from tofluency.com,

along with-- Kate.

And we are back with another conversation

in both British and American English.

Now, be sure to check out the description

for a list of the words and phrases

that we use in this conversation.

And the idea behind this

is to give you a conversation to listen to

so that you can improve your English.

And today, we are going to talk about--

Sleep. Sleep.

Which we're actually talking about this

on the way to the office today,

and coming up with different terms

and different topics of discussion.

We're gonna talk about a lack of sleep,

tips for better sleep,

although we don't know much about that.

No, we're in a little bit

of a not well rested phase in our lives.

Yeah, and a great place to start

is the term "suffering from a lack of sleep."

Uh-huh, sleep deprivation is the extreme end of that,

but right now we're not sleeping very well.

And this just means that you don't get

as much sleep as you need.

How many hours do you need a night do you think?

I've heard that the average for an adult is about eight.

About eight. Yeah.

Yeah. That's a good amount.

Yeah, I've heard six to eight is what most people need.

I do remember, I think it was Margaret Thatcher,

she managed to get by on four hours of sleep.

Wow.

All her life.

That's amazing. Which is crazy.

That is unreal.

I couldn't even imagine that, especially as a child,

you know, going to to bed at seven,

and then they would wake up at one o'clock

to start the day.

It was probably in her adult years.

Okay.

But yeah, she just needed four hours of sleep to get by.

How much sleep do you need to function?

Me, personally? You personally.

Seven. Seven?

Yeah.

Six is okay. Mm-hmm.

Four, I'm entering into that, "Am I alive,

"am I dreaming" territory during the day.

You know? (chuckles) Yeah.

And you sleep--

you're not sleeping very well. No, I'm not.

Ideally, I think I need more sleep than you do.

Yeah, I think so.

I think in a perfect world,

I would sleep nine or 10 hours a night.

(huffs) Nine to 10 hours. I know, I know.

Yeah. Yeah.

But if I get six, then I get that adrenaline going

when I'm not sleeping,

and you just power through.

Yeah, power through, which-- Drink a lot of coffee.

Yeah, to power through means like you just go for it,

and you ride the wave,

and you just keep going even though you're struggling.

It just made me think about

what type of sleep we used to get.

What time we used to go to bed--

Uh-huh. And wake up.

And it was very different to what we do now.

I almost don't want to admit it.

Well, we have to tell 'em.

We used to go to bed--

it was very rare that we went to sleep before 12 o'clock.

Yeah. Before midnight.

Very rare.

And we used to have long lie ins, didn't we?

Yeah, we used to--

in America, we say "sleep in." Oh, yeah.

We used to sleep in until like 9:30 or 10.

Oh, later than that.

Don't--

yeah, well--

That's hard to imagine right now. (chuckles)

And that happened a lot in Spain.

Uh-huh.

We would wake up very late. Mm-hmm.

But we also taught quite late most days.

Mm-hmm.

And I remember those eight o'clock mornings

when I had to get to language school by nine.

They were brutal. Yeah.

At university, too.

(chuckles)

I used to go to bed really late,

and it was very rare that I got up before 11 am.

Did you ever pull an all-nighter?

Oh, yeah.

Every time I had an exam. Uh-huh.

I couldn't sleep before exams.

Mm-hmm. I found it impossible.

Just the nerves? Yeah!

I wasn't that nervous, but it became a habit.

Mm-hmm.

It became a routine for me

that I just couldn't get to sleep before exams.

Sometimes I would procrastinate,

and then I would have a big paper due, or an exam,

and I would pull an all-nighter.

Or several papers or exams. (chuckles)

You pulled an all-nighter once

before you came to visit me

for Christmas. I did!

It was the first time that I went to the UK.

First time I was meeting your friends, meeting your family.

The very first time.

And the night before, I had a major paper due.

Mm-hmm. I pulled an all-nighter.

Yup.

Sent my professor the wrong draft.

I didn't know that. Yes.

Sent my professor the wrong draft.

Then I got on the plane,

and I was so excited to see you

that I couldn't sleep at all.

And it was like 24 hours of travel,

so by the time that I met your family,

I had been awake for 36 hours.

And do you remember what happened in the car?

Well, you came off the plane like a zombie.

(chuckles) Yes. To begin with.

