THESE 3 Nighttime Habits Age You Faster

Added: 2026-05-28

[00:00:00]These are the top three things we would never do after 7:00 p.m. You need a good night's sleep. And if you do these three things, there's a good chance you're not going to get it. Number three, Dr. Dand, what is it? I would pick not looking at the news. A lot of people, they browse the evening news increasingly now on their phones, and this is extremely detrimental for health. In fact, I would prefer that you are minimizing contact with the news at all moments during the day, mornings too, but evenings especially. What you have to remember is that sleep is so important is when you heal, you replenish your cells, they power up again for the next day, including your mitochondria. You do not want to do anything that will potentially affect your sleep. So nowadays, the mainstream news is not designed to inform. These are not the good old days of the last century when people would hear the news once a day, even during terrible times like the Great Depression and World War II. How it's this constant cycle and the algorithm is not your friend. It is deliberately feeding you things that are going to work you up. So, if you're somebody that browses the news, and this can happen via social media, understand that you are very likely to be getting fed stories that are going to work you up. You're going to want to comment, share with other people. Please do not do that after 7:00 p.m. and jeopardize your sleep because your cortisol level has gone up.

[00:01:30]>> Completely agree with this. I actually feel very strongly about this. It's very rare that anyone I've ever met watches the news late at night or really watches consistently watches the news for many hours and feels better after. I mean, you yourself, you don't watch the news very often, do you?

[00:01:45]>> No, I think that what you said is that the news isn't meant to inform anymore.

[00:01:48]It's actually meant to inflame. And I think that's really like the driving factor of just this increasing cortisol spike, disruption of sleep. And people probably get worked up over it as well.

[00:01:57]And they do get worked up over it.

[00:01:59]>> They do. And this is why I'm actually a huge fan of stoicism. There's a lot of confusion out there. Stoicism, it's not a religion. It's a philosophy way of life. And the great emperor Marcus Aurelius, I was say Dr. Marcus Aurelius, but not Dr. Marcus Aurelius. Marcus Aurelius should have been a doctor though. He was full of so much wisdom.

[00:02:16]One of the greatest men to have ever lived. I encourage you all to check out his book Meditations or at least a summary of it. But he was full of the philosophy that is a a waste of time to get worked up about things you have no control over. And the truth is the news.

[00:02:32]You don't control 99% of it. Yes, be reasonably informed. Know what's going on, but quickly move on and understand that the world is never going to be completely at peace. There will always be things that are going to inflame people, inflame tensions, and inflame society. That's the way of the world.

[00:02:50]So, please not after 7:00 p.m. You need a good rejuvenating sleep.

[00:02:54]>> Completely agree and really like what Dr. Peter said. The news is really not meant to inform these days. It's meant to inflame. So, we're not talking about putting your head in the sand and not knowing what's going on in the world, but going on these main news channels and getting upset and getting inflamed right before you're trying to get ready to go to sleep is a terrible idea. Okay, so I will go next. And that is having sugar after 7:00 p.m. Sugar we know is very bad for your body, certainly in high concentrations. It's even worse at night. I can speak from experience.

[00:03:28]Every time I've had sugar late at night, you go out to a restaurant, you have dessert, I'm up the whole night. It causes a lot of inflammation, insulin surges, it's very bad. Have you guys experienced that?

[00:03:39]>> Yeah, absolutely. Like sugar will delay anybody going to sleep. If you're going to have a dessert or treat, try to have it a bit earlier on. Interesting.

[00:03:47]Alcohol as well would have the same potential effect. I mean obviously it's not advisable to drink a couple of hours before bedtime but some people do but understand that's also a sugar spike potentially and then drop afterwards you hypoglycemic gone over the top the sugar at night and that's that late night stacking and the and the sugars really also cause a position of fat in really dangerous places of your body like your liver and so people can get a fatty liver for that increased weight gain in the central part of the abdomen which is really like a higher risk and it's just a sign of insulin resistance. So, if you're not walking after ingesting carbs or sugars or high fructose corn syrup, it's really all being deposited as fat.

[00:04:26]Yeah, that's a good point. Yeah. And or maybe Yeah, if you do consume sugar, then go for a walk afterwards if you have to because we're realistic. There will be some days where you'll have sugar or be confronted with a dessert.

[00:04:37]Maybe you go to bed a bit later then.

[00:04:39]But yeah, 7:00 p.m. that sounds like a good cut off. If you have dinner at 6:00, maybe have the dessert then and then after 7 sugar.

[00:04:46]>> No, I agree. just when you walk, every time you're walking in, every time you activate your muscle cells, they're actively burning that sugar. And so that's a really important concept of just the muscles as a metabolic organ.

[00:04:58]So if you if you activate those after eating, not only do you feel better, but it actually keeps like your insulin levels down. It's very helpful.

[00:05:05]>> No, I hear a lot from a fair amount of patients that they'll have a couple cookies at night before they go to bed.

