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Unlocking the Virtues of Sleep in a Fast-Paced World with Federica Bressan
35 Plays1 year ago
Sleep? Who has time for sleep? Rest is rarely prioritized in our fast-paced society, but perhaps sleep holds the key not only to physical health but also to creative pursuits, self-understanding, and personal healing. Hear how sleep has empowered Federica in her work as a journalist, musician, and computer scientist — and find inspiration to prioritize sleep without giving up on your passions.
Federica Bressan is a speaker, author, technologist, and podcaster based in Italy. She holds a PhD in Computer Science and several degrees in music and musicology. As an academic researcher, she was the recipient of the prestigious Marie Curie Fellowship and a Fulbright grant. Her first novel, "In the Heart of Tuscia," is available in English, Italian, and Dutch.
Connect with Federica at https://linktr.ee/federicabressan.
In this episode:
- How to make room for sleep in a busy career
- Why you can't just "catch up" after missing too much sleep
- The mystery of sleep—more than just physical rest
- Choosing sleep on your schedule
- Dream messages and why we avoid our subconscious
- Personal healing through sleep
- Finding inspiration
- Small steps to start sleeping more
Connect with us at SuenoLabs.com. We're currently looking for contributors and podcast guests!
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Transcript
The Challenge of Sleep in a Hectic Life
00:00:00
Speaker
Do you ever feel too busy to sleep? Maybe not the things that you do, but your mind is too busy. Every night when your head touches the pillow, it's just racing thoughts and remembering everything that you have to do the next day. Too often, I think we see sleep as incompatible with a busy lifestyle. Or if we're going after some kind of big goal, whether that is Taking classes or seeking a new job or a creative pursuit, sleep is somehow antithetical to that. We need to stay up late and wake up early to get things done.
Introducing Federica Bresson: A Multifaceted Achiever
00:00:36
Speaker
Well, today's guest is someone who's certainly done a lot of things. She holds a PhD in computer science and several other degrees in music and musicology. She's a former journalist and musician. She's worked in the United States and Italy and recently published her first novel.
00:00:54
Speaker
But when Federica first reached out to me about Swenio Labs, she described herself as a sleep virtuosa. Instead of finding that all of these pursuits were keeping her from sleep, the opposite was true. Deep, rich sleep is what's helping her be successful and pursue her passions with joy. Here's Federica's story, an inspiring reminder to prioritize the life-giving rest we need.
Federica's Career and Life Transformation During COVID
00:01:24
Speaker
Today, I talk with speaker, author, and technologist Federica Bresson about her personal journey in learning to love sleep and how it's impacted not only her career, but also her creative pursuits, self-understanding, and self-healing.
00:01:43
Speaker
I'm Jimmy Leonard. This is Swenio Labs.
00:01:51
Speaker
Federico Brassan, thank you so much for joining. Welcome to Swenio Labs. How are you today? Thank you very much. Thank you for having me. I'm doing great. Thank you. We have so many things to talk about today, but I wanted to start with you. You have such an impressive background in technology and the arts and so many different disciplines. So tell us a little bit about your journey, if you don't mind.
00:02:15
Speaker
Well, ah yes, I will try. I am 43 years old and I can say that I've had more than one career so far. There's a long version to this story and a shorter version. The shorter version is that my background is precisely in ah music and technology, meaning that I have two master's degrees in music and musicology and a PhD in computer science. I've always been combining these two fields as a journalist, covering music events and technology precisely, and then as a researcher at university. I've worked in academia for over 10 years.
00:02:54
Speaker
That all stopped with COVID. Like for many people, my life changed too with COVID. Fortunately, you know, nothing to do with the health, so that's good. ah But my life changed course with COVID, including the fact that I relocated from the United States and New York.
00:03:12
Speaker
to central Italy. Big change. Italy is where I came from, because I'm Italian, but not this area. And to be honest, I never wanted to come back. But you know, COVID, COVID forced us a little bit to all go back to our countries, you know, because you couldn't travel just anywhere. You had a reason to be somewhere else where it's, you know, where you don't hold the passport and that sort of Well, here I am. I've been here a few
The Interplay of Music and Technology
00:03:38
Speaker
years. I wrote a novel and I just got my certificate to be an English coach as a second language. So, you know, I'm i'm doing all sorts of different things right now, but I guess the main themes in my life have always been music and technology and languages and traveling. You're interested in music and technology. How do you see those things go together as interests?
