Rest: The Third Pillar of THRIVE for Health and Wellness

In this episode of The Erik and Matt Show, Dr. Erik Axene and Matt Ball focus on the importance of Rest as the third pillar of THRIVE for health and wellness. They discuss the science behind sleep, share practical tips for managing sleep apnea, and highlight restorative practices like meditation and hobbies that EMS professionals can use to recharge. Understanding rest's role in overall health is essential for high-stress professions like EMS, where recovery impacts both performance and long-term health.

Transcript

Erik: [00:00:00] I set my alarm at 4:35. Why 4:35 and not 4:30? Is it, you know, I'm a, I'm kind of a weird person.

Matt: All right, so today we're continuing on our series on Thrive Health and Wellness. Your thrive acronym. We've talked about team. We talked about health and today we're going to talk about [00:00:30] rest, right? 

Erik: That's right. And so, uh, another very important underappreciated dimension of health or pillar of our health.

Matt: That's right. So if you like our podcast, hit the like button, subscribe to our channel. Uh, if you're looking for CE content, a link to our website will be in the description box. So rest. Yeah, something that you're not very good at. I know that for a fact.

Erik: Yeah. Well, you know, we have, we do have clock jeans.

We have clock genes. [00:01:00] Clock genes. What does that mean? Well, there's uh, genetically... Actually, they have great jeans at Walmart. Absolutely. They constantly have great stuff. Why spend all the money You know you're a dad when you're buying your jeans. Dad jeans.

Genetically though, we have, um, not only do we have clock genes, which kind of, uh, they dictate, uh, a lot of how much, um, um, sleep we need and the style of sleep we get, the timing for when we [00:01:30] are most optimally awake. So is this the difference between like morning and night

Matt: people? Yeah,

Erik: yeah. Exactly. Uh, so, uh, a lot of that's dictated on cortisol levels in, and, uh, certain people have higher levels of cortisol at different time of the day, dictated really by circadian rhythms, your pineal gland, this very complicated, um, relationship between your environment and your internal clock.

And. Um, you know, there are intrinsic sleep [00:02:00] cycles and intrinsic, you know, sleep medication, for example, that really can affect your pineal gland and some of the internal, you know, rhythms. And then there's external. Medications that are more extrinsic, more, more of a like, like, um, caffeine for example. That doesn't mess up your internal sleep cycle, but it will help you, you know, stay awake without really messing up, uh, your, your circadian rhythms.

Right. Whereas a medication like Ambien [00:02:30] will. Yeah. Really mess with you. You gotta be careful. Um, melatonin won't. Benadryl can. You know, anyway, lots of different sleep aids out there, stimulants, but my point though back to clock genes is that, you know, I'm a, I'm kind of a weird person, and even as a kid, my parents tell me stories, I'm very weird.

But as a kid, my parents would tell me that I, I would, I just never slept as much as my siblings did.

Matt: Really?

Erik: Yeah, I just didn't need as much sleep or something. It's [00:03:00] amazing you

Matt: grew so big, cause my mom used to always say, you gotta sleep.

Erik: Our parents say a lot of things. But, uh, but, um, maybe, um, there's something to that.

What you're saying though, in getting sleep. Yeah. So I'm not saying I just need two hours of sleep. Right. Right. But I, I can, I can function really well with no sleep at all that next day I'm okay. No sleep at all. No, really. I mean, I can, I, and I've done it many, many times. How many hours?

Matt: What's that longest you've ever gone with?

Literally without any sleep. [00:03:30] 'cause we've talked before about, we talked in our thrive thing about micro naps. Yeah. And different things that even if you get two, three minutes, that can make a big difference. Even, even seconds. restorative.

Erik: A microsleep.

Matt: Exactly. Microsleep. So what is the longest you would say you've gone without?

Well,

Erik: I don't think it's as long as I even think because a micro sleep might even just be me daydreaming just for a minute. Like, whoa, that's what you said, right? Right. I believe that [00:04:00] even that day I remember I was actually teaching at one of our fire departments out here. So I just worked a night shift and I went straight into CEs for this fire department.

