The Health Habit We Keep Ignoring

In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Dar Radfar — dentist, sleep health advocate, and founder of Rad Sleep — to talk about something we all think we understand, but probably underestimate:

Sleep.

What started as a conversation about sleep apnea quickly became a much deeper discussion about mental health, mindset, parenting, longevity, and what it actually takes to feel well.

Dar’s perspective is simple but powerful:

You can do the therapy. Read the books. Listen to the podcasts. Practice gratitude and personal development.

But if you’re not sleeping well, it’s hard to turn any of that into real change.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Sleep has a direct influence on your mindset when it comes to anxiety and depression. And we all have bad sleep. A lot of people, I sleep poorly because I have kids or I work too hard. You want to get the maximized uh sleep or the best sleep that you can to be able to use the wisdom uh that you learn to ultimately have a happier life. I mean, all this work that you've done on yourself, the therapy that you do, the retreats that you go to, the self-help books that you read, the podcasts you listen to, if you're not sleeping well, you can't take that and put it into action.

SPEAKER_00 0:35

Welcome to the I Am Wiser Podcast, where the biggest questions in health care and wellness meet the collective wisdom of industry leaders and innovators. I'm Dr. Laura Burdy, and here we explore the intersections of AI, care delivery, telehealth policy, and more. Through the lens of those who are reshaping healthcare. This is not just about theory, it's about lived experience and real industry insights. Let's dive in and get wiser together. Good morning, and welcome to today's episode of the I Am Wiser Podcast with Dr. Laura Purdy, where I explore the real stories behind groundbreaking healthcare innovations and the human impact they have on patients and providers. On that note, I'm delighted to welcome Dr. Dar Radfar, a dentist, innovator, and sleep health advocate whose personal journey with sleep, apnea, led him to revolutionize the way we approach sleep disorders in dental care. Through his clinical expertise, coaching, and breakthrough products, Dr. Rad has helped thousands reclaim their health, their energy, and their quality of life. One night's sleep at a time. Welcome, Dr. Rad. That's so cool. Thanks for being here today.

SPEAKER_01 1:51

Thank you for having me. I mean, you're Rad, your podcast is rad, so it all makes sense for me to be here. So I'm excited to dive into uh sleep and then get some nice pearls given out to some of the listeners here on how to be able to sleep better, sleep uh next to their bed partners and to improve their health, their wealth, and their relationship.

SPEAKER_00 2:12

That's beautiful. I this is a really exciting topic to me, as we spoke before. You know, I'm a mother of five, I own my own business and I work in healthcare. So sleep is, I say the holy grail, or that's the that's the goal. That's one of the things I think about almost every day, is sleep. And I'm interested to hear about your journey as a dentist. So you started out in the field of dentistry, which is really interesting because at least in in healthcare, like allopathic medicine, we think about ENT doctors and we think about sleep medicine doctors being the people who are the gurus on sleep, or maybe neurology, sometimes neurology. But almost never have I heard of dentist kind of being the go-to subject matter expert for sleep. So I I would love to hear a little bit about that. How did you how did you step into that?

