael taught us, covering topics including food, sleep, fasting, exercise, and the secrets to leading a happy life.

Dr Mosley researched the impact that sleep can have on your health. He suffered from chronic insomnia for around 25 years, often waking at 3am and unable to get back to sleep. However, through research, Dr Mosley managed his sleep struggles and shared his findings with the world through his best-selling books, documentaries and interviews.

The importance of sleep

Good sleep is essential for just about every aspect of our health: it supports the immune system, improves brain performance, manages blood pressure, boosts your mood and can even help you lose weight.¹ Although most of us know we should be aiming for eight hours of sleep a night, 77% of us are getting less than that, which is detrimental to our physical and mental health.²

As part of our series of lessons from Dr Michael Mosley’s dedicated career, we’re focusing on the top lessons he taught us about sleep and how to get more restorative rest.

What Dr Michael Mosley taught us

1. Optimise your bedroom: Making your environment suitable good sleep is one of the first steps to ensure a good night’s rest. Dr Michael Mosley advised to make your bedroom a phone and TV-free zone, as the stimulation and light exposure have been shown to disrupt and delay sleep.³ Dimming the lights in your bedroom will help to induce the production of the sleep hormone melatonin, and investing in a good black-out blind, bedding and ear plugs will ensure outside disturbances don’t disrupt your sleep.

2. Losing weight may help you stop snoring: Although optimising your bedroom is important, Dr Mosley shared that changing your mattress or pillows won’t make much of a difference if you have sleep apnoea or snoring blocking you from quality sleep. Studies have shown that, if you’re overweight, losing just 10% of your body weight dramatically reduce snoring and sleep apnoea disturbances, and even cause total remission in some cases.⁴ The Mediterranean diet, which aids weight loss, in particular has been found to result in longer, higher quality sleep.⁵

3. Avoid late-evening snacks: Dr Mosley shared, “to improve your sleep, you should aim to finish your evening meal at least three hours before bedtime, and avoid late evening snacks.” This is because our body needs to focus on preparing itself for sleep, not on digesting food, which is just one of the reasons intermittent fasting can be beneficial for sleep. Eating closer to bedtime also raises your body temperature, becoming another barrier to sleep which leads us to our next point.

4. Lower your body temperature: A body temperature drop is one of the main signals to your body to get ready for sleep.⁶ But how do you lower your body’s temperature to get ready for sleep? Dr Mosley recommended, perhaps surprisingly, getting a warm bath or shower before bed to reduce your core temperature. Studies have shown that those who have a hot bath before bed fall asleep faster, and have better quality sleep, than those who don’t. This is due to warmer extremities forcing the blood vessels to dilate and push blood to the skin’s surface where it loses its heat, ultimately causing a drop in your core temperature and faster sleep onset latency.⁷

5. Better gut health, better sleep: Studies have revealed a clear link between diverse microbiomes and better sleep.⁸ Eating foods like nuts, oily fish, seeds and green veggies supports your gut and boosts your gut microbiomes ‘good’ bacteria. Dr Mosley shared that “the good bacteria produce chemicals, like serotonin, which will not only improve your mood but [will] convert into melatonin, which helps trigger sleep.” Around 70-90% of our serotonin is formed in the gut and as one of its jobs is to create melatonin (which regulates your sleep-wake cycles and reinforces the circadian rhythm), it’s essential to help keep the gut healthy and diverse if you want to maintain a good sleep pattern.

6. Slow your breathing: When you’re unable to fall asleep, neurons in your brain fire up and send out noradrenaline, otherwise known as the ‘wake-up’ chemical.⁹ However, taking slow, mindful breaths alters the carbon dioxide levels in your blood, which reduces the levels of noradrenaline, ultimately helping you drift off. Dr Mosley encouraged a 4-2-4 breathing method for this: breathing in for a count of four, holding for two and breathing out for four seconds, all while holding your hands on your chest and abdomen to feel the falling and rising with each breath to increase relaxation and mindfulness.

Our aim is to ensure Dr Mosley’s legacy lives on by sharing more of his life-changing research and key messages, like these sleep lessons. His advice and openness on topics like sleep has transformed the quality of life of countless people all around the world. Through his books, documentaries and our dedication to continue spreading his messages, we know it will continue to help others for years to come.