The Tilted Halo
The Tilted Halo podcast has a refreshing and honest perspective on the challenges pastors face in their ministry and those involved in ministry as a whole. Hosted by Pastor Kathleen Panning, who has seen it all, this edgy show explores the idea that we all have a "tilted halo" - a recognition that we are not perfect and all make mistakes.
Through personal experiences, interviews with fellow pastors, leaders, and insights from scripture, this show offers advice and encouragement for those struggling with the weight of their imperfections. From burnout and rude awakenings to personal failures and shortcomings, The Tilted Halo provides a safe space for pastors to share their struggles and find support from a community of like-minded souls around the globe.
With a focus on authenticity, vulnerability, and humanity at large, this podcast challenges the notion that pastors must have it all together and invites listeners to embrace their humanity and lean into the grace of God. Whether you are a pastor or someone looking for a fresh perspective on life's challenges, The Tilted Halo is a must-listen in the search for hope, healing, and a renewed sense of purpose.
The Tilted Halo
EP 55: The Hidden Dangers of Sleeping Pills
Dr. Lucinda Sykes drops a bombshell on The Tilted Halo podcast, revealing research that might forever change how you think about sleep medication. As a retired physician who has helped over 6,000 patients with stress reduction, her mission now focuses on sharing critical information about sleeping pills that many doctors simply aren't discussing with their patients.
The conversation uncovers startling research showing how common sleeping medications like Ambien actually suppress your brain's ability to clean itself at night. This natural cleansing process, called glymphatic flow, helps remove protein wastes that accumulate during waking hours—proteins linked directly to Alzheimer's disease development. Dr. Sykes calls this February 2023 finding the "smoking gun" that helps explain why sleeping pill users face higher dementia risks.
Most alarming are the studies showing significantly shortened lifespans among sleeping pill users. Landmark research comparing medical records found people taking sleeping pills had 3.5 times higher death rates over just a 2.5-year period, while Korean studies suggest users may live five years less than non-users who sleep the same duration. Despite these risks, many physicians continue prescribing these medications long-term, even though medical authorities recommend limiting use to just 1-4 weeks.
The fundamental misunderstanding, Dr. Sykes explains, is that these medications don't actually promote natural sleep—they sedate the brain, interfering with critical nighttime functions like memory processing, immune system boosting, and cardiovascular regulation. Whether you currently take sleeping pills or know someone who does, this episode provides essential information to have an informed conversation with healthcare providers about safer alternatives for better sleep.
Part 2 is coming next Monday!
Learn more about Dr. Lucinda Sykes and her teachings at lucindagift.com
Welcome to the Tilted Halo. This is a new podcast and it's for anybody who's a woman in ministry. You might be a pastor like myself, a bishop, a priest, a rabbi, music minister, elder children's minister whatever your title is, you're absolutely in the right place, especially if you're someone who loves your ministry and you're doing it well and you're feeling pressure to sometimes be perfect and deep down inside, you know you're not, and how in the world to deal with that? And men, you're absolutely welcome here too, because this is about ministry and the same thing can happen to you. So you're all in the right place. Let's get started with the show. Welcome to the Tilted Halo. And this is a podcast, a show for people of faith, especially women of faith, who know perfectly well that we are not perfect. Thus our halo gets a little off kilter once in a while.
Speaker 1:And I'm Pastor Kathleen Panning, your host for this show, and it is my delightful pleasure to welcome to the Tilted Halos someone I have interviewed before on a Flame Ministry show, dr Lucinda Sykes. She is a retired Canadian physician and a longtime teacher of mindfulness. She directed Meditation for Health Clinic in Toronto, helping more than 6,000 patients who were referred for medical programs of stress reduction. We can all relate to that these days. Since retiring from medical practice, however, dr Lucinda continues public speaking and private coaching for women over 50. Her work is based on the science of deep, natural sleep throughout life, especially helping people reduce their need for sleeping pills, and that's where we're going to focus today. Because, dr Lucinda, welcome to the Tilton For one to be with you again, Kathy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and we will, in another show, talk more about, uh, sleep practices, um, natural ones, but I want you to share with our viewers and listeners some of the latest research that you have and about sleeping pills. Oh yeah, we shared a little bit about this and I'm going oh, we need to get this out to a broader public. So what's one thing? Let's just start with one of the most worrisome things that you have found in the latest research about sleeping pills.
