Transcriber: Min Zhang
Reviewer: Michael Nystrom
00:00
We have three things
in common, all of us here.
00:06
We all have a spine, we all sleep,
00:10
and when we were about five years old
and we were playing as children,
00:13
Grandma used to scream: “Posture!”
and all of us would sit up straight.
00:18
And that fear of Grandma
screaming that word,
00:25
even to world-leading influencers,
00:29
doctors who are sat on front row
slouching right now.
00:32
Where is he? Dr. C, we’ve seen you
even though you’re amazing.
00:34
Because everyone in the room
has been slouching.
00:40
Liam at the backstage doing the sound
all day has literally been like this,
00:43
doing his sound because it’s comfy.
00:46
Posture is the eternal
fight against gravity.
00:50
And sitting up like this,
00:54
although Grandma was watching,
she’s very disappointed in some of you.
00:55
This is really hard.
01:01
Whereas this: Oh, yeah.
Get me back here, this is the good spot.
01:03
The thing that Grandma maybe missed
01:08
was that if posture is the eternal
fight against gravity,
01:10
then really we need to consider our sleep.
01:13
It’s great and it’s comfy.
01:16
And the beauty and the difference
between sitting and sleeping
01:18
or standing and sleeping -
01:21
we remember wearing a book
on our heads and doing this very nicely -
01:23
Is that you’re already asleep,
that’s the best bit.
01:27
When you’re uncomfortable
in these positions,
01:32
and this is really my go-to
for TV watching,
01:35
the second you become uncomfortable,
you move because you’re awake.
01:38
The difference with sleep is significant.
01:43
I’m going to share
and prove it to you now.
01:46
You will have all,
at some point in your lives,
01:48
either sat in the back of a car
and gone like this,
01:50
or come to a TEDx and heard
someone like me talk and done that,
01:53
and within ten minutes you wake up,
01:57
and your neck feels
like it’s going to burn off.
01:59
Why didn’t you wake up then?
02:03
Is this a completely different thing
because you’re asleep?
02:05
So I think it’s important
to really address the average human
02:10
because we spend so much time.
02:13
In fact, I met Youngr last night.
He’s so awesome.
02:14
And Youngr was talking to me
about some research that he’d found
02:18
about using whole foods
to reduce the chances of Alzheimer’s.
02:21
You eat for four and a half
years of your life.
02:25
The lady that came on before
who I’m definitely not going to mess with,
02:28
nor am I going to mess with her,
that guy was really big.
02:31
Um, but you exercise on average
for one and a half years of your life.
02:34
In fact, if you add all
of these things up,
02:38
it’s the same amount
of time that you sleep.
02:40
Now, the first or the second talk
by James, which was phenomenal.
02:43
I really know that
if I fail in this mission,
02:48
I know where I'm going for a job.
02:50
By law, we can sue James
if he doesn’t provide us
02:54
with an ergonomic workstation provision
02:57
and an annual screening
of our line work surface.
02:59
But none of you have spent
any time in your ergonomic chair
03:03
because you've all been doing this.
03:05
This gentleman here
is not the average human.
03:10
And this is a chap
I met just near Old Trafford,
03:13
the right side of Manchester.
03:15
Dad that was for you.
03:22
He’s so annoyed with me
that he said don't. He’s gone mad.
03:24
This is a gentleman
that walks into hospital now.
03:29
He had dementia,
but he had a gastro trouble,
03:32
walks into hospital, was bedridden
for two weeks in hospital.
03:34
And that two weeks becomes seven years.
03:37
That position you see
him in there is fixed.
03:39
This is a fixed body shape.
03:41
So think about his personal care
when you can’t separate his legs,
03:44
think about him trying to swallow,
his internal organs, his digestive system,
03:47
his comfort, his pain.
03:51
Who even cares about that?
03:54
He can’t speak. He can’t move.
He can’t be seated. He can’t shower.
03:55
And he spends 23 to 24 hours a day in bed.
04:00
With very, very simple
postural management equipment,
04:04
we bring the bed to him.
04:07
And look at what happens
three months later.
04:09
And that’s not rocket science.
That’s really, really simple.
04:12
If you always do this, you never do this,
and that feels really tight and awful.
04:15
And I’ve discussed the benefits
for somebody like that gentleman.
04:24
But the benefits for you guys
04:28
are that it may well increase
your energy levels.
04:29
I met a lady last night at the TED dinner
who said she was a great sleeper,
04:32
and then she told me that she felt
exhausted every time she woke up.
04:36
It can lessen tension in shoulders, neck.
04:41
If you’re waking up with really
awful tension headaches
04:43
or your shoulders burning through,
04:46
it could have something to do
with your sleep posture.
04:48
This happens to the majority of men.
04:51
Ladies, you’ll be very
grateful for this bit.
04:53
If you want to get back into your
bedroom and you want to stop snoring,
04:56
sleep posture may well be that thing.