SPEAKER_01 3:01

Yeah, you know, I uh I became a dentist in 2002, and uh seven years after I uh seeing patients for just routine dental care, um, I had the unfortunate incident of falling asleep at the wheel and crashing my car into a tree going about 40 miles an hour. Uh, I walked away without a scratch, but it did wake me up in many different ways, uh intended, literally. And um, I realized that there's something going on. I was feeling more tired throughout the day, and it wasn't just because my kids were, you know, uh keeping me up. Uh there was something more going on. I was starting to snore, especially if I had a couple drinks. Uh just feeling very sluggish. In the morning, my energy and mood was not, hey, how's it going? You know, kind of thing at the office. I was a little bit more, I call it grumpy. Uh my staff probably calls it worse. Uh, and so my accident, I ended up getting a home sleep study. Because Lori, look, we don't have time to go to a lab, most of us. So luckily back then the home sleep studies were available, and now it's like a standard to get a home sleep study as opposed to going to a lab. And I got diagnosed with mild sleep apnea. And, you know, I was uh at the tender age of 32 years old, uh, you know, being diagnosed with a condition that I knew almost killed me. Uh, I was wondering what else is going on, right? What else could it have caused that that I don't know yet? And one of the things that it was causing was arrhythmias. I was getting heart arrhythmias um several months before my accident and before the study. So all these were correlated, and uh they gave me a mask called the CPAP machine, continuous positive airway pressure, very sexy to wear, uh, very, very embarrassing, especially if you're like this with a new bed partner. Yeah, yep. That little thing going darf. You know, my first name is DAR, D-A-E R. I was called Darth Vader. Uh, you know, so that that all was uh was fun to deal with for a few months. Yeah, and I couldn't tolerate it. Um, and a few months later, I saw that there was a mouthpiece that dentists can make to actually treat sleep apnea. In 2010, it was uh uh put as a viable uh source of treatment for patients who are mild to moderate sleep apnea. So I was patient zero at my office, and since then I've helped over 3,500 patients with oral appliances. Um, I've trained over 3,000 dentists worldwide on how to do this. Because you said, you know, what does a dentist have to do with it? Well, first of all, we can treat it, um, but we look in the mouth. Like I can look in your mouth, Laura, and be like, hey, you know, uh, how well do you sleep at night? Uh do you feel tired throughout the day? Um, and some of those things are red flags in the dentistry. It's uh grinding of your teeth, uh, dry mouth, headaches in the morning when you wake up. Uh and the other things are medically high blood pressure, acid reflux, depression, anxiety, uh, history of heart issues like arrhythmias, heart attacks, stroke, risk of cancer. Um, if you have sleep apnea and it's left untreated, you have a five times higher risk of cancer of any kind. A University of Wisconsin had a study that they released several years ago. So it links to cancer. Um, you know, so any of these comorbidities, as we call it, they're red flags. And that's when I talk to a patient, I look at the medical history, I look on the mouth, I go, hey, I noticed this. How well do you sleep? If they tell me they don't sleep well, we set them up with a home sleep study and ultimately get them treated with a mask, depending on their severity or an oral appliance.

SPEAKER_00 6:36

Wow. So I'm getting knowledge and wisdom today. I mean, that's really impressive. And so I don't mean to put you on the spot, but I don't know the answer to this. Do you know generally, even if it's not 100% accurate, what percentage of people in the United States suffer from sleep apnea? Or how many do we think?

SPEAKER_01 6:54

Yeah, so it's about 32 to 35% now. Uh so if we've got uh about 300 million plus people, you're looking at about 100 million people have sleep apnea, and more than 80% are left undiagnosed. They have no idea, they've never had a sleep study. So they have it. If they test it, they will test positive. And all those conditions, medically, environmentally, are happening to them. And uh and it's my job to create awareness, like I'm doing with you. So thank you so much for allowing that so that patient can people can self-assess, be like, yeah, I am getting tired in the afternoon. I do have to have three cups of coffee to survive. I am snoring. And if you don't have a bed partner, you can download an app called Snore Lab. It's free. Um you can record yourself, see if you're snoring, right? Uh, and those are all red flags. And then we talked about all the medical stuff as well. And if you see one of those things, even one of those things happening, uh, one of those red flags, either talk to a physician or a dentist that does sleep apnea. Uh, you can Google that nowadays, you can find one anywhere, and get a home sleep study, get yourself tested. It's super easy to wear. You do it in your own bed, uh, and uh get your sketch get diagnosed and then see how bad it is. And if it is bad, those are the treatments. Sure, you could lose weight, that helps, but you know, I was uh underweight since I was a kid. So uh sometimes it's the anatomy of the jaw and uh the anatomy of jaw being a little bit more restricted, there's not enough room to breathe. That's when the mouthpieces really do help to create more room for the tongue against the palate, so there's more air going in.