Speaker 2:Well, for me, the overarching worrisome fact is that this information has been with us now for a couple of decades and yet it's not being transmitted well, patients are not being informed, and you could even say that sleeping pills are overprescribed, given what science now tells us about them. So that's the background to it. I could offer further that my mission now I've retired from medicine and my mission now is in part to get this information out, part to get this information out, because it was only maybe five years ago that I read the research indicating that people who take sleeping pills are more prone to develop Alzheimer's disease. And you know, my dear grandmother succumbed too early to Alzheimer's disease. She was only in her 60s and by gosh she took sleeping pills. As far as I know, every night I used to go to the drugstore and pick up grandma's sleeping pills, and now I'm recognizing that her illness, at least in part, could have been underpinned by the sleeping pills.
Speaker 1:So is the research showing that sleeping pills are a direct cause or a contributing factor.
Speaker 2:This is a great question, and it's only last month, February, for I don't know when this podcast will be viewed, but in February of 2025, research is just being published that's showing that sleeping pills, in this case a prominent sleeping pill, Ambien suppresses the brain's capacity to clean itself at night.
Speaker 1:That's a smoking gun, kathleen? Okay. So what's the importance of the brain cleaning itself at night In gun caffeine? Okay. So what's the importance of the brain cleaning itself at night?
Speaker 2:Well, for a few decades now, people who are researchers looking closely at Alzheimer's disease have discovered that there are at least a couple of protein wastes that accumulate in the brain of people who are developing and succumbing to Alzheimer's disease, and these protein wastes in part of the result of metabolism. During the day we're busy thinking about things, our brain accumulates these waste proteins and then the brain now we're learning cleanses itself. In fact, as some researchers say, it's like a power wash that at night, while you are asleep, your brain in a way is not sleeping. Your mind is sleeping, but your brain is involved in many processes. But in particular, the brain changes its configuration, spaces open up and the cerebral spinal fluid floods through and helps to eliminate the toxins that have accumulated earlier in the day, and this is a basic science. We call it now glymphatic flow, and so this has been discovered. About 15 years now We've known about glymphatic flow. Now we've known about glymphatic flow, and now this paper published just last month showing that this prominent sleeping pill suppresses the brain's capacity to do this.
Speaker 2:Cleansing Now is that true of all sleeping pills in general Not as yet, but I'm talking throughout my talk I'll be referring to the most popular, the most commonly prescribed sleeping pills. We call them the benzodiazepines and the benzodiazepine-like sleeping pills. We call them the Zed pills, and they have a very common mechanism of action they work through the GABA system of the brain. A lot of science here, but let's keep it simple. They work through the GABA system of the brain, and the GABA system suppresses brain activity, slows down the activity of the brain. So they all work through this single GABA system and, in particular, they affect a particular receptor in the brain, and so one sleeping pill is very likely, you know, going to be emblematic for the activity of other sleeping pills, although I'm sure that the researchers are now going to investigate the whole range of sleeping pill to see is this happening with all of them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know I've heard some things in probably the last year or so more about the importance of the lymphatic system and so, as I understand it and I'm not a medical doctor by any means but that's a system that helps our bodies, like you said, get rid of toxins, and we all know we have lymph nodes and that lymphatic system works with those things. Is that correct?
Speaker 2:Right, right, kathleen. And that until just recently, as I say, about 10, 15 years ago, we thought that the brain did not have a lymphatic system, because pathologists could not see evidence of a lymphatic system. But now there's this discovery that, hey, especially in the nighttime, the brain opens up channels that function like a lymphatic system, but we call it the glymphatic system, so it's with a G at the front there. The glymphatic system opens up, the spaces around the blood vessels open up because the brain cells actually change their configuration, and then this marvelous system lets the cerebrospinal fluids sweep through and gives the brain a good cleanse.
Speaker 1:That is so interesting. You know it's like we need. What you're saying is that we need that cleansing of the system in our brains for our brain to be able to function well. So these proteins um, I assume they have some beneficial function at at least at points in our life yes, the the result of the brain's processing to give us consciousness.