Three. You know, sessions, three sessions all day long. And I came home for dinner and I decided to stay awake. And then you were working that

Matt: night?

Erik: No, but what was terrible, what happened is that one of my colleagues, um, for some reason had to call me in and, and it was, You know, not right away, [00:04:30] but you know, you know, it was like into his shift and, uh, kidney stone.

Matt: Yeah.

Erik: And, uh, so I had to cover for him. And so I went in with no sleep and I'll tell you, man, I crashed that next day, but I do remember that. It was a long time. But even then though, those microsleeps that I'm sure that I got sure are restorative, right?

Matt: Right. Not actually like, I mean, I can remember we had bad weather days and I remember working a 48 hour shift.

You know, it was 24 hours at that time we were [00:05:00] working 24s. Yep. And it was 24s of running a lot of calls, just call after call, and then getting hit with overtime. So it was 48 hours. But, I mean, even at that, you know, come back to the station and, you know, or that night, you know, you maybe got an hour of sleep.

It wasn't like I went 48 hours with literally no sleep.

Erik: Right.

Matt: But,

Erik: yeah. It was fun. I would, I would, I would also say is that whereas I can do pretty well without any sleep for one night, we need sleep. And I'm, and I wasn't doing great, but I could function. [00:05:30] Yeah. Whereas my wife, if, if she loses a whole night of sleep, she will not function.

I mean, she's just. Not functional. Yeah, and she would say that if she was here. Sure. And I so I think there's a wide range of sleep tolerance, too Yes, some people

Matt: might need 10 hours of sleep a night to really function at optimal where you and I I'm kind of like you I don't need a ton of sleep You know, you know if I get six hours I can function no problem for a while

Erik: and there are a lot of people out there highly functional very [00:06:00] Successful people who have what's called hypomania Where it's not the mania of bipolar, where you can't sleep and your mind is just racing all the time.

But a hypomania is almost like, um, a, uh, a gear below that where they don't need much sleep and their motor is revving. And they can be highly productive, highly creative, highly functional. Yeah. Um, with very little sleep. I don't think that's necessarily good for you, [00:06:30] but being functional is a possibility with very little sleep, if you have certain neural wiring, right?

So there's a lot of neurodiversity out there, and it's very complicated. Have

Matt: they ever done like studies, like looking at people's success? Yeah. In life, based on. Waking up early. Yeah. Well, not just waking up early, but people that don't like, cause you hear all these people that talk about being successful in your business, like, you know, you're sleeping too much.

Get up off your butt and go to work. You know, I'm up at, [00:07:00] I did

Erik: read as an anecdotal study on a lot of the most successful people in history and they all, one of the things they had in common is they all woke up really early. Thank

Matt: goodness. Cause I'm an early riser. So there's,

Erik: there's something.

Matt: There's definitely something there.

Yeah. And I'm definitely more productive in the morning.

Erik: Yeah.

Matt: Like when I get up, I'm productive for the first several hours of the morning.

Erik: Yeah.

Matt: Come three, four in the afternoon, bro. Don't talk to me.

Erik: Okay.

Matt: See, I'm usually starting the downward trend.

Erik: See, that's where I'm weird. [00:07:30] It's like I like to wake up early.

I go to wake up at 4 35 every morning to get to the gym. Mm-Hmm. a little bit before 5:00 AM Is

Matt: this four 30 or five? Or 4 35? No, 40,

Erik: 35. I set my own at 4 35. Why 4

Matt: 35

Erik: and not four 30. Well, you know, like I started setting it at 4 30 and I found that I was waiting a little bit too long for the gym to open, right?

Oh, and so then, so then I said, I'm going to push it back five minutes, get five extra minutes of sleep. And so I've got it in a sweet spot right now with the, with the, [00:08:00] Maybe TMI. So I, I wake up 530, 435, uh, go get my workout clothes on, which is all set out the night before. So minimal time getting my clothes on.