05:00
And the best bit is it’s
the most simplest of equations.
05:04
You need to consider
the position you go to sleep in.
05:07
You’ll say, “Well, I don’t stay
in one position.”
05:10
Of course you don’t.
And we don’t want you to.
05:13
You’ve moved a thousand times
just in the four -
05:15
I’ve got to figure this out,
05:18
four minutes and something.
05:20
So the position you go
to sleep in, that’s the software.
05:22
That’s what you guys
are going to address tonight.
05:25
So we are legitimately going
to find a tangible way
05:28
to improve your quality of sleep tonight.
05:30
The second bit is the hardware,
we’ll worry about that next time.
05:33
if you are suffering with sleep,
which is in Manchester.
05:38
By the way, we are
the worst sleep city in England.
05:41
Congratulations to us all.
05:44
That does deserve a round of applause
05:46
because we’re all still smiling,
that is the best bit.
05:48
In Westminster, in December,
05:51
the university discussed
our sleep deprivation.
05:55
So in this room, 74% of you
get less than seven hours,
05:58
one in two, I think, gets less than six
in the Manchester right now.
06:03
Definitely not enough.
06:09
And every day we read a paper
and we read an article that goes:
06:11
“If you don’t get your 7.5 hours,
your nose will fall off,
06:14
you’re going to get dementia,
dying early, miserable death.
06:18
So anyone who’s struggling
with sleep tonight
06:22
is definitely not looking forward to it.
06:24
But there’s nothing to tell us
how to make it better.
06:27
So we see all these articles,
06:32
all these phenomenal scientists on TED,
online, telling us what happens
06:34
with the sleep, why we need it,
and what happens if we don’t get it.
06:38
So this fight between
quantity and quality.
06:42
Who cares about quantity?
06:45
No one in the room is getting any.
06:47
So let’s start focusing on something that
we tangibly can because we can’t focus on.
06:50
I saw James Leinhardt today at TED
and he said, “Get eight hours,”
06:55
and that’s what I’m going to do
because you might hate your partner,
06:58
you might hate your boss,
you might hate your kids,
07:02
you might have a bill you
weren’t expecting.
07:04
There's a million reasons why
you won't sleep tonight.
07:07
Sleep is definitely not going to help.
07:09
Last night, I slept for about an hour.
07:11
And we all know the significance of sleep.
07:18
In fact, you could argue that sleep is
the foundation of all good wellbeing,
07:20
because you wake up tired, you’re doing
nothing about your wellbeing.
07:23
We know it recovers as we know
it restores as it heals us.
07:27
But really, you still can't get the hours.
07:33
It doesn't matter what I tell you.
07:36
How many wonderful nuggets of information
that say if you get eight hours tonight,
07:38
the world will be a fabulous place
and United will win six nil.
07:42
Anyway, back to this.
07:45
What we do know to be true
07:48
is from a piece of conceptual evidence
dating back to 1987, I think it was,
07:50
that talks about the relationship
between a neutral resting spine
07:55
and the speed of recovery
when you’ve had a spinal injury.
07:58
Now, if you look at this board,
it's pretty depressing.
08:02
1.78 billion people have
some sort of chronic pain.
08:05
60% who have chronic pain
suffer with depression.
08:10
Imagine waking up in chronic pain.
08:17
You’re going to be
in an absolute stinky mood,
08:19
and you’re not getting
any sleep because everything hurts.
08:22
You don’t get any sleep, everything hurts,
and you’re in a bad mood.
08:24
This is a cycle that we’re all in.
08:28
I can’t just tell you to get your hours.
That’s not good enough.
08:30
So when you leave tonight, don't worry.
08:35
You don’t have to go and buy
a bed that costs ten grand
08:37
that flies you to the moon
and spins and whatever,
08:40
lavender spray, or a smartwatch
that doesn’t really tell you
08:43
you’ve had a great night’s sleep.
08:45
If you drink a bottle of whiskey tonight,
you’ll have a great night’s sleep,
08:47
The best bit about sleep posture is
08:53
it will cost you absolutely
nothing tonight,
08:56
and I’m going to share how to do it.
08:59
As you know, I work with complex
neurological patient groups.
09:03
But when we realized that
those people have no voice
09:08
and no one really cares about
the people in beds that have no voice,
09:10
we went to meet with a load of athletes.
09:14
And just before Tokyo.
09:16
This is one such athlete
I met, Katy Marchant,
09:18
who is a bronze medal Olympic champion,
and she sadly crashed out of Tokyo.
09:20
But she came to me because she was
at the velodrome down the road
09:27
seven hours a day,
and she complained of knee pain.
09:31
“Right, stiff right SIJ, hip”,
I think, she said.
09:36
And her shoulders were hurting,
09:40
but she said it was all down to the bike
because of course, if you are a cyclist,
09:42
you need to spend your days
like this for aerodynamism,
09:46
which you can’t do much
for your back or neck, I assume.