Speaker 2:Okay, the brain metabolizes, yeah and um. We're thinking our fancy thoughts, and waste products are being made by the brain as these fancy thoughts are being given to us through the brain, and these proteins, now waste products, do accumulate in the brain and then, especially at night, they are swept away. Because while we're awake this process doesn't happen so readily. It's while we're sleeping. And this also helps us to now understand why the research shows us that people who aren't getting enough sleep are more prone to develop Alzheimer's as well. And heck, that would be. Because not getting enough sleep, your brain doesn't get a chance to do as thorough a cleaning.
Speaker 1:Not getting enough sleep, your brain doesn't get a chance to do as thorough a cleaning. That is so interesting. I think about some of the data and comments that have been out these days, not just about sleeping pills, but about children who stay up too late, playing video games and things like that, and how that blue light from a computer, like we're both using, or television or a phone, how that interrupts or affects our sleep. And now you're saying the sleeping pills may have a similar or perhaps even more profound effect.
Speaker 2:Yes, and let's look at the paradox of this, kathleen, because that's where the misunderstanding comes in, because it's a contradiction. These pills get called sleeping pills. Actually, physicians call them hypnotics. They don't really call them sleeping pills, but in popular parlance we call them sleeping pills rather than sedatives. And the sleeping pills do not help the brain to naturally sleep. Instead, they sedate the brain, and a state of sedation. Well, you could liken it to alcohol.
Speaker 2:Alcohol is a sedative. Drills are also sedatives. Alcohol also works significantly through the GABA system and we all know if a woman unfortunately has a little too much wine at the end of the party, she's going to start to feel drowsy and relaxed and she might even, shall we say, pass out. And someone viewing her on the couch there will say, oh, she's sleeping. But we know that she isn't sleeping, she's under the influence of the alcohol. And when she awakens in the morning she will know that she didn't really have a restorative sleep.
Speaker 2:And sleeping pills are working through the same GABA system. They too are sedating the brain, just as alcohol sedates the brain. But the state that happens is not natural sleep, because, heck, in natural sleep your brain is very busy Cycling through a series of brain states over the course of the night is boosting your immune system for you. It's laying down your memories. It's relaxing your cardiovascular system. It's allowing your endocrine system to do what it does. The brain is very busy, but a sedative suppresses brain activity. So all this important activity that your brain is wanting to do for you as you sleep, you take a sedative, you're suppressing brain activity and, of course, in part that suppresses the thinking mind. The brain is giving us the thinking mind. So we're lying there, we take a sleeping pill and then soon enough the thinking mind subsides and we could even in retrospect say oh yes, I had a good sleep, but the brain was impaired in its other functions, because that's what sedatives do.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, I think about that. I think there's a lot of medications that, yeah, I've taken over the years, not a sleeping pill, but like a cold medication, like some antihistamines or some other medications that say they may make you drowsy. Yes, are they doing the same sort of thing in?
Speaker 2:the brain. As I understand, there is some thought that the antihistamines are also activating through the GABA system, but I haven't studied that thoroughly. But as I understand, there is some thought that antihistamines can function as sleeping pills because they do also act through the GABA system.
Speaker 1:That's interesting because when we're recording this, it's springtime where I am and I have allergies, so those kinds of medications are things that are important to me.
Speaker 2:And they get used as such by many people. So-called over-the-counter Cephaloplasts tend to be one of these antihistamines.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And they also have pernicious side effects. Yeah, lots of research coming out about that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I mean, like I said, there are a lot of medications. If you actually sit down and read through the possible side effects, Some of them say they may make you drowsy. Don't drive until you know how this affects you. I've seen that on like antibiotics or some other things. So I would assume that they're having maybe not quite the same, but a similar toss in chemicals into the brain.
Speaker 2:Many times, maybe even most times, those chemicals are a little inconvenient for the poor brain. The brain is busy doing all the many complex tasks that it is meant to do for us and you toss in chemicals and the brain has to contend with the effect of these chemicals. And over time the brain even gets very influenced by these chemicals. It changes the configuration of brain receptors and so on, just in part to adapt to the inconvenient truth that it's dealing with these chemicals. But for the most part, if we can, we don't want a lot of chemicals because the brain's doing the best she can as she is.
