National Sleep Foundation

And that's the truth.

And if you talk to the National Sleep Foundation, they will tell you, oh, well, you need to get eight hours of sleep.

Seven to nine hours is great.

The average for adults, right? The truth is they won't touch the first responder community with a 10 foot pole because they have zero answers for someone who has an irregular shift.

Because what he discovered was far more interesting than any of this, according to him anyway.

Mark is about to reference REM sleep a few times coming up, and REM sleep is what the National Sleep Foundation, I just learned they exist, defines on their website as "rapid eye movement sleep, an active phase of the sleep cycle marked by quick eye movements, high brain activity, and vivid dreams."

But what I actually found was far more interesting than what I was looking for.

Patients with damage to that part of the brain who lost the capacity for REM sleep, uh, they still dreamt.

So often we don't quite know how tired we are because we can override it when we have to.

The other thing is that the National Sleep Foundation have said that sort of the healthy range, and this isn't the average, this is the range, is somewhere between 6 hours and perhaps 10, 10.5 hours.

So it's a, it's a really quite a broad range.

And of course, it changes as we age.

Can you mention some of the lifestyle demands that might make somebody have more of a need to look at something in addition to their diet?

Yeah, so people are going to roll their eyes, right? Because what I'm going to describe is the life that most people live, right? When I talk about a high-stress lifestyle or a chronically stressed lifestyle, it's people who don't get enough sleep, which is, you know, if we say it's seven to nine hours, right? You look at the data from the National Sleep Foundation, and 70% of people are not even getting seven hours of sleep.

Most people are getting five to six hours.

So you do that, and you do that on a regular basis, and you've got 50% higher exposure to cortisol.

Uh, okay.

S- the sleep tips page on the National Sleep Foundation.

Hey, there you go.

They only have 10.

Fourth, sleep is not optional.

The National Sleep Foundation recommends 9 to 11 hours for kids ages 6 to 13. and 8 to 10 hours for teenagers.

Research shows sleep deprivation increases injury risk in young athletes by 70%.

70%.

And if you would like to get a better night's sleep, make your bed in the morning.

A survey by the National Sleep Foundation says it really does make a difference.

People who regularly make their bed each morning were 19% more likely to fall asleep faster at night.

Researchers chalk it up to that feel-good relaxing sensation when you go through the motions of turning down the sheets and climbing into a tidy bed.

So if you care about your kids' health, I want you to understand that you need to be thinking about their sleep health.

Today, we're gonna be highlighting some alarming, quite frankly, new data from the National Sleep Foundation's 2026 Sleep in America poll, which looked at the sleep of children from birth, basically, to the age of 13 and the impact of their sleep on family life, essentially.

Nearly half of the kids in this survey are not consistently getting the sleep that they need, and it's showing up in behavior, mood, learning, and in fact, their parents' own sleep.

If you're a parent, caregiver, pediatric clinician, or you just love a child in your life, This conversation is absolutely for you.

Please share this episode with one person who's struggling with bedtime in their home.

It is a simple way to get science-backed guidance into more families' hands.

Today, I'm joined by Dr. Joseph Dzerzhetsky, who is Senior Vice President of Research and Scientific Affairs at the National Sleep Foundation, where he is essentially leading the charge in terms of their scientific platform including their annual Sleep in America poll, sleep health guidelines, research activities, and he also serves as a national sleep expert and advocate.

The Sleep in America poll is the NSF's flagship survey that each year focuses on a different aspect of sleep in our lives.

For the average person, it's hard to know if a device actually does what it says it does.

Earlier this year at CES, the National Sleep Foundation, a respected organization in the sleep world, rolled out something called Sleep Mark.

The idea is pretty simple.

NSF, in this case, National Sleep Foundation, not Science Foundation, independently evaluate sleep-related products using scientific testing to see whether they actually do what they claim to do.

Companies apply, have their submissions reviewed by staff who evaluate the claims against NSF objective criteria, consensus standards, and the foundation's published guidelines.

The companies must provide documentation and formally attest that they have evaluated and can support their claims.

designation essentially means the product aligns with the national sleep foundation's principles and standards but it's not exactly a technical warranty or a clinical guarantee of the manufacturer's specific health claims products that meet the criteria though can slap the nsf sleep mark logo on the package i'm not saying someone shouldn't buy a device just because it doesn't have the sleep mark the certification is still pretty new There are plenty of good products that haven't gone through the process, but if a device does have it, you can feel a little more confident.

Just thought it might be a useful resource the next time Sleep Tech comes up on the show.

milligrams of caffeine.

Like the National Sleep Foundation has always said you should never go over 250 in a day.

And so what I would say is, is the juice worth the squeeze, right? And so if you're gonna drink four cups of coffee a day, number one-

You're gonna be talking like an auctioneer.