On Beauty: Dr. Breus
Welcome to ON BEAUTY, a monthly feature highlighting creative, like-minded people who inspire us.
There’s a lot to take in when you read through all of Dr. Michael Breus, Ph.D. (otherwise known as The Sleep Doctor) credentials. Here’s the lowdown: he’s a clinical psychologist and both a diplomate of the American Board of Sleep Medicine and a Fellow of The American Academy of Sleep Medicine. He was one of the youngest people to have passed the Board at age 31 and, with a specialty in Sleep Disorders, and is one of only 168 psychologists in the world with his credentials and distinction.
The Los Angeles-based sleep specialist is on a mission to teach everyone how to sleep better. Whether you suffer from insomnia or you are simply looking to improve your sleep, Breus has the tools, tips, and resources designed to help your body properly function overnight.
Here, The Sleep Doctor reveals the best mattress and pillow, his thoughts on why watching TV before bed is perfectly fine, natural remedies for a goodnight’s sleep, and the app he helped develop to obliterate jet lag.
What does your practice entail and what makes you unique?
Historically, I used to see 25 to 30 patients a day and look at sleep studies at night. I don’t do that anymore. I’m a high-performance sleep coach. I take celebrities, athletes, and politicians, and I find them more time in their day and optimize their sleep at night. That gives them more time to do whatever activity it is that they want to do. It could be working or spending more time with family. I also do jet lag management.
That said, I’m a Ph.D., not an MD, so I cannot prescribe. However, I work with my client’s doctors. Almost everybody that I see, I contact their physician. Everything I do is evidence-based and my patients, they really do better.
What kind of patients do you have? Does everyone have issues with sleeping?
Sleep is one of those unique scenarios that cuts across every single demographic. Everybody has some type of issue at some time in their life with sleep.
To be fair, there’s plenty of people that are good sleepers who would never need my help, but they have a family member or a child or somebody that’s suffering. When I was in formal practice, I worked almost exclusively with snoring and sleep apnea. Most sleep specialists are apnea doctors. It’s the most easily reimbursable of all of the things that are out there. Insomnia, however, is the most popular disorder by far. Roughly a third of the population has difficulty falling asleep two to three times a week, with 10 percent of it being chronic. Then throw in restless leg syndrome, an iron or a dopamine issue where the patient’s legs feel creepy and crawly only when they lie or sit down, which is roughly 30 percent.
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People think all the time, sleep is an on-off switch. Nothing could be further from the truth. It’s more like slowly pulling your foot off the gas and slowly putting your foot on the brake.
Give me some examples of how you might solve a sleep issue?
If you’re a super high-end client, we do a 90-minute interview. I review all of your medical history and then we do bloodwork, if necessary. I’m looking for deficiencies like vitamin D, magnesium, and iron. Those are the three biggies. If they have any levels of deficiency on those, that’s the first level of supplementation. Once we can get those off the table, then we move into formal sleep coaching.
The next phase is genetic testing. I do full-on DNA genetic testing. If you have your 23 and Me or your ancestry.com data, I can take that data and run it through an algorithm looking at 74 different sleep markers, and I can predict with a fair level of certainty what your sleep is going to look like in the future. I use it as a roadmap to help people. I can say, according to your genetics, in about 15 years, you’ve got a 45 percent chance of getting sleep apnea. We’re going to make sure that you stay pretty lean. We’re going to do some respiratory testing to make sure your lungs are good and that you don’t have asthma, things like that.
Some people are genetically shitty sleepers. If I know that about a person, then I might suggest getting the best lighting or the best sound attenuation. We’re going to get the best mattress and the best pillow, too.
What’s your go-to pillow and mattress?
There’s nothing fun about buying a mattress, but my favorite is Hastens. I have one, I love it. A less expensive mattress is Simmons BeautyRest Black or Platinum Hybrid. It’s one of my all-time favorites. It’s a 10-year product. If you want something that’s a little bit less expensive, that’s still got really good quality materials; I like Luma. They make a very high-quality latex product.