SPEAKER_00 8:32

You know, this is worth talking about because if you're talking about one in three people that we know of, and if I heard you correctly, 80% are undiagnosed. That is a tremendous number of people. I mean, that's probably more people than have diabetes. It's probably, I don't know how many people have high blood pressure. I don't have the statistics on any of that. But that is a that's a problem. I mean, that's an epidemic. One in three is that's huge. So this is really important to talk about. And you know what's really interesting is being trained as a primary care physician, which I mean, that was a a a while ago, maybe a decade and a half ago. But the things that that we would be taught would would be overweight person in their middle age, right, maybe 50s, right? Or someone who's overweight, or someone who snores a lot. And what I'm hearing from you is that, like we say, and you probably also say, patients don't always read the textbooks. And just because you don't snore, what if you are in your 30s or 20s or you know, young adulthood or later? What if you are of a normal weight? You could still have sleep apnea. And just because you don't have those symptoms doesn't mean that it shouldn't be looked into as a cause of your struggle during the dead time.

SPEAKER_01 9:51

Uh in this country, it's recommended now by the age of 45 to go get a colonoscopy, right? Uh that that's the recommendation by all different types of uh the medical uh board. Uh, there is no recommendation for a home sleep study. One out of 24 people in this country get colon cancer. One out of three people have sleep apnea, and then the results of five times high risk of cancer. If you just Google sleep apnea life expectancy, you'll see studies that show 10 to 15 years off your life. So, as a dentist, as a primary care physician, as a sleep doctor, uh to be able to add that kind of years to someone's life, let alone Laura the quality of life, right? How embarrassing is it for some people to sleep in a in a hotel room with a friend, or when they go camping, or on a bachelor party, or a bachelorette party. I've heard it all. Um, or what something called sleep divorce. Uh, that's actually a thing. Uh a third of couples that sleep in the same house that snore are sleeping in different bedrooms. Uh because you know, one's a light sleeper, the other one isn't. So the intimacy is relatively lost, you know. So there's a social aspect of snoring and sleep apnea. Uh, and then we can dive into the mental health issues. You know, it's estimated that a third of anxiety patients and depressed patients is a result of sleep apnea. I mean, look, we want to get up and feel positive affirmation, have gratitude for life. You know, I don't know if you I journal every night, I do my uh Dr. Joe de Spenza meditations uh in the morning to set the day right, right? Yeah, that resonates with some of you all. How are you gonna be able to have that mindset when you've had poor sleep, didn't get enough oxygen, your heart's racing to get oxygen to your brain, serotonin levels, which is the happy hormone, drops because you're not getting deep sleep because you get this interrupted apneatic events, and then you're supposed to be this happy go, lucky, positive person the next day. You're you're fighting science. Um, first comes sleep, then comes mindset. You can't you can't have uh mindset to fight over uh physiological uh chemistry that happens when we have apneatic events.

SPEAKER_00 12:11

Wow. You just made a fan out of me. I mean, cervical cancer screening, breast cancer screening, colon cancer screening, sleep apnea screening. Why not?

SPEAKER_01 12:22

Yeah, and and how easy is it? With all due respect, uh, you know, I had I I'm over 45 now, and and you gotta get you gotta go through the the the the drinking of the you know the juice and liquids and you gotta go through the purging and then you go get dated, right? And have that I mean that's you gotta just put this device on your hand for a home sleep study, sleep in your own the comfort of your own bed, um send it back to the home sleep testing company. I work with one uh closely in Southern California that I uh send all my patients to, and and the dentists that I train, they send their patients to. So they do hundreds of studies a month, and it's so easy. And then you get the report signed off by a board certified sleep physician that's looking at your results, just like you know, go into a lab. He's he or she is not there looking at you while you're sleeping at night. They come in the next day, they download the data, and and they score it. And so it's such an easy thing to do. And uh and it's uh acknowledge is power. If there is apnea, then there's ways to treat it. And and whether it's through CPAP, through losing weight, through an oral appliance, uh, and even surgery, there's certain certain people are qualified for certain surgeries that can help keep the airway open.

SPEAKER_00 13:35

That's amazing. I'm I'm an advocate. I'm on board. Let's advocate for sleep apnea screening. That's amazing. Does insurance pay for it? I mean, if you want to if you want to screen somebody even as a dentist, will insurance pay for that or does it have to be cash pay?