09:50
It had absolutely nothing
to do with her bike whatsoever.
09:53
If you look at that position, which
I’m going to show you, sorry, front row,
09:58
the second you bring one
leg over the other,
10:03
you've now put yourself in what
we call a provocative posture.
10:05
a research from a very intelligent chap
called Doug Cary out of Australia,
10:16
talks about the fact that if you go
to sleep in a provocative posture,
10:21
you are more likely to wake up
with increased symptoms of pain.
10:24
But let's not even go with references
10:28
or worry about any silly
clinical words that none of us,
10:30
including me, really understand.
10:32
When you bring one leg
over the other, this hip is now diagonal,
10:34
as is my knee when I’ve fallen asleep,
10:37
and this feels, by the way, ‘comfortable’,
10:39
my shoulders going to drop forward.
10:43
And now I’m face planting.
10:45
So if you actually look at the picture,
10:47
you’ll see that Katy had right knee pain
because she was squeezing it into the bed.
10:49
Her stiff SIJ came because
she was twisted like a pretzel.
10:54
And I think you can see what's
going on with the neck.
10:59
And all she needed to do was remember
that if she worked with James,
11:02
she would have been given
an ergonomic chair,
11:07
and if she only stuck a pillow
between her knees or ankles
11:10
and wants to fill that space she would
have looked just like that picture.
11:13
So this isn’t really an experiment
because her naval failed.
11:18
What position do you go to sleep in?
11:22
Because I suspect you sleep
in a provocative posture.
11:26
The provocative posture, by the way, is
one where both knees touch the bed.
11:29
So if you are a tackler and it's the
only way you can go to sleep
11:33
because it’s comfy, don’t forget
that every pregnant woman
11:36
that went to the doctor and found out
that they were a pregnant and a tackler,
11:39
the doctor said, “It’s time to move
onto your left-hand side.”
11:43
They all did it. So you can’t not only.
11:46
There’s only two positions I’d recommend,
11:49
and I’m recommending this based
on our experience in health care,
11:52
because these are the two
positions we put our patients in
11:56
for 2 to 4 hours at a time.
11:59
There’s one significant difference
between our two patients here.
12:01
One, as you can see, is supported,
and we maintain good body shape
12:05
and we preserve somebody’s body,
internal organs are working,
12:09
lung capacity is nice and lovely.
12:12
And that’s just horrendous to watch.
12:14
These guys can’t speak.
12:20
So you guys have moved probably
100 times in the 12 minutes I’ve spoken.
12:21
These people are put for 2 to 4 hours
12:27
and can't tell you that
they're uncomfortable.
12:29
And none of us have a clue how to do this.
12:31
None of you in the room have
a clue how to sleep properly.
12:33
So we called them the soldier
and the dreamer. Very simple.
12:38
Just remember Grandma.
She’s screaming at you right now.
12:41
Standing nice, standing up straight,
shoulders, hips, knees and ankles.
12:45
And seated posture,
I think we’ve been there.
12:48
Oh, yeah, that's better actually.
12:51
these positions are the only
two that you can control.
12:56
The only two you can control
when you go to sleep.
13:00
What happens thereafter is anyone's guess.
13:02
And I'm not here to maintain
a singular posture.
13:04
In fact, if you sat like this
throughout my talk,
13:07
which some of you have done and you didn’t
have to, you still get a point.
13:09
This is really hard, actually.
This is why. Yeah. Just there.
13:13
So perhaps, there is a way
of reversing this cycle.
13:19
Because if you have chronic pain
or if you are struggling with insomnia,
13:23
then you will definitely be struggling
with your mental health.
13:28
So if you wake up in less pain tomorrow
13:31
just because you stuck a pillow
between your knees and ankles
13:33
and didn’t look like a twisted pretzel,
13:36
you might wake up in less pain.
13:38
If you wake up in less pain,
you’ll be in a better mood,
13:40
and you might even sleep
a little bit better.
13:42
you are either looking after somebody
that you love, like Celia,
13:50
the lady that’s been taking pictures
13:53
who after this will be going
straight to see her mom.
13:55
She’s not seen her in two days.
Or my dad over there.
13:57
Dad, how many times have you been
to the GP this week with Grandma?
14:00
Five. There you go.
14:04
Because at some point in your life,
you’ll be looking after somebody you love.
14:06
Or like my wife, you will be looking after
someone like me for their whole lives.
14:09
this is going to affect all of us.
14:16
It’s not about when we get older,
because if Dad’s had a bad night’s sleep,
14:18
he’s going to be in a bad mood
when he goes and sees Grandma.
14:21
I'd like to dedicate this talk in memory
of my uncle who fell asleep with Covid
14:24
And whilst we know that
sleep posture can save lives,
14:30
we actually are more concerned today
with you going and saving your spines.
14:33
Thank you very much.
14:38