Now you do this seven days a week? Um, lately I've been doing it six. Six days a week. But, but, but. I have not missed a workout for the Monday, Wednesday, Friday for over a year now. Yeah. But, um, it's become just the rhythm of my life. Right. And so, and I don't spend a ton of time at the gym. I just about a little over an hour maybe.[00:08:30]

So that's my morning ritual. And then I'll go and, um, I've been getting into pre workouts lately. So I'll use my pre workout. I'll mix that up and drink it on my way to the gym. And then I usually get there, um, five, 10 minutes before. Um, the gym opens and I like to sit there, listen to some music, do a little bit of reading on my own.

Get your quiet

Matt: time in.

Erik: Yeah. Just some solitude. I like to do

Matt: quiet time after I work out because before I work out, it's like, especially if I've [00:09:00] taken pre workout, I'm ready to go.

Erik: Well, isn't it cool how we're different? You know, there's a lot of talk today about diversity, equity, inclusion, and it's kind of a, it's a, it's a very important topic.

And, and a lot of people spend a lot of time talking about how, um, uh, how great diversity is. And I, and I do think that there's a lot of cool stuff about diversity and, and, and different perspectives. And it's good to have diversity. That's good. But I think we've done a disservice to, I mean, we're, we're, we're getting better at, At, at the, the [00:09:30] diversity of, of culture and ethnicities and whatever.

But I think we've forgotten about something, and I think that, I'm hoping that maybe we can introduce this topic later, but not now, but is neurodiversity. Is there so much diversity in the way our brains are wired. Yep. And if you want to talk about workplace effectiveness, I think we need to think about that too.

Yeah. And, and certain neurowirings aren't exclusive to certain groups. Color pigmentation of skin. I mean, it's the neurodiversity of [00:10:00] the way our brain works. Uh, we, we see things in different ways and it's good to have different perspectives there too. And I, we could talk about that forever, but as far as sleep goes, there's neurodiversity there as well.

Different needs for sleep. Um, you, you're a light sleeper. You told me that you like, like a mouse

Matt: farts. I wake up. Yeah. And I don't know if that's, I think that's probably related to 20 years in the fire service and, you know, being kind of. On like a lot of people talk about firefighters. You're always kind of turned on when you're at the station.[00:10:30]

You're on alert so to speak And so, yeah, I mean, the slightest noise and I'll wake up. That's why, like we were talking about, I have to have some white noise. A fan, music, something in the background playing to keep my mind off.

Erik: If I'm, if I'm by myself, uh, like at a, you know, maybe, um, hotel or whatever. Um, I, I like the, the white noise.

My wife doesn't. Um, she, she likes it really quiet. Um, Um, because we're wired different, [00:11:00] right? And I sleep fine with quiet too, but my preference would be some light music. Yeah. In the background. That's a hundred percent. That'd be awesome. Yeah. Um, but, um, back to, back to the, uh, the sleep stuff. So, um, you know, our bodies need sleep.

Mm hmm. Obviously there are some differences in how much we need. Um, we're not going to account for that neurodiversity today. We're just going to talk about some of the low hanging fruit, which is kind of our philosophy with health as some of those big [00:11:30] things that we should think in mind. Simple, but not easy.

Nope.

Matt: Simple, not easy.

Erik: That's right. Um, and, and I struggle with this because I just, there's so much I want to accomplish and sometimes my sleep is sacrificed, but there are consequences for me making those choices. So I think for today, as we talk about this from, from a, um, neurophysiologic perspective as we talk about sleep and the implications to our health.

I think we're just going to assume that we're all the same for now as far as sleep need. There's [00:12:00] some variation, but for example, based on literature, we all need between seven and nine hours of sleep, right? Honestly, I feel pretty good with six.

Matt: But can you, but maybe consistently, if you did that for a month, would you be like, Ooh, I'm dragging.

Erik: If I told you that you live X number of years longer, if you got seven hours instead of six, would you sleep seven?

Matt: I don't think you'd have any problem getting people to sleep more. I think, I don't think you'll have any problem getting firefighters to sleep more as long as the [00:12:30] tones aren't dropping.

They're more than happy.