SPEAKER_01 13:50

Yeah, so medical insurance does provide benefit for the home sleep studies and the the medical um world is understanding that if they are preventing the patient from staying in sleep apnea and not getting treated, they're going to pay a slew of medical expenses with all the comorbidities that we dealt with that we talked about. You know, it's estimated 30% of high blood pressure patients. So if you're high, you have high blood pressure, there's a possibility a 30% chance that if you get it treated for sleep, you're off your medications for blood pressure. I mean, that that that you just reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, which means you reduce medical expenses from the medical insurance. So uh medical insurances are on board, they're providing uh coverage. Obviously, deductibles apply. And if you're HMO, um you can go to your HMO provider and they will give you a home sleep study and they will give you a CPAP machine covered by medical. And even the oral appliance uh that dentists make uh can be reimbursed by Medicare and can be reimbursed by medical PPO. Uh and the dentist can have uh a medical billing company do it for them, or the patient themselves can bill the medical to be able to get reimbursed for the cash fee they pay the dentist.

SPEAKER_00 15:08

This is amazing. I mean, this is practice changing for me. This is fantastic. Thank you for sharing this with me. And hopefully, the people who are listening to this, if you're from the healthcare community, let's think about this more often. Let's think about getting our patients screened for sleep apnea, whether it's at the dentist, whether it's the at the doctor, it probably all ends up the same way at the end. But this is this is huge. I mean, we're talking about life-saving, life prolonging, life-changing, in some instances, comorbidity curing. This is huge. Thanks for sharing.

SPEAKER_01 15:41

Um, yeah, there's a new patient's get a form, a sleep evaluation form that says, do you snore? Uh, do you have high blood pressure? Do you get up to go to the restroom in the middle of the night called Nocturia, which is an indication of possible sleep apnea because you have that fight or flight response, that excited, frightened breathing produces more urine, kind of like that kid that gets excited. Uh you can introduce these terms, right? Um, and going back to kids, let's talk talk about pediatrician or pediatrics. Uh, we're not looking at sleep, not all of us, and and ADHD symptoms, growth rate, uh, all bed wetting, uh, all these are related to pediatric sleep apnea. And it doesn't mean it's the only reason, but we do want to have it evaluated. So now, if you have you said you have children, right? And our primary goal is to provide and protect, right? Whether you're a mom or a dad, um, how do we do that, right? How do we know what to do for our kids? Well, if there are signs of snoring, any snoring of any kind on your kid, you have to have this checked out. Ideally, have it checked out by a pediatric ENT first. Uh, they'll do a CT scan to see if the tonsils or adenoids are obstructing. Uh, my son at two and a half years old, several months after my accident, uh, was snoring. And as I dove into sleep apnea, we took my son to a pediatric ENT. She looked at him and said, Oh wow, yeah, he's he's not getting enough oxygen. He was at 30th percentile in growth, while his sister was at 90th, and his sister is only 20 months older. And electively, as choosing to do surgery on your child electively, is is a hard choice, especially at two and a half. Go get put under, cauterize the tonsils, remove the adenoids. He was getting sick a lot, ear infections. So we had to put tubes in his ears. Why was he getting sick a lot? Because it affects the immune system if you're not sleeping well, right? And man, I can tell you it changed him overnight. Uh, not only was he a happier kid in the mornings when he got up, uh, in a year he went from 30th to 70th percentile in growth. Uh, and then so pediatric ENT is the first step. The second step is orthodontic evaluation to see if there's any sort of expansion, whitening of the jaw, or correction of the jaw that needs to happen so that there's more ability for the tongue to rest against the roof of the mouth to be able to have a better breathing. So, uh, for kids out there, if there's any snoring or you're you there's bed wetting or any ADHD symptoms, it's hard to get them to do a home sleep study. So, really, pediatric ENT and orthodontic evaluation at a young age, don't wait until they get all their adult teeth at the age of 12, 13, 14. Do it at the age of four or five. Uh, you can do expanders at that time and and reduce the chances for of your child ending up snoring or having sleep apnea as an adult.