00:04:06
Speaker
I see how there's no aspect, first of all, of our lives, but also of this field that is not touched by technology. Now, I have worked ah in the field of, you know, experimental music, not as a performer. I was documenting archiving or digitizing old tapes of electronic music. so So I've always been in the avant-garde, if you wish, but any ah you know concert you see nowadays is amplified, of course, and there's a whole art behind putting the microphones and all the effects. There is so much technology
Balancing Multiple Pursuits and Sleep Prioritization
00:04:43
Speaker
behind that. So you actually have technology at every step of the production process of live music and recorded music.
00:04:51
Speaker
So I really do not see those two as separate. Even if you're in early music and even if you're an opera singer, you will have contact with technologies at different levels. you know So it's it's everywhere. They're not separate at all. It's ah ingrained, just like everything else in our lives today.
00:05:13
Speaker
So that brings me to the next question. I think for many people like yourself who have many different passions and have bounced around between several different careers, sometimes even at the same time, I'm in that category a little bit. I feel like I'm always holding three or four different jobs in one form or another. Sometimes with all of these different pursuits,
00:05:37
Speaker
Sleep can be an afterthought. It seems to be low on the priority list. I'm curious where do you find time to sleep and all of these different things that you just told me about. it' All right, hold on. i When I saw your podcast, I jumped on the opportunity to be here.
Critiquing Modern Fatigue Culture
00:05:54
Speaker
It would take us so long to cover all the aspects of what's relevant with this topic, sleep, right? What amazes me, first of all, is how, in general, people seem not to give much importance to their sleep, because if they have something else to do, something to finish, somewhere to go, somewhere to take care of, well, of course,
00:06:17
Speaker
Sleep will will always be the first thing you sacrifice. And actually, sleep is so important and crucial in our lives so to stay healthy and to be clear-minded. I'll try to answer your question. ah So today, today, in my present, and um ready now maybe I should just say I sleep a lot.
00:06:40
Speaker
Meaning I take the time I call it downtime sometimes because in a way you must plan the time to not be doing things in today's life. There's always something you could do.
00:06:57
Speaker
Just about in the 80s when I was born and computers started being a thing, especially as personal computers in the homes, we had the promise that technology would deliver us from so much work and would make lives easier for us. right And now look at us, nobody has time to do anything anymore. The most common thing you hear from people is I'm busy. Sorry, you gotta to go or I'm late. I'm busy and I'm and this chronic fatigue.
00:07:27
Speaker
not as a condition, just as a feeling. I'm always tired is a thing. It's very common. There's something so wrong with this. So, actually, and today, in a privileged position where I am, because with COVID, COVID killed my work in academia, no regrets because, I mean, many reasons, doesn't matter.
00:07:49
Speaker
I reorganized my life today around a very healthy lifestyle where sleep is just part and parcel of it. and I mean, I don't want to make it sound boring because I will still be, ah normally, I'm up very late and I wake up very late. Everyone needs to find what works for them. Me, for example, it almost doesn't matter how many hours I sleep as long as I don't wake up with an alarm clock.
00:08:20
Speaker
If I wake up with that din and dining that interrupts my sleep, I really feel bad. And how common is that? Don't we all have, you know, if you have a job to go to, you work. But since high school, I remember it was so painful.
00:08:37
Speaker
I made it almost a life goal one day, you know, when I'm an adult, not to have to wake up with an alarm clock. And here I am, so I win. But I also want to mention that in the past, when I was doing my PhD, for example, but also when I was a musician, didn't mention that well. Okay, I was in music.
00:08:59
Speaker
These were passions of mine this was devouring passions and yes including doing the phd i was developing software and taking exams and writing papers. I loved it i also felt the pressure it was just an ecosystem almost designed to squeeze everything out of you.