Pillow wise, I like Bed Gear because you have to take a short quiz beforehand and then it fits you to the pillow. I’ve taken the quiz and all of the questions that they ask are similar questions to what I might ask a patient.
How do you feel about time-restricted digital? Do you have patients eliminate screen time?
I’m unique in that aspect. I’m the only sleep doctor that I know of that tells people it’s okay to fall asleep with the television on. When I met my wife 21 years ago, she said, “Michael, if we ever happen to have a sleepover, I need to tell you that I fall asleep with the television on. I said, “Don’t worry, I’ll fix that.” If you’ve ever tried to fix something in your bed partner, it doesn’t go particularly well, ever. So I was unable to, quote, fix her. Instead, I decided to study her and when I did, I discovered relatively quickly that she wasn’t actually watching the television; she was listening to it. She was doing it to distract herself from her daily thoughts, which makes perfect sense. When you go into your evening, it’s the time when all those thoughts come flooding in, so it’s super easy to have a level of anxiety.
I give my clients distraction techniques. There are times where we would prescribe medication, usually to break the cycle of insomnia. I should add I’m not a fan of keeping people on drugs for extended periods. Now, to be fair, I have patients who’ve been on drugs for 15 years. There are some patients that I have inherited from other doctors and some people I cannot get off drugs. Some people I can get them on and off pretty easily.
However, I am a fan of turning off blue light close to you. But like I said before, I don’t really care about the TV because I had this whole experience with my wife and I discovered that most insomniacs fall asleep with the television on and they do that merely to distract themselves. But the devices that I do like turned off are telephones, tablets, and laptops. There are two reasons. One is proximity. They’re just much closer to your eyeballs and that’s what’s being affected by the blue light. There are specific cells in your eye called melanopsin cells and these react specifically to 460 to 480 nanometers of light.
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My bedroom evaluation is based on the five senses sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell. I look for areas in a bedroom that are going to make sleep more difficult in those five senses and I leverage those five senses to get better sleep.
But here’s the thing. If you’re trying to get your high score on Candy Crush right before bed, you’re not going to sleep. People think all the time, sleep is an on-off switch. Nothing could be further from the truth. It’s more like slowly pulling your foot off the gas and slowly putting your foot on the brake. You need some runway to get your body there. Checking Facebook and trying to get your best solitaire score before bed isn’t the way to do it. You don’t need to mess with your brain until it’s literally collapsing. Instead, meditate, relax, pray, listen to some music, read a book.
When it comes to scent, is there anything in terms of sleep that you like?
There are some double-blind placebo-controlled studies looking at aroma and aromatherapy. There’s one that was done that showed the mere smell of coffee in the morning will cause an alertness response.
Also, there were two double-blind placebo-controlled studies that looked at ylang-ylang, which seems to have some effect, as does Lavender. And then there seems to be a small effect of vanilla.
I’m a fan of aromatherapy, and that’s part of what I do with my bedroom evaluation. My bedroom evaluation is based on the five senses sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell. I look for areas in a bedroom that are going to make sleep more difficult in those five senses and I leverage those five senses to get better sleep. So I might use biological lighting or things like that.
Let’s talk about beauty sleep.
Beauty sleep is real and women have more problems sleeping than men due to hormones and aging. Women have more sleep disruptions during the premenstrual and menstrual times of the month—including difficulty getting to sleep, nighttime awakenings, sleep disturbances, and vivid dreams. For PMS, I recommend increasing your intake of liquids, take extra calcium, take 400 mg of magnesium, take 100 mg vitamin B6, eliminate all caffeine starting at 2:00 p.m., exercise in the early morning with sunlight, and don’t drink alcohol within 3 hours of bedtime.