Erik: I'm glad you reminded me of something. I'll just mention real quick, as far as sleep with firefighting, you know, and I've done an overnight ride out. Sometimes I'll ride out at night and, and. The, uh, we'll be interrupted for whatever calls through the night. Right. And then when, when we wake up, there's always the checkoffs and things we got to do.

If you're in a 24, 48, I mean, you're, you got to drive home after a bad night sleep, or, or, and then maybe you've got stuff to [00:13:00] do at home. Um, for me as an ER doctor, as a nocturnist, I would only work at night. I knew I wasn't going to sleep at all. And I would come home and I had a protected period of time at home where I actually got good sleep.

Yep. That doesn't happen. Especially in like a 48 hour shift. If you're working a 48 96, you have a bad night the first night and then there's stuff to do. Oh yeah. Right. You

Matt: got training the next day. You can't just go sleep. Hey, Chief. Sorry. Yeah. Right. Get your butt over here [00:13:30] right now. Yeah. That doesn't work that way.

Erik: So I think it's tougher for you. Um,

Matt: yeah. Well, like we talked about when we were discussing this podcast is that, you know, The reality is most firefighters also have side jobs, right? And so, you know, if we have a film day planned, and I've worked a 48 hour shift, and You know, if we were super busy that 48, well, if we got a film date planned, you know, I'm still going to be here when I agreed to be here or, you know, a lot of guys own their own business.

If they got a lawn care business or a roofing business or a pool bit, whatever [00:14:00] they got customers, right? And so I think sleep is one of those things that, so I have, I mean now nap time at the fire station is a real thing.

Erik: Yeah.

Matt: You know, firefighters and I think it's an important thing. And one question I wanted to ask you from a physician perspective, I've heard this, but maybe you can confirm it.

Even if your sleep is broken up. So let's say I get four hours of sleep because of calls. If I get a two hour nap that next day, then I basically got six hours in [00:14:30] that 24 hour period. Is that the same as getting six hours collectively? Cause I've heard that it is. And then I've heard other people say, no, it's not.

Erik: Well, it depends. It depends on when you woke up. Okay. So you, you may have gotten, I mean, if you're keeping a stopwatch and you're trying to get to your minimum of seven hours. Yeah. And you've got three different periods of time to sleep. Well, now these things track your

Matt: sleep, so, yeah.

Erik: So that's, that is what it is.

And if you tried to do that, I mean, there'd be benefits getting more sleep. Sure. But there's actually some, um, and, uh, there's a lot of different [00:15:00] perspectives on this, but there is a perspective on sleep cycles where when you get a, you know, when you're sleeping, you should sleep in multiples of 90 minutes.

So what I mean by that is If you, if you have the choice between sleeping for six hours or sleeping for seven hours, there are some that would recommend you get the six because it's a 90 minute sleep. Multiple, right? So 90. Yeah. So getting an hour and a half multiple of sleep. So seven and a half [00:15:30] hours would be better than eight.

Yeah. You know, nine would be better than 10. Right. So by getting multiples of 90 minutes and the reason why is because the sleep cycles tend to be like when you go through a full sleep cycle with the REM and the deep and all the different sleep cycles, it's usually about 90 minutes long. And then, uh, so if you wake up and 90 minutes after you go to sleep, you're going to feel pretty good because you're between sleep cycles.

When you get woken up in the middle of a sleep cycle, it can be [00:16:00] jarring and not feel really wasted. Have you ever woken up and felt really good? Oh, yeah. Versus maybe felt really bad. Yeah, we've all felt that way, right?

Matt: Yep.

Erik: Oh, yeah, so sleeping in 90 minutes cycles is a perspective of some you could try it out.

Um, I'll do that when I set my alarm. So I'm going to bed. Let's just for ease, you know, say it's midnight

Matt: or 10 30 10 30 to 4 30. 36 hours. Yeah.

Erik: Or 10 30 to six, right? Yeah. Seven and a half hours. Yeah. [00:16:30] So you can plan your, your sleep by getting a whatever now. As a firefighter, I see you get what you can.

Matt: Oh, yeah.