00:09:20
Speaker
i played I played that game. I played it while I was successful in academia, but I can tell you how much sleep I lost. And going back, yeah this will be
Federica's Sleep Experiments and Insights
00:09:33
Speaker
maybe a bit more common. Everyone knows for work or you're you know writing your thesis for your PhD and you stay up a couple of nights. Okay, fine.
00:09:42
Speaker
something that is less common that I have experienced, that's why I call myself a little bit of a sleep expert, because it's as if I ran different experiments on myself during the course of this lifetime, including waking up super early and going to bed super early, or what I'm doing now, which is I basically live in Italy, but in the New York time zone, my spirit just remained there, ah right?
00:10:07
Speaker
um When I was younger, meaning as a teenager, family situation wasn't monitored very much. What do you do? You party, you go out, you hang out with friends, ah maybe older friends who have a car and you come home at dawn and then you go to school.
00:10:24
Speaker
So, during those years, during my teenage years, I have lost so much sleep that it's insane that all through my early 20s, if I lost one night's sleep, I would be so cranky that I really blamed it on that. I said, I lost so much sleep that, you know, I'm set for this life. I must not lose any more sleep.
00:10:46
Speaker
And I read this in a book also by Simone Bail giving advice to one of her young students saying, don't be up too late. You know, you love to read, you know, those who read through the night. Reading seems such a cultivated and good thing to do. But she said,
00:11:04
Speaker
Please sleep. Don't be up all night reading literature because the sleep you lose at this age, you don't feel it much, but you will pay the price down the road. So now my life is organized differently and maybe we'll cover this because there's more to sleep. What is sleep? There's more, first of all, it's a mystery, but it's more than ah recharging your batteries the way I see it today. So what I'm sure we'll get there as a way to tap into your deeper self and draw inspiration.
00:11:36
Speaker
Yeah, you hit on so many points that are great. I think there is such a growing body of research that you don't feel the effects of lost sleep right away, but we're starting to see how they can catch up to you later in life. And that way it's maybe different than skipping a meal or something where even a few hours later you're feeling the effect. But yeah, to your point, I think the, the experience of sleep, the emphasis of sleep is lost. It's almost like,
00:12:01
Speaker
running through ah fast food drive-through at McDonald's and hurriedly eating in your car and saying, okay, that was dinner versus actually taking time to cook a meal and to sit down and to enjoy it with people you love. And it's still eating, but when you have that slowness and the experience and you really prioritize it, not only do you feel better, but it just becomes more part of the rhythm of your life and it becomes something that you value. And I think that analogy when applied to sleep is something that so few people can say that they do, that it actually is part of a ritual and part of a rhythm and something that they really create space for and enjoy.
The Holistic Importance of Sleep
00:12:40
Speaker
I also was really struck that you said you kind of ran some experiments on yourself. I think that's something that
00:12:47
Speaker
makes a lot of sense too. you know we We have a well-documented reason to believe that you know when we say someone's a morning person or somebody is more of a night owl, these are real things. We do have these different preferences in our biology and in our brains to to sleep at different times. And sometimes the realities of a corporate job is you can't You can't always do what works for you, but when you can, that's great. I myself am more of a morning person, so a lot of times if I wake up without an alarm, it's it's very, very early in the morning, but I you know try to go to bed at a time that that makes sense for that. And that's just when my brain functions the best. I can be most creative in the morning. So yeah that's a it's good that we have this time zone difference so we can sync both at our good times. Yeah.
00:13:34
Speaker
It's so funny, exactly. i I think the audience should totally know this. This is noon for me, and I just got up just in time for this recording, but it's what, six in the morning where you are? Yeah, it is six in the morning. And actually, when we were talking about this, you were very concerned. You were like, you were like, won't you be sleeping? We're talking about sleep. You're going to be talking to me at six in the morning. And I said, don't worry, I'm awake. This is ah this is normal for me. Okay, you see, yeah, differences.
00:14:03
Speaker
So there's a lot of things that we could go go back to with sleep. One of the things that I think is interesting to talk about is, in my view, one of the reasons that we don't always prioritize sleep is because we see it just as a necessity or like a survival mechanism. I have to sleep this bare minimum so I can stay alive, but we we don't really see it as more than that. So I I'd love to talk about what are some of the other benefits of sleep beyond just this is what my body needs to function. You still nailed it on the head, you know, and there's still something in your question.