SPEAKER_00 18:42

I am learning so much. So, okay, so for the children, right, we get the ET referral, which it's really interesting that you say that because tonsils aren't taken out as routinely as they used to be. When I was a child in the 80s, 90s-ish, you would get strep throat two or three times and the tonsils would be taken out, and they probably would get the adenoids while they were in there just for good measure, but that's not really done anymore unless the child really, really, really needs it. So I think that's a really valuable tool, that's a really valuable point for parents to know that that is something we may need to evaluate for. And then orthodontics, that's really interesting because again, I my oldest is 12, second is 10, and they just now have seen an orthodontist for the first time. I would have never thought ever to take them to an orthodontist at that young of an age. So I that's especially when their teeth are just starting to fall out as parents and as non-dentists. I I have no idea. So that's really, really good education that you have there. So tell me what happens then if you check the box on ENT, you check the box on orthodontics, and you're still having a problem. Do they do sleep studies on kids? Is that also is that what happens next then?

SPEAKER_01 19:56

Yeah, they do do sleep studies on kids as well. Uh, it's a little bit more challenging depending on the age, but there could be some neurological issues, you know, the uh that would might indicate medications that could help. Ultimately, uh, you know, most kids grow out of the sleep issue if if it's a uh if it's an issue with with snoring or whatnot, and there's not enough, the tonsils aren't class three or class four, meaning big enough for them to be able to need to be uh cauterized or removed, or their adenoids are not big enough. ENT, pediatric ENTs are not surgery happy. They're very conservative nowadays, as you mentioned. Um but most of the time, if they see obstruction and you're telling them that the kid, the kids bed wetting, they have ADHD symptoms that are starting to show up in school, uh there's snoring involved, they're most likely to do surgery. Um, there is, of course, the need to do surgery when it comes to medical insurance. That's why electively you just don't do it because of strep throat. Yeah. But when there are these other indications and the CT scans are showing uh large enough tonsils and adenoids, then surgery will be recommended.

SPEAKER_00 21:05

Wow, that's fascinating. I I really, you know, I'm I'm learning a lot today, so thank you for that. So let's shift just a little bit because I want to touch on the wisdom. And we talked about because each episode, we like to talk about the wisdom. So we've got a little bit of knowledge. We got some knowledge about sleep apnea. I've gotten a lot of knowledge in this episode, but let's talk about the wisdom because so many people these days focus on things like exercise, diet, obesity is huge, right? These are all of the hot button topics in the United States right now. And I don't feel like sleep is being talked about enough as a measure of wellness, as a priority in our life. In fact, I think a lot of people will sacrifice their sleep to be able to do things like get up and go to the gym or meal prep, or I mean, working out is a big one. So let's talk about the importance of sleep and the wisdom. Behind that.

SPEAKER_01 22:02

Yeah, so you know, when I hear the word wisdom, I think of personal development, I think of mental health, I think of going through some traumas. And, you know, we all have gone through our trauma. Hopefully, we're not playing victim to the trauma. And we're using that as energy and the wisdom from it to be able to be a better human, to live in a state of compassion, and hopefully one day reach some sort of uh area of enlightenment where you look at your fellow human being, and even if they are your enemy, you pause, you don't react in such an egotistical negative fear, jealousy, envious, anger, resentment type of way. Uh, that to me is part of the wisdom. And to be able to think like that, to be able to do the work, um, you do have to sleep well. There's again, we we touch based on sleep has a direct influence on your mindset when it comes to anxiety and depression. And and we all have bad sleep. A lot of people, oh, I sleep poorly because I have kids or I work too hard. Well, and a third of your life is spent sleeping. So you want to get the maximized uh sleep or the best sleep that you can to be able to use the wisdom uh that you learn to ultimately have a happier life. I mean, all this work that you've done on yourself, the therapy that you do, the retreats that you go to, the self-help books that you read, the podcasts you listen to, if you're not sleeping well, you can't take that and and put and put it into action. And so uh that's why I'm a big believer in home sleep studies. If you have anything that's bothering you, don't put don't assume that the sleep that the sleep is bad because you have kids and they're keeping you up. If there are signs of snoring, if the medical comorbidities are starting to show up, um if you're having a hard time, even when you do get a quiet night's sleep and you wake up and you still feel tired, it needs to be evaluated. And you know, again, I'm a big believer in personal development. You know, you you gotta learn how to, you know, do certain things like meditate, like journal. Um, that ultimately itself helps you sleep better and gives you a little bit more uh peace, so to speak, so that the anxiety level drops, so that insomnia is under control. Uh, and and that can be done by journaling. Every night when you go to bed, try to write down 10 things that you were grateful for for the day. I guarantee you some of you listeners will get stuck on number four. You'll be like, what did I miss today? Well, did you walk today? Would you were you able to drink water? Would you be able to turn the faucet and take a shower or brush your teeth where hundreds of millions of people worldwide don't even have running water? We you you have to be able to have at least 10 things that you're grateful for. Then when you go to bed, that intention switches as opposed to living in this I gotta do the email, I gotta take the kids tomorrow, I gotta do this uh for for work, I gotta, you know, all this. You're you're you're going into sleep in a gratitude state. And when you do that, you have a higher likelihood for dropping cortisol levels so that you can have a better night's sleep.