Erik: Because you don't know what's going to happen. You never

Matt: know what's going to happen and it's not up to you. Yeah, you could get toned out, you know, you go to bed at 10 o'clock, and at 11 o'clock you get toned out to a fire, and you're out there until 4 or 5 in the morning. I don't know if you Had those

Erik: nights.

Yeah, and I don't know if you know this, but, so right now I'm number one on the call list for a bunch of different, um, Uh, fire departments in our area. [00:17:00] And uh, so in the middle of the night I get calls, um, so I get woken up and then I got to take the call and figure out what's going on and make the recommendations, do whatever we need to do.

Um, and so I feel it a little bit to a certain extent where in the middle of the night the tones go off and you got to be on point, you got to

Matt: walk out, you got to go, you got to Oh yeah, there's been several times when I've been on the ambulance and I've probably done it myself, but [00:17:30] I've been on the ambulance and I'm pretty sure my partner was asleep, whether he was driving asleep, you know, especially if we'd had a super busy night and it's called four or five after midnight and you know, he's just Going through the motions, you know, of driving the ambulance.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, for sure. Yeah It's a sleep deprivation is definitely an issue in the fire service and we've talked before about the 4896 schedule My department recently went to that and I definitely think it has helped. I know that it seems like Since we [00:18:00] started that at the beginning of the year that I don't feel quite as tired Usually when we were doing 24 48 still Especially since COVID because the overtime has just been crazy and we've been working 40 like crazy on a mandatory too.

Oh yeah. Just mandatory and over just all kinds of stuff. And basically you were working 40 for 48, 24 is off. I mean, it just seemed like you were either coming or going to the fire station.

Erik: Yeah.

Matt: And almost every day during those times at one, two in the afternoon, I mean, I'm smoked.

Erik: I am

Matt: just smoked [00:18:30] now since we've been doing this 48 96 schedule.

Yeah. I definitely think because I'm getting four nights of good sleep at home where it's uninterrupted. As far as, you know, come

Erik: back here.

Matt: I definitely feel like I am more refreshed and more rested. Yeah,

Erik: that's really good.

Matt: Yeah. It's a, and that anyway,

Erik: why do we need sleep? What do you, what do you, what do you know about why?

Like what is it about sleep that,

Matt: well, I think the body has to rest. I mean the body has to like shut down and go into like hibernation mode. And I think for cardiovascular [00:19:00] health, You know, our metabolism, it's kind of a reset for our physiological, you know, mechanisms within the body to kind of, Hey, you got to just like, anyway,

Erik: there's a lot of interesting things that happen neurologically when we sleep with, with processing the day and, and getting, you know, your brain is on when you're awake, it's on, it's on, it's on.

And getting that machine of your brain to be able to check out. And, and, uh, go into those REM sleeps and the deep sleeps, the [00:19:30] dreams, all that stuff is really restorative to our brain. But not just that, you know, when we go to sleep, I mean, everything kind of, like you said, actually perfect word, hibernation, you know, it's when you go to sleep, your heart rate goes down.

There are periods, you know, your heart rate can go up, but I mean, overall, the average heart rate goes down. Depends on what you're dreaming about. It's true. It gives your heart a break. You know, here, public service announcement though, it has to do with sleep. It's a very important topic and actually I don't think we've even [00:20:00] talked about this together.

Sleep apnea.

Matt: I was going to, I was going to bring this up because it's a big thing in the fire service. It is.

Erik: And, uh, you know, I've had, I've talked to a lot of people that say my lungs are fine. I don't need to, you know, it has nothing to do with your lungs actually has everything to do with your heart.

That's right. And, uh, we're not going to get into the, The pathophysiology of sleep apnea, there are different causes for sleep apnea. There are some central causes and some peripheral causes, but the point is, is we interrupt our sleep and it, the, the heart pays the [00:20:30] price because our lungs are absolutely amazing with their blood vessels in there.

When we don't get When we get hypoxic, O2 sats go down, uh, the blood vessels constrict, and now your heart when you're sleeping is pumping against a pressure, and now your heart's working all night long, and then you wake up and your heart starts working again. Doesn't get rest. You know, I, I studied this when I was, I took an anatomy, uh, animal physiology class.