00:14:47
Speaker
that I would like to respond this way. And that is, culturally, we have lost our sense really in terms of what a good quality of life is for taking the time to eat, to eat good food, to sleep well. That's why we see sleep as just this necessity. And you're almost asking me to give good reasons why we should care for sleep more.
00:15:12
Speaker
My point is I can give you a list, but we wouldn't need it to convince ourselves to sleep better, to eat better. Sleep, and it's a mystery. It's actually such a fascinating topic. um Sleep in a world that is only obsessed with work, work, work, produce, produce, produce is obviously wasted time.
00:15:38
Speaker
Because when you sleep, technically, you know, we say, you you do nothing. You're just inactive. So when you were asking the question, if you pushed it a bit farther, I almost expected you to say, it's just the necessity. If we could just do without, we would, right? This, to me, means that we'd completely lost our sense of what it means to be human and to be in the world. and how deeply ah we are affected by this culture of produce, produce, produce. Is producing only you know being at work, doing something, let's go here, let's go there. I mean, life is also watching the sunset.
00:16:19
Speaker
or sitting outside, no sunset because you always bring up this very romantic images, doesn't need to be that. You can just sit still for 10 minutes, focus on your breathing and be aware that you're alive, for example.
00:16:34
Speaker
ah By the way, you know, reading, they say, of course, now with Instagram and all of that is harder, but let's say it's always been a thing that people didn't read enough, you know, books, people don't read. My key point, and I also wrote a novel, I love literature, my key point is when people say, I don't have time to read, you know, I don't have time to read, is that they don't make the time to read.
00:16:57
Speaker
they expect to read as soon as they will have, you know, a vacant moment, a free slot in their day. And that never happens, never comes. And you have to make the time to read, but if you do, in our culture, even if you don't justify to others, it's just within yourself, you sit down, you open the book and you say, now I read, you feel so guilty and so productive. So kind of going back to sleep, I think that we should just appreciate how much sleep, first of all, does so much good to our health.
The Role of Sleep in Personal Growth and Transformation
00:17:30
Speaker
and If people tried to make this experiment with themselves, and
00:17:35
Speaker
try to sleep an abundant amount of hours for a period of time, from three days to a week, to say a month, and they just appreciated how well they feel, how clear-headed they feel, which means that they would work better, that they would be better people to other people. This is something I so strongly believe, that if everyone slept more, the world will be a better place,
00:18:04
Speaker
by far. The more stressed people are, the more they are ready to snap at you because everybody's more nervous. I mean, the first time ah after I was a teenager and in my early 20s where I accumulated this insane amount of sleep was during a month, it's so funny, where I was stuck in Montreal, don't ask me, we don't have time for these stories, but I was stuck in Montreal and I had so much time to kill.
00:18:30
Speaker
Okay, so of course I was going out and doing things but I just had time on my hands and to kill time I decided to sleep so I was sleeping yeah Mostly during the night. I'm not saying you know napping and all of that But for the first time since my teen years where I was just putting in five hours or less, this is how bad my upbringing was, I just grew with the notion that when I feel tired, it's just a matter of you know mental willpower to focus and to be more alert.
00:19:08
Speaker
I never really believed in coffee, but yeah, if I'm, if I feel tired, I would rather have a cup of coffee than go to sleep. Just at least a version to sleep, which I'm not sure if I'm jumping between too many topics, but this, this is a perfect moment, the perfect segue to say some people may be avoiding sleep also because it's a moment where you're in touch with your unconscious. Yes.
00:19:33
Speaker
And if you are not leading the life you want, if you if the life you live doesn't reflect you, which is most likely not just because you're not making the right choices, but because this becomes a bit radical and political, this system, the grinder that wants us to produce, produce, produce is very much against our nature. So if someone slept very well and woke up the next morning and were clear-headed and never it ah You almost feel like how that rhythm is incompatible with the rhythm that they demand of us. To be on the go constantly with a cup of coffee in our hands on the metro going somewhere. Gee, you know? So, I understand that if you just sleep for 10 hours one day and you wake up like you were born again,
00:20:20
Speaker
you may have a bit less motivation to do do do do do do do all the things you have to do during that day because most of the things you also do out of adrenaline. There is a connection there. I don't want to make it so linear and simple and apply it to everyone. but I mean, you're saying yes, you're not saying no, so in general this resonates, kind of makes sense. How many memes on Instagram talk about, you know, being, you know, dead with sleep in the afternoon, then you go to bed two in the morning and you're, you know, staring at the ceiling. Why is that?