SPEAKER_00 25:20

That is wisdom. There it is. That's the wisdom right there. And you know, what I would say to that is especially I'm gonna speak to a lot of the parents out there because it can, we can get stuck in a thought trap or a mindset of feeling guilty for allowing ourselves to sleep, especially when you have a million children like I do, a million things to do, a whole house that needs something. It's probably dishes, laundry, or vacuuming. At any moment, you may have animals to take care of. And there is a mentality in some areas of society and some people where it feels they feel guilty or they feel like they can't give themselves permission to rest. Or they'll take a nap and apologize, say, I'm so sorry, I had to get some sleep. Or we'll push ourselves to the point of just the dire dismal cliff of exhaustion and say, Okay, everybody, I have to sleep, right? And I think we need to give ourselves permission, especially when you're listening to things like this can decrease cancer, this can decrease cardiovascular mortality, this can keep you from falling asleep at the wheel and crashing your car into a tree. This can make you be present with and for your family and in your own life, and not to mention teaching the good habits to the people that come after you, teaching your children, please take care of your body in this way. We teach them how to shower, we teach them how to go to the bathroom, we teach them how to be physically fit and care for themselves. If we don't model for them these healthy sleeping habits, which obviously trickle over into the rest of our health, what are we doing? Right? So I think we have to give ourselves permission to do it.

SPEAKER_01 27:02

Yeah, and we need to lead by example, right? And so if you do have a problem, get a home sleep study, you can always contact me. Uh, my website, drrad.net, drrad.net, you can contact me through there. I can guide you. I'm here to, I have a vendetta, as you could tell with sleep. Uh, you know, because if we can sleep better, we can lead by example. You know, look, in the morning, I uh it's sunny in California right now. Uh I try to get about 10 minutes of sunlight into my eyes directly in the morning when the sun's not too high yet. That allows for an increase in melatonin production when you sleep at night. At night, we're all addicted to our phones and to our laptops and to our screens. And that blue light will uh bring the natural melatonin down. So then that's when you fall asleep, uh, but but you wake up sporadically. And so uh blue light eliminating glasses, much very important if you're still addicted to your handheld or your or your devices before you go to bed, which we all are guilty of. So, you know, if a kid is on their laptop, iPad, uh, any sort of screen, it takes about an hour for their mental stimulation from the screen to shut down. So that worst thing they could do is be on their phone or be on an iPad before sleep. You need at least that hour break. Uh, adults, minimum of 30 minutes, that break away from the screen. And and and if but if you have to do it, because either you have to scroll, because that's how you fall asleep, or you have to listen to that or watch that YouTube video, at least try to wear some uh the blue light eliminate glasses, which you can find on Amazon. They're very cheap. That can at least help so that your melaton levels are kept higher. And you look, people like drink coffee at dinner and and they're like, Oh, I could still fall asleep. Yeah, but if you measure your sleep with coffee, you'll see that you're not getting into deep sleep very well, right? So try to stay away from energy drinks and caffeine at least eight to ten hours before uh bedtime. That'll help you kind of wind down. Uh, I try to keep the lights dim. If you can keep the light out of your eyes, whether you're wearing uh a blindfold or eye masks, so to speak, um, while you sleep, then when the sun comes up, if you don't have blockout curtains, any bit of light can boom, make you your your cortisol level spike and get ready for the day. So so you may lose that extra 30 minutes if if uh the sun's kind of creeping through the blinds there. So wear an eye mask, that does help as well. These are the things that we need to do and lead by example. And it's okay to have your 12, 13-year-old way and wear an eye mask if their room's not pitch black, you know, get them to do these very safe kind of uh procedures for sleep so that they can get a better night's rest.