Mm hmm. And they have found [00:21:00] it's not perfectly lined up, but most animals get about X billion number of heartbeats. And I can't remember exactly what the number was, but the point still, I think it rings true. Let's just say the number is 5 billion. Like all of us have that many billion heartbeats. So a hummingbird has that many heartbeats.

Obviously it's heartbeats. Pump's faster, right? Yeah. And an elephant, you know, lives a long time. Like we just heart, you know, on average beats slower. So think about that, too. The heart is a [00:21:30] weak link. We've talked about that before. Another podcast is that if something's going to fail in our body's machine, it's going to be the pump or the pump.

Or the hoses. Right. That's typically how we die. Yeah. Unless you live long enough to die of cancer or something else. But, but the pump and the hose is really the heart and the blood vessels are usually the cause of death if we live long enough. And, um, you know, when you sleep, your heart rate goes down, you exercise, your heart rate goes down.

Uh, there's, there's something to that [00:22:00] as well. Yep. And thinking about the ramifications of heart rate, keeping that heart rate down, Um, you know, whether it's avoiding anxiety, uh, um, you know, avoiding, uh, you know, stress, um, obviously this morning at the gym, my heart rate on the stair master got up to 160.

Uh, I try to ramp it up, right? Because it's good for VO two max and it's good for cardiac health. Um, and then, uh, but, but if you're chronically, you know, [00:22:30] Depriving yourself of sleep. Uh, the heart can pay the price. Sleep apnea, untreated. Your heart's gonna pay the price. You're gonna wake up with swollen ankles and a bunch of edema.

Uh, and, and it's because you've neglected your heart and your heart is just too tired.

Matt: So I think the message there is simple. That if you think you have sleep apnea, if your wife is hitting you, or if the guys at the station, when you're taking a nap in the recliner are going, HEY! Wake up, you're snoring like crazy, like that's usually a good indicator that, [00:23:00] go get it checked out,

Erik: go

Matt: do a sleep

Erik: study, get it checked out, and you don't have to be fat, or overweight even, to need a sleep machine, correct, and there are other options too, implantable devices that help you to, yeah,

Matt: there's oral devices, you can put in mouthpieces I've heard, sometimes it's just the tongue, lots of options, lots

Erik: of

Matt: options, go get it checked out, just like we talked about in our last podcast about health, right, go Get a checkup with your doctor.

If you think you're having issues, get it checked out. And I think we've talked a lot about sleep with rest. But one of the things I wanted [00:23:30] to point out is that you mentioned when you go to the gym, you get there about 10 minutes early and you kind of have that quiet time. Rest is not just about sleeping.

Good point. There's meditation. There's prayer for some people. There's, you know, quiet, whatever term or word people want to put on it. Solitude. Yeah. I mean, there's like taking a vacation, right? Taking a break from the, like I'm about to go on vacation, looking forward to it, you know? Good point. Taking a break from work and, you know, just whatever, and getting [00:24:00] away, different environment, doing something I enjoy for, you know, we all do that.

How restorative

Erik: is it for you to get out on your Harley and just go ride? It is,

Matt: that is the thing, like everybody asks. You know, like I've had, I had a guy just the other day say to me, uh, why don't you just sell that thing? And he's a former retired firefighter, you know, cause he knows the dangers and I know the dangers, but the piece that I can feel kind of like you were saying when I'm on my motorcycle, And [00:24:30] it's like the whole rest of the world can melt away and it's just peace and quiet.

It's me and my thoughts cruising along, you know, and two, which is kind of an interesting side note is you're so hyper focused on. riding safely in traffic conditions, right, that you forget about all the other, the talking in your brain kind of shuts down, at least in my brain it does. So yeah, riding a motorcycle for me is very therapeutic.

There's an old saying that you'll never see a motorcycle parked in front of a therapist's office. It's very true because a lot [00:25:00] of people on motorcycles use it as therapy. I can say that that's for sure in my, my, my, uh, my opinion. But again, you talked about, it's not just about rest. There's lots of things that we need to do about

Erik: sleeping.