I'm sure that you thought, "Oh,

"this girl that I'm in love with,"

you know, who, you didn't know then,

but would eventually be your wife,

and you're gonna meet her,

and like introduce her to your family,

and I just come off and I'm completely-- (chuckles)

Well, yeah, and that night we went to the pub,

and then the following day we went to a football game.

Mm-hmm. A soccer game.

And it was a big derby between Preston and Bernly.

Like a rivalry. Yeah.

And you fell asleep in the car with your mouth open.

I remember waking up and just feeling

like my mouth was so dry,

and I might have been drooling.

Probably. Can we say drooling?

We took some photos. So embarrassing.

You did?

Yeah, I've never told you that, have I?

No. (chuckles) Yeah.

Well, Mark did.

Let's just blame Mark.

(chuckles)

Movin' on--

That's awful.

(chuckles) Yeah.

I can't believe that.

Speaking of which, though,

are you a light or a heavy sleeper?

I'm an extremely light sleeper.

Yeah, which means that you wake up very easily

during the night. Mm-hmm.

If there's a sound or, you know,

anything that happens, you're awake.

I'm awake instantly. Yeah.

You're a much heavier sleeper.

I didn't used to be.

No? No.

Oh, yeah.

I remember that.

Yeah.

It was before Kate,

I was just a very light sleeper.

Uh-huh.

After Kate, I was a deep sleeper.

It's amazing, it switched like that.

You were such a light sleeper,

and now you don't wake up ever. (laughs)

No. No, I don't.

Well, I do sometimes,

but I will wake up,

and then get back to sleep straight away.

Last night I woke up two or three times,

and I went back to sleep straight away.

Let's move on.

Let's talk about

what you need to do to get ideal sleep.

Mm-hmm.

What are some of the things that you can do

to make sure that you can fall asleep easily--

Uh-huh. And sleep through the night.

And I know I'm probably asking the wrong person.

No, no, no, you are asking the right person.

Just because I'm not doing it,

doesn't mean that I don't think about it all the time.

Right. And I have lots of ideas.

Share them. Okay.

So I think that the first thing

that you need to do to have ideal sleep

is to have a clear mind. Mm-hmm, yup.

So I think that a lot of things that you need to do,

if you have anything that you're worried about,

if you have anything that's causing

you stress during the day,

to just sit down and to make a list, to make a plan,

and that way it's off your chest.

No, it's true, I would-- No.

Write it down. But you don't do that.

No. You tell me.

I tell you. The problems. (chuckles)

You're like my journal. (laughs)

You just, what do we call it when you, uh,

is it like Kate-- I muse.

Yeah, I muse at night.

So before I go to bed, I just think about all the things,

then I tell Jack all of them.

Except now you have these earphones.

You put in earphones,

and just, every now and then, just, "Uh-huh.

"Yup, uh-huh."

Yeah, I mean, (chuckles) it happened last night.

(chuckles) It did.

At one stage I said, "Do you not realize

"I'm listening to a podcast?"

Oh, yes.

(chuckles) Do you not realize that's what I'm doing?

That's okay, because--

because I was just off-loading all of my worries,

all of my problems, all of my stress.

You can have them. Yup.

Especially if you're not really listening.

So that's one thing. Yeah, that works.

I think also it's really important

to not have sugar, or alcohol, caffeine before bed,

'cause that can really mess with your sleep.

Especially now that we're older.

Like I used to be able to drink anything

or eat anything and sleep completely soundly.

What if it's the placebo effect a little bit?

'Cause I used to always have a cup of tea,

this is very British, but, you know,

when we got home from work,

we would have a cup of tea. Mm-hmm.

6:30.

And then again, thinking about it,

I couldn't get to sleep that-- (chuckles)

Maybe that's why you were a light sleeper.

Yeah, 'cause I had caffeine throughout the afternoon.

Yeah.

We used to have eight cups of tea at work a day.

It's not as strong as coffee,

but there's still caffeine in it.

Mm-hmm.

And then when we got home, there's a cup of tea.

Yeah. And then dinner.

That's probably why I was a light sleeper.

There you go.

So caffeine--

So basically, you need to start drinking tea

in the evening now. Why?

So we're equal levels of light sleeper.