00:20:54
Speaker
Also, other memes on Instagram just suggest reels. you know like They make fun of this, but ah it all all it tells me is that it's a common feeling that your day is do do, do, do, do, do, do, do all these things and then go to bed, stay there a couple of hours just to do it again the next day.
00:21:15
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's important to debunk the idea that we aren't doing anything when we sleep. As as you started to get into, you you know, we have this expression, people will say, oh, I need to sleep on it. That's not just an expression. I think probably all of us have had the experience where we're facing some sort of problem, and then we go to sleep, and then in the morning, it's so much clearer. And that's because your brain is doing something. ah I'm a writer, i you know, I often will have the situation where if I'm working on an article,
00:21:45
Speaker
It laid into the evening and I get stuck. I'll go to sleep and then I'll wake up and all of a sudden in the morning, it's like I figured it out. And that's ah a very positive way of looking at sleep. You know, sometimes it can give you this inspiration to finish an article, but there is negative too. And I think you touched on that, you know, sometimes.
00:22:02
Speaker
I might have a a very vivid or disturbing sort of nightmare. and But that's the brain working too, because what that does is in the morning, I now have the opportunity to think about, okay, what is my subconscious telling me? What is the thing that I didn't have time to notice or reflect on during the day, probably because I wasn't making time for it?
00:22:23
Speaker
And now it's like my brain is saying, how, how can I highlight to you that something is not going well right now? You know, it's like, absolutely. a hundred percent And the one time, two times, uh, in my life that I've experienced insomnia for months on end, it was, I mean, I cannot even start telling you how bad it was because it was seriously bad. I have tried that too.
00:22:51
Speaker
I knew inside of myself that it had so much, if not all, to do with my inability at that time to deal with certain hard truths that I was doing everything I could to avoid in my life. It was just as easy as that. I wouldn't want to get in touch with the unconscious because sleep is a mystery. So fascinating.
00:23:14
Speaker
But one thing that for sure we know that happens is that our conscious self goes away a little bit. I don't know if it goes away completely, but for sure it yields more space and control to other parts of ourselves. We are defenseless when we sleep.
00:23:32
Speaker
including from our unconscious. So to block out what our unconscious wants to show us, we must stay awake. Even today, as soon as I have some major difficulty in my life, something that you know troubles you, the first thing to go is sleep.
00:23:54
Speaker
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00:24:08
Speaker
So as a creative person, a musician, and a writer, I'm curious if you have had similar experiences where sleep helps with your creativity or inspires something that you're working on.
00:24:22
Speaker
Well, yes, but more than that. First of all, I consider sleep almost like my second life. That's how important it is. I often remember my dreams and I write them down, but I've only been doing this in the past few months. I remember them and I take them seriously if I can put it that way. Sure.
00:24:45
Speaker
And creatively, I don't know, and not specifically, but certainly I have received so many answers from sleep, precisely. During the past year, you could say, a bit less than a year, I've been through a major transformation, very difficult time in my life, and I have systematically, consciously, deliberately worked.
00:25:08
Speaker
to get through this. So I have come a long way. And there were so many things that I could not unravel. Things that like taking a degree in engineering is easier. Questions about life and yourself are so much harder.
00:25:24
Speaker
And I received just so much clarity during sleep. I would go to bed and I surrendered to sleep. And sometimes before I go to bed, this is kind of very personal and not at the same time. I just say, show me. I want to see.
00:25:44
Speaker
Tell me, what am I not seeing myself? Because my unconscious is much bigger than I, it's connected to the collective unconscious and universal unconscious, and is much smarter than I am. So I say, show me. And many, many, many, many times I have received the answer or a truth that I just, then you know in your guts, you know in your guts, that's the right thing to do. So ah it even helped me.