Also, lack of sleep can make your skin look swollen and can accentuate dark circles. Because sleep deprivation leads to poor circulation (which is how hair and skin get their nutrients), poor sleep is linked to facial wrinkles and thinning hair or even total hair loss.
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Sleep is one of those unique scenarios that cuts across every single demographic. Everybody has some type of issue at some time in their life with sleep.
What are some natural remedies you suggest for sleep? Are there any specific foods you recommend?
I’ve written extensively about this topic. There’s a lot of information about food, but there is no one specific diet that is best for sleep. However, a variety of whole foods and a low-glycemic diet are a good place to start. Vitamin B is probably the best vitamin for sleep regulation. B1 helps with sleep patterns, B9 improves mood and sleep, and B12 influences circadian rhythms. Magnesium, on the other hand, helps the internal sleep pacemaker and melatonin production.
Favorite ritual?
I have a couple. For the last two years, at the end of my shower, I take the last minute and I face the water so that it’s literally hitting me straight in the forehead. It’s a little bit difficult to breathe, which means I have to breathe through my mouth. This slows my breathing down pretty significantly. I grab the handle and every 10 to 20 seconds, I make it a little colder. Basically, I do a cold plunge in the mornings after my 1 minute of meditation.
The second ritual I do in the morning is I wake up at 6:30 a.m. I take my dogs out. While they’re doing what they need to do, I take my shoes off and I put my feet on the earth. I have a particular breathing technique that I learned from Wim Hof. I was actually fortunate enough to work with Wim at a private event and he taught me some really cool breathing techniques. So I stand outside with my toes in the dirt and I breathe for about three minutes in the mornings. I can’t tell you why, but it feels really good.
Favorite scent?
Every day I wear Cartier Pasha. Also, when I’m walking in the mall and I walk by one of those pretzel places, those are pretty compelling. I like that smell a lot. Also, I like it when I go into a ice cream or a gelato shop and they’re making the waffle cones. I’m that guy. I’m down with fresh bread or cookies.
Do you have any tips for long-haul flights?
My number one tip for long haul flights is to download a specific app call Time Shifter. Full disclosure, I’m an investor in the app as well as a developer. It is a NASA algorithm that we licensed and we got the professors on board to make it work for jet-lag. We use caffeine light mapping and melatonin in a very particular order based on where you are, where you’re going, and the timing of your flight and we can obliterate jet lag, 100 percent. What I do with all my patients is I get them on the app.
What’s your favorite beauty food?
If you’re looking for things that will help you fall asleep, carbohydrates are the best. Carbs increase serotonin. That’s why they’re called comfort foods. It’s because they release serotonin into your brain that makes you feel comfortable and then allows the natural sleep process to take over.
I’m often recommending a 200 to 250 calorie snack before bed. People should not go to bed hungry. But at the same time, it’s probably not the best idea to go to bed with a bowl of Lucky Charms in you. A non-sugar cereal with non-dairy liquid in it, like almond milk, or you could do an apple with nut butter on it. We’re looking for about 70 percent carbohydrates, about 30 percent protein, something that’s not hard on your stomach, but able to produce that level of serotonin to help you fall asleep.
What’s your vice?
My vice is definitely ice cream and French bulldogs. I’m a vanilla person and I love gelato. I also try to watch the calories. There’s a company that I work with whose ice cream I eat all the time. It’s called Night Food. It’s an ice cream that was designed specifically to be sleep-friendly. It’s that 70:30 ratio that I was talking about earlier. It’s not like melatonin flavored ice cream. For example, all of the chocolate is non-caffeinated. It’s something called Chocamine.
Do you have any charms or talismans?
I have a couple. I met this designer named Chris Pan and he makes these interesting bracelets called What’s Your Word? I wear them and it reminds me of things that I’m trying to keep present in my mind. The two words that are on my bracelet are positivity and patience. I also wear a bracelet that I got from a close friend of mine, which is hematite. I’m not really a crystal guy, but I like it.
LEARN MORE:
The Sleep Doctor