SPEAKER_00 29:51

You're making me chuckle to myself because for years, ever since my kids were, you know, old enough to be young and have bedtimes, I have always turned the lights down in the house about two hours before bed. And my fiance, who moved in about a year ago, thought I was crazy. Like, why are you turning all these lights off? I said, I'm turning all these lights off because I need all these little brains to make melatonin, otherwise, none of them are gonna go to sleep. And but I do. I walk around the house in the kitchen light, in the living room light, and the bathroom lights, and I'm like, don't turn the lights on, leave them off. Like, don't just leave them off. But but I do think there is something to that, right? It's almost as a part of our nightly routine. We turn that light off. We're all starting to gear down for beds, our little brains, we can do better with the blue blocking thing, with the blue light blockers. We can do better with that. But turning down the lights, I feel like really does make a difference.

SPEAKER_01 30:43

Yeah, and turning up the lights in the morning if you want to wake up. Like you want to get where you get the day going. And it's uh and you live in certain parts of the country, especially in the winter, like Seattle or the northern states, that get like 225 days of no sunlight, which guess what? They have the worst sleep patterns. They also have the highest rates of uh depression and anxiety per capita, uh, because there's no sun hitting you, vitamin D exposure leading to serotonin uh when it hits your skin, which is the happy hormone that we naturally can produce. So, ultimately speaking, if you're not getting bright light somehow throughout the day, because a lot of us are working from home, uh, you want to get as bright of a light as possible, even during the daytime in your home, to keep yourself kind of awake and give yourself 10-minute breaks and go outside if it's sunny, especially in the morning. Get that sunlight in your eye while you're drinking your coffee. Uh, you know, that it works really, really well. This is how we were trained as humans is sunlight keeps you up, darkness puts you to sleep.

SPEAKER_00 31:48

I love it. Oh, Dr. Rad, thank you for being here today. This has been an incredible conversation. I'm really excited for all the things I've learned. I'm excited for people to hear this episode because I think everyone is gonna learn a little something about how sleep is related to longevity. I think it's definitely a life hack. It's definitely a biohack, right? Like people are wanting to biohack, get more sleep. You'll live longer, you'll be healthier, your children will be healthier, your family will be healthier, your mental health will be better. I think sleep is where it's at. Uh, would you mind really quick, just tell us where we can find you? LinkedIn, website, Instagram, where where can we find you?

SPEAKER_01 32:25

I'm all over the socials. I have some funny videos out there that have gone viral in the dental uh world for me. But uh my website, drrad.net, uh, has links to all my socials. Uh, and anytime if you want to get some information about the home sleep testing, uh, want to contact me directly. Uh D-R-R-A-D.net. Uh, that will link you to all my socials and my email and whatnot. And we can discuss anything that uh troubles you, especially in the world of sleep.

SPEAKER_00 32:53

I love it. Thank you so much, Dr. Rat. I hope you sleep well tonight. I'm sure you will. But thank you for being here today. It's been lovely to meet you.

SPEAKER_01 33:01

Thanks so much for having me. Sleep well, everyone.

SPEAKER_00 33:06

Thank you for tuning in to the I Am Wiser Podcast, where each episode brings us closer to a wiser, more human approach to healthcare. If today's conversation inspired you or sparked new ideas, share it with someone who's ready to rethink healthcare. And if you have a story or innovation that could light the way for others, reach out. We'd love to hear from you. This space is yours too. Don't forget to follow, rate, and review us on your favorite platform. Until next time, stay curious, stay courageous, and stay wiser.