00:26:12
Speaker
which is even more important than, you know, painting a painting or something. It's even more important than that. I have received material for my personal well-being and if you want psychological or spiritual growth. I think that is it something that, you know, we've we've talked about it in your labs, we've got content on this, but that idea of intentionality with your dream recall is really important. Sometimes I talk to people who say that they don't remember their dreams or they don't have high dream recall. And that's often the first question is, well, have you ever really
00:26:47
Speaker
tried. yeah like have Have you made space for that? Have you had that sort of, I liked when you say that, you know, the show me, have you had sort of that intentionality of, okay, I want to pay attention to what's going on. I want to be in touch. In some ways, I think it's comparable to being in touch with your emotions in your daily life.
00:27:06
Speaker
You know, we can be highly functional in the corporate world with very low emotional intelligence. It's really a learned skill set to be in touch with your body and to understand, okay, in this moment, I'm feeling angry or in this moment, I'm feeling sad. And it's really the subconscious equivalent of that of I want to be in touch with what is going on in my subconscious mind. And ah a lot of times that will open the door.
00:27:33
Speaker
Absolutely true. Some dreams are disturbing and you you would absolutely you wake up with that feeling. I don't know. I also know people who say, I just never remember my dreams. And I think, well, fine, you know, probably there is enough space in this world for variability. It's not necessarily a bad thing I shouldn't judge, but I wonder yeah i wonder how it is to be like that.
00:27:58
Speaker
From my perspective, someone says I never remember my dreams that would imply that they don't have vision. But it's not necessarily so I can only speak for myself. I know for myself that when for a period of time, even a short one, I wake up and not a single day I remember my dreams, there's something going on.
00:28:20
Speaker
The dream phase, so the REM sleep phase is, of course, when we dream, you know, we have the technology now to really understand the sleep cycle and depending on how long you sleep, of course, but typically you're going to experience anywhere from three to five REM cycles in a typical night's sleep. So that means you are dreaming three to five times per night, whether you remember it or not, it is happening. So I think that's certainly something to To wonder about, I would be curious about, you know, if you don't remember what you're dreaming about, do you do you want to know? Do you want to know what your brain is thinking about? Absolutely. like Sleep is not a moment where you do nothing. I don't know what you just said in the corporate world, what it takes to succeed.
00:29:06
Speaker
Now, um I learned to use the word narcissistic meaning a specific way. In the past, I would resist very much, not for for obvious reasons, you know there's too much of this psych talk, but because I thought we can say the same thing without using that word. Someone is rude, someone is selfish, but I realized that it has something to do with the the dynamics of narcissism. So I just tried and to clarify my use of the term. What I mean is that a little bit of a sense of entitlement and a little bit of arrogance towards others, even I, someone who would never elbow my way anywhere, and I mean it. I'm not an aggressive person.
00:29:49
Speaker
If I have a task to complete, I have a deadline, I'm stressed to do it, and I feel like that's the most important thing in my life, you know, then I will probably be rude to someone because I don't see them over my task. Again, it's a generalization. But the corporate world and what it demands of us to make it in this world that is incompatible with being good people, empathetic with others and to lead better lives for ourselves, sleep, eat. Like you say, you know, when I was little in Italy and someone was doing ah a road trip or whatever it was, but just they were not at home and they were having a sandwich for lunch.
00:30:36
Speaker
I remember my mom used to say, oh, poor them. Look at them. you know they have to you know They have to endure this for today. They cannot eat properly. you know like like you know It's not a way to live. You don't eat a sandwich for lunch. No, you don't need to... you know Don't... The stereotypical big meal with family. I'm not talking about that. I'm just saying, you just...
00:31:00
Speaker
Take the time to sit at a table because eating in your car may be a cop-out for a day. You just have to. It's good that you can have food on the road. It's practical. It's fantastic. But it shouldn't be your normal. And if you, you know, say, yeah I don't sleep enough, then no wonder that you look 40 when you're 30 and you're more prone to having certain
Strategies for Improving Sleep Habits
00:31:24
Speaker
diseases. Now it would, you know, be so negative.