Speaker 1:We don't want a lot of chemicals because Sabrine's doing the best she can as she is yeah, that's quite a sometimes a quandary then for people as to you know, you need to take certain medications for other things. Now, most of us don't really need to, because there are other ways to learn about sleep, and we're going to talk about that in a different segment here.
Speaker 2:But, um, but for many other things there are medications that people need yes, I wouldn't argue with that to people are kept alive by certain medications.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it becomes kind of a which is worse type of situation, and for someone who's having a lot of issues with sleep, they could be feeling some of the same thing.
Speaker 2:Yes, and that's where my work comes in, because by and large, the the sleeping pills they're not necessary. Yeah, and that's a whole field, that's my work. But they're not like you. Maybe you have a heart condition and you're taking digitalis or the like and that is keeping you alive in some cases. Then no one would argue that you should not be taking that. We just say hurrah that you've got access to it.
Speaker 2:But an optional pill like a sleeping pill. Basically it comes down to it's an issue of the mind. The mind is saying I should be able to sleep right now. I'm not sleeping right now. Gosh, I'm going to take a pill and make my brain go to sleep. It's almost like overpowering the brain Again.
Speaker 2:Maybe you've just been given terrible news you've lost a family member, or you're in the hospital preparing for surgery the next day, or you're in the hospital preparing for surgery the next day.
Speaker 2:A sleep medication may be entirely appropriate given your circumstances.
Speaker 2:So I am not here on a mission to eliminate sleeping pills, but I am wanting to inform people about the risks that are involved so they can make intelligent decisions and they can also discuss it in an intelligent way with their physician, because you know the doctors. They're busy and this research is kind of new, although it's not that new anymore. But the physicians let's face it, it's easier to write a prescription than to spend some time with a patient and to inquire about their sleep and even look at other possibilities or in a way to sedate the brain. There's even an excellent research paper came out from a medical sociologist who was interviewing physicians about their prescribing habits around sleeping pills, and the title of his paper is sometimes it's easier to write a prescription. He's quoting a physician who said that Now I'm not castigating my colleagues, it is true and I know that many now are making other approaches to sleep problems available. My own family clinic now has regular group meetings for people who have sleep problems so they can be informed rather than immediately take a pharmaceutical route.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, there's so much pressure that many people feel these days and we want this instant result. Yes, we live in an instant society in many respects in the Western culture, and you know, pop food into a microwave and it's all done in, you know, a matter of a couple minutes. Microwave and it's all done in, you know, a matter of a couple minutes. And as opposed to spending all day cooking or several hours doing that.
Speaker 2:So you know, and you have this pill that you think of oh, it's just sleep, given to you by your trusted caregiver, and it just puts me into sleep. You think of it almost like a light switch. Oh, yes, I can sleep, I'll just. You know, I have clients think to me and they say, oh, I couldn't sleep in the middle of the night so I just took a sleeping pill. And but you see, then the brain has to digest this chemical.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, what is something that, um, uh, a faith community, a faith leader, might be able to do other than for herself or himself? But, um, in meeting with people talking about stress reduction, whatever, to help people know about the potential dangers and complications of too much reliance on sleeping pills?
Speaker 2:Yes, yes. So the information that I'm providing here is not extraordinary, it's all through the scientific research, literature and mainstream medicine is beginning to take in the implications. In fact, medical authorities recommend that sleeping pills do not be prescribed for longer than, say, three or four weeks. Pills do not be prescribed for longer than, say, three or four weeks, and some jurisdictions now are changing that to one or two weeks. So medical authorities are saying don't be taking them chronically. And so that's there in the background.
Speaker 2:Your physician will have been informed, or at least that is the general teaching, that sleeping pill prescriptions should be limited, and one can discuss it with the doctor and say you know, I understand that these are not so good for my health, and it's not only the brain health, but it's also for the health of the heart, for the immune system. Gosh evidence showing that life is shortened if you have sleeping pills this is just research. So we're looking at large populations of people, but the statistics are astonishing. A couple of studies now showing that life is shortened by even three or four years. Wow, okay, I don't want to do a lot of research talking here unless you're interested, but as much as three or four or even five years.