[00:05:10]I really always frown upon that. I I I think that's probably a bad habit to get into. It sounds so benign and it sounds so kind of okay to have a couple cookies or whatever it is before you go to bed, but I really think it's bad for your sleep. You are taking a big walk and burning it off. I guess you could rationalize that a bit, but I I really don't think that's a great habit to be in.

[00:05:30]>> It's true. I mean, I actually would love to have cookies before I go to bed. I would do it. I would love to get up and have a don in the morning. I don't. And it's it is about, you know, the self-discipline and we're eating after a certain hour. know that it's not only do those calories add up over the week if you sit down there and punch how many grams of sugar you're ingesting just from like simple carbs you have at night is really really bad but it's just really you have to think about long-term health yeah Peter you mentioned the dword discipline that's unacceptable that's like kryptonite to modern day society not you all watching because we know you're awesome and you realize these eternal truths we think about this I would love to have five cookies before I go to sleep I have a slip sweet tooth as well I'd love to have two donuts in the But I don't because I value my wellbeing. I don't want my sugar to go up. I don't want to get insulin resistant and my desire to avoid that is greater than my desire for that particular sugary treat. Most people have a a sweet tooth. So >> I have a cup of tea and I crave my cravings for snacking and sugar intake.

[00:06:28]And so >> yeah, >> well that's one thing you can substitute. So consider that if you are having sugary foods at night, consider a cup of tea instead.

[00:06:37]>> Maybe I'll try to. Sorry to interrupt, but yeah, without sugar. I don't put sugar in my tea anymore, but a bit of milk. And I It's part of my relaxation routine at the end of the night.

[00:06:46]Actually, most evenings I have a a small cup of tea.

[00:06:49]>> Dr. Peter, what is the number one thing you would prefer people didn't do after 7:00 p.m.?

[00:06:55]>> As a cardiologist, I would never go to bed angry. And so, it's so important if you've got in a fight with someone, a friend, spouse, partner. It's so easy to do. could be about a lot of different topics, but it's really important to resolve those issues because when you go to bed and you are angry, you have just this increase in your sympathetic tone.

[00:07:15]And let me talk to you a little bit about heart rate variability. So heart rate variability is completely suppressed when your your sympathetic system is increased. So your two different parts of your stress system are your sympathetic, which is your fight or flight, your parasympathetic, which is your pusal response. Heart rate variability is the gap of how you essentially adapt to environmental stress. And so someone with a bigger a bigger gap in able to flex has a more healthy heart rate variability. So someone who goes to bed angry has increased sympathetic tone or increased cortisol and that causes a low heart rate variability. And again heart rate variability is a window into anomic world. We do know that people who have low heart rate variabilities or increased risk of heart disease.

[00:08:01]Actually, people who have a low heart rate variability after a heart attack have an increased risk of mortality or or death. And so, it just shows you a whole cascade of increased cortisol suppressing and lowering the heart rate v variability, disrupt sleep. We know that sleep reduces inflammation. We know that most cardiac events happen in the early morning hours, not during business hours. to 10:00 a.m. actually is probably the peak and where you have the circadian rhythm of increasing spiking cortisol. So if you're fueling that fire going to bed already in an increased fight orflight mode from being upset, it doesn't really it's not going if you go to bed with that fight orflight mode switched on, it's only going to harm.

[00:08:42]>> I really like that you said that Dr. Peter is so important. I mean obviously it links slightly to the mainstream media because people get so worked up but angry. I mean, how many people will have disputes with family, friends?

[00:08:55]Sometimes that stops you from being able to sleep, but a lot of people will sleep, but you still got that elevated course of I actually went to a wedding a couple of years ago. A friend of mine got married and they were exchanging vows and and you had the pastor at the front who was who was guiding them through it and and had like a list of of things that they shouldn't do. But one thing which I thought was fantastic that he said they should never do is go to bed angry. They're going through it.

[00:09:24]Say, "Do you promise to never go to bed angry?" I thought that was really, really good because so many people, especially within a family, will argue.

[00:09:32]But yeah, just make up before you go to bed. Just tell each other you love each other, you're on the same team, if you're talking about spouse, if it's another family member, whoever it is.

[00:09:41]It's a really good habit to get into.

[00:09:44]And I I loved hearing that because a lot of people will go to bed angry with someone especially that they really love and you shouldn't do that.

[00:09:52]>> I think people just get frustrated in a situation be like I'm just going to sleep it off.

[00:09:56]>> Yeah.

[00:09:56]>> And that's not really the correct thing.

[00:09:57]It's probably sometimes the easiest thing to do. But if you look at the biochemical the physiology, it actually is quite dangerous.

[00:10:03]>> Yeah. Yeah, it is.

[00:10:04]>> Well, I'm not surprised that someone that was religious found the same wisdom. So, it's all about health and well-being. So if that wisdom is coming from a religious leader, if it's coming from a doctor, it should all lead to the same source, which is your health and well-being. Thank you for watching.

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