00:31:28
Speaker
But in the long run, it does make a difference. I don't know, because how do you convince people to sleep more, to take care of their sleep? How do you? Unless they have it in them to already make this change, they will raise their hand and say, yeah, excuse me, but what do I do? I have a kid. What do I do? i need My husband wakes up early every day and wakes me up too, so my sleep is interrupted. you know at Well, okay.
00:31:52
Speaker
sorry, cannot help you. It's up to you to come up with solutions so that you're protective of your sleep. It's a bit beyond me how anyone, if they really tried to get decent sleep for even a short period of time and they saw the benefits of that, how they would not want to keep that going.
00:32:12
Speaker
To your point, we sometimes need to just approach it in baby steps. hey If you have very poor sleep habits right now, that doesn't mean that starting next week, you all of a sudden need to have this perfect sleep routine, but look for those baby steps. Maybe it is committing to going to bed 30 minutes earlier than you normally would, or maybe it is clearing your schedule on a Saturday morning so that you can sleep in.
Debunking Minimal Sleep Myths
00:32:38
Speaker
Yeah, I would like to ask you something just to make sure because sleep has many different aspects to it. And it almost seems though that it all boils down on that the first step is just sleep more. If you had a guest on your podcast saying, I sleep three hours a night, I'm the CEO of this company and it works for me. I wonder if you would also go along with them. I mean, that's a good question. I think that
00:33:04
Speaker
Most people and maybe that's painting with a broad brush, you know, most people do They do not sleep enough so that the general advice for most people is probably going to be to sleep more there's maybe some people who um If it could be said they they sleep too much you know maybe there it's becoming a state of lethargy or or maybe it's actually related to some kind of condition where if you're finding that you're in bed for twelve or thirteen hours maybe you're not actually sleeping for that long but there's something disrupting your sleep and that's why you feel so tired and that's where maybe some of the medical piece you could look into it.
00:33:39
Speaker
Um, I think that there probably are some people who can function optimally on maybe, you know, only six hours of sleep or other people maybe need eight hours of sleep to function optimally. I would be pretty skeptical of somebody who says that they are at their peak functioning when they only sleep three hours a night. I know people say that. I know people write books about that, but I personally would be pretty skeptical. I think that there's just.
00:34:06
Speaker
So much evidence, um so many medical professionals recommend more sleep than that. Well, Federica, as we near the end of our time here, was there anything else that you wanted to talk about? Did you want to talk about your novel or anything else that you do before we wrap up here?
Federica's Novel and Closing Thoughts
00:34:22
Speaker
Oh, thank you so much for giving me some space to talk about my novel. I'm just happy to mention that there is ah this novel that I wrote. It's called In the Heart of Tusa. Tusa being the name of the region where I live. Here in Italy, it's set right here. It is available in English. I wrote it in Italian and it was just published again in the Netherlands in Dutch by a Dutch publisher.
00:34:45
Speaker
It's very easy to find on Amazon and don't even you know bother spelling my name. I hope that there will be links below this podcast yeah episode. um And I just want to thank you for having me on. This is a fantastic topic.
00:35:01
Speaker
fascinating and mysterious topic. I will definitely keep following this podcast. I believe it's so relevant and it can contribute so much not to just people's wellbeing, but to pushing back a little bit on this dominant culture that we mentioned that wants us to be performative in ways that are not always compatible with our human nature and wellbeing.
00:35:28
Speaker
So other than checking out the heart of Tisha, where else can listeners go if they want to learn more about you and everything that you do? Yeah, I have different websites for my scientific work, science communication, the novel and whatnot. Just made this page as an English coach um with a nice page to study English with songs, whatever. I do many things and the best way is just to Google me or just follow me on Instagram or Facebook or LinkedIn.
00:35:58
Speaker
I'm too old for TikTok, so mostly those platforms. Well, Federica, thank you so much. It's been so fun getting to know you and talking with you. Thank you. Thank you for the space you gave me.
00:36:11
Speaker
when your labs is a show about sleep memory and dreams for more content visit our blog at swnynoabbs dot com and connect with us to learn more about how you can share your story related to brain health and the daily habits that help us to rest and live better
00:36:30
Speaker
Thanks for joining, we'll be back soon.