Speaker 2:A study I saw just came out of Korea examining the health records, the government health records and scientists comparing groups of people who don't take sleeping pills with groups of people who do take sleeping pills. They're sleeping the same duration each night and the people not taking the sleeping pills are living more than five years longer. Well, it's astonishing. I find it hard to believe this, which you see, I've really looked carefully at the research. It's not just one or two studies, so all the way back to 1979. Oh wow, all the way back. The American Cancer Society sent out a questionnaire to, I think it was, thousands of people inquiring about their life habits and then following up for cancer and discovering that people who were taking sleeping pills had an increased risk for cancer.
Speaker 1:That's interesting too. Yeah, is that any one particular kind of cancer?
Speaker 2:Well, it's definitely different things. Breast cancer is pretty common in the list of answers that are increased, and I do have a number of papers in this, but this 1979 study was just very general. Yeah, and they unfortunately did not follow up on that because that wasn't their mandate. It was just a bit of a fine down, but that was foreshadowing. Then, intensively in 2012, we have the great psychiatrist, daniel Kripke, comparing two groups of patients. He had access to the electronic medical records of a large integrated health system in the United States and he compared the medical records of 10,000 people who were prescribed sleeping pills, contrasted them with the medical records of another 20,000 people who were very similar in age and diagnosis but they were not taking sleeping pills, and he and his researchers looked at the two and a half year snapshot of their medical history and he found that the people taking sleeping pills during that two and a half year period had three and a half times the death rate. Wow, wow, very similar otherwise, you see.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's significant yeah.
Speaker 2:If you think of these pills as affecting brain function and if you take them every night, it can't be good for your health. Yeah, I said, this is the smoking gun. Just recently, just last month, we get the direct evidence that the chemical of this sleeping pill is interfering with the brain self-cleansing mechanism. And that's just to account. Now for all this epidemiological research showing us a shorter lifespan and increased incidence of Alzheimer's and so on, we start to wonder why.
Speaker 1:Yeah, if it's affecting the cleansing mechanism of the brain, I would presume it could also be affecting the cleansing mechanism of the rest of the body.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 1:And the function of the liver and how the liver cleanses things and all kinds of different things.
Speaker 2:The research showing an increase in certain forms of liver disease among sleeping pills. We see an increased incidence of glaucoma among sleeping pill users. We see kidney disease more common among sleeping pill users, and the list is surprisingly long.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the filtering systems of the body.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, so interesting yeah.
Speaker 1:And you know if, thinking about the brain, you know there's brain and seems to be and I don't know if this is accurate increases in certain kinds of brain cancers and tumors. And it would be interesting if the sleeping pills have any connection with that too.
Speaker 2:Glioplastomas and things like that. It would be surprising because you see this process at night cleansing the brain, helping the brain to support the immune system.
Speaker 1:Oh. And we do have papers showing an increased incidence of cancer among sleeping pill users us as faith leaders, professional or otherwise, to know about for one, for our own health and for the health in our family, but also to share with members in our faith communities that there is research out, and to talk with your physician and even to press the physician sometimes if they just easily write those prescriptions and saying, well, isn't there some research? You know what about more recent research and things?
Speaker 2:Yes, and that's very reasonable. That's not being a troublemaker.
Speaker 1:Right and to be your own health advocate or as a faith leader, sometimes for us to be a health advocate for somebody in our faith community. So thank you, Dr Sykes. We're going to do another episode on helping people have better sleep habits and things that we can do naturally without the pill.
Speaker 2:Wonderful. I feel so glad to get this information out, yeah.
Speaker 1:And so for people who are watching and listening, please stick around or look for the second part of this or the first part, depending upon which one you see first of this. So, to everybody who's tuning in, god's peace and God's blessings, and see you next time. You have been listening to Tilted Halo with me, kathleen Panning. What did you think about this episode? I'd really like to hear from you. Leave me some comments. Be sure to like, subscribe and share this episode and catch another upcoming episode. For more conversation on ministry, life, mindset and a whole lot more, go to wwwtiltedhalohelpcom, where I've got a resource guide and other resources waiting for you, and be sure to say hi to me, kathleen Panning, on LinkedIn. See you on the next episode.