And it's really about restoration. So sleep is a big. Maybe the biggest way our body restores itself and readies itself for the next day. If we take away that restoration from our body, we're hurting our body. And the ramifications on our [00:25:30] health have been correlated with diabetes, high blood pressure, um, mental health.

There's a ton of problems. Heart disease has been linked to poor sleep and it's really important for us. I think there are six pillars we're talking about, but sleep and restoration, uh, these are really important factors for us. You know, you may be wanting to be more healthy. It might be more important for you.

And I don't mean you, Matt, but I mean, you who've been. Whoever's listening to think about taking a vacation to [00:26:00] think about what do I like to do? I know I don't have a motorcycle like Matt my wife. I

Matt: like to paint. I like to play the guitar I like to whatever we forgot our guitar today

Erik: Anyway, uh, so those those are those are kind of fun, you know, have fun with it.

You know, what do you like to do? Yes Give yourself the grace to be able to go do something you like, man. I remember when I was in school, I really liked the sculpt. I'm going to get back into it or whatever it is. I want to learn something new.

Matt: And the reality is you become, you know, a lot of people, I think they, they sacrifice their [00:26:30] hobbies because they're like, I need to be focused on work or school, right.

Or I'm in med school. I'm super stressed out.

Erik: Well, the

Matt: reality is you might actually be more productive by giving your mind and your body that rest period. Time that restorative time.

Erik: Here's a great analogy that maybe we could leave with Is the sponge? my mentor Taught me this and I've never forgotten it and and he used the sponge as an example You know We go through our day Soaking [00:27:00] stuff up whether we're learning or experiencing or trying to get better or whatever job we have or be a better husband father I mean this hard work to be You know To live a life where you're really working to better yourself and to be a better citizen, a better, a better Human,

Matt: yeah.

Human. Just all in But

Erik: it's really important though to take that sponge at the end of the day that's saturated, just to wring it out. You know, empty your sponge. So you have room to put stuff in. It's

Matt: interesting. And

Erik: [00:27:30] so by getting a full night's sleep and by having those habits through the day where you take a ride in the Harley every now and then, or, or play the guitar, work out, you're doing things that ring your sponge out.

So you're actually ready to, and actually this is the way we create lectures. It's a microcosm of it. We never, well, we rarely teach for more than 10 minutes. So the brain could take a rest and we switch gears. It's like wringing out that sponge because when you're watching death by PowerPoint for an hour and it never [00:28:00] stops, you just,

Matt: yeah.

Hey, that's a great way to go to sleep

Erik: though. But when we make lectures though, we're, we're engaging learners and we, we understand some of that neurophysiology and that's, that's great. Some of what they learn when you as a teacher, right? So anyway, squeeze that sponge out. Remember that whether it's a good night's sleep or doing something that just restores your soul.

Vacation.

Matt: Yep. Time

Erik: alone.

Matt: Time with your spouse. Maybe. Yeah. Something that's restorative.

Erik: Yeah. Restoration. And [00:28:30] not just restorative to you personally, it could be restorative, like you said, to a relationship or, or to just something that just recharges you. Something that's something unique, you know, to me, riding a motorcycle would certainly add strife to my marriage.

It

Matt: does to most marriages. Really?

Erik: Oh yeah. Oh

Matt: no. Donna doesn't mind. She doesn't mind me riding it. She knows that I enjoy it. Uh, but you know, I've got friends. Oh, my wife would never let me have a Deborah.

Erik: Deborah would. Does not like me. I used to own a couple of motorcycles and I got [00:29:00] rid of them. I miss it though.

It's pretty special. But, sss, sponge. Ring out the sponge. Ring out the sponge and enjoy life, but, but, let your body rest. That's a huge part of health and it's something that we need to really consider as being something important. Don't, don't, don't neglect it.

Matt: It's, yeah, in our fast paced society it's easy to neglect, so.

We are busy. Good talk. See you on the next one. We'll see you on the next one.

Narrator: Thank you for listening to EMS, the Erik and Matt [00:29:30] Show.