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Speaker 1: The Alaska Peninsula is one of the densest populations of

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Speaker 1: bears in the world. I've spent a lot of time there,

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Speaker 1: you know, thousands of days out there over the years,

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Speaker 1: and many many nights as well. On one particular shoot

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Speaker 1: we did for the BBC, we were sleeping out there

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Speaker 1: for probably four months, over four months in total, intent

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Speaker 1: in the middle of their country thousand pound carnivores and

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Speaker 1: do tons at your tent in the morning and there

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Speaker 1: could be two, three or four bears in view. There's

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Speaker 1: a lot of precautions you can take, like practical considerations,

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Speaker 1: and then you've just got to remember the bears really

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Speaker 1: aren't looking for trouble. Chris Morrigan travels to remote corners

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Speaker 1: of the planet to film animals in the wild. He

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Speaker 1: gave us a glimpse into what it's like to sleep

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Speaker 1: during these expeditions and the hyper vigilance that it takes

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Speaker 1: to capture a one of a kind shot of an

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Speaker 1: animal with its own unique sleep schedule. I was camping

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Speaker 1: alone on this this one particular little beach, but I

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Speaker 1: was having a lie in one day and at five

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Speaker 1: fifteen in the morning, I hear this sleeping Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: but I hear it outside the tent and it was

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Speaker 1: a wolf. So I was my alarm clock was a

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Speaker 1: wolf at five fifteen in the morning. Usually I've been

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Speaker 1: getting up about four or thirty. For some reason, I didn't,

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Speaker 1: and this wolf woke me up with mind blowing But

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Speaker 1: I packed up my tent that day I had to

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Speaker 1: move sites, and as I turned back to look at

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Speaker 1: the site, this sort of bid farewell to this beautiful

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Speaker 1: spot in the trees, on this little beach, this cove.

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Speaker 1: The wolf came out. It was amazing because I didn't

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Speaker 1: expect to see one of these elusive creatures. And but yeah,

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Speaker 1: there he was, keeping me on the on the on

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Speaker 1: the wolf sleep pattern. You know, time to get up.

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Speaker 1: You know, you might think that an ecologist and filmmaker

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Speaker 1: with a passion for sharing nature's hidden splendors would be

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Speaker 1: immune to the effects of long term, uncomfortable sleeping arrangements

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Speaker 1: as a condition of his job. But as he'll tell us,

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Speaker 1: it hasn't necessarily been Chris's experience. It's funny because I

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Speaker 1: am I'm a big fan of sleep, So it didn't

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Speaker 1: necessarily make the most sense, you know, to go into

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Speaker 1: this line of work. So how exactly and when do

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Speaker 1: Wildlife documentary and sleep while they're out on assignments, and

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Speaker 1: how do they balance getting enough sleep with capturing the

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Speaker 1: perfect footage at just the right moment. We'll go behind

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Speaker 1: the scenes in this episode Sleep in the Wild. Hi,

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Speaker 1: I'm on a hut O'Connor and this is Chasing Sleep

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Speaker 1: and I heart radio production and partnership with Mattress Firm.

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Speaker 1: Nature documentaries are incredibly popular. They're an immersive, easily accessible

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Speaker 1: kind of escapism and given the rate of habit tat loss,

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Speaker 1: there's never been a more important time to spread awareness.

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Speaker 1: Chris Morgan has hosted and narrated Emmy Award winning TV

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Speaker 1: productions and he's the co founder of Wildlife Media. It's

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Speaker 1: a nonprofit that produced Bear Trek, a documentary that follows

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Speaker 1: Chris's journey by motorcycle to some of the most incredible

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Speaker 1: places on Earth, places like Alaska, Peru, the Canadian North,

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Speaker 1: and Borneo. But for someone who values a good night's rest,

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Speaker 1: Chris spends a lot of time sleeping on the ground

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Speaker 1: under the stars. On a recent assignment, Chris joined renowned

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Speaker 1: Korean photographer and naturalist Sioue Young Park in the northeastern

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Speaker 1: forests of Russia to capture images of the elusive and

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Speaker 1: beautiful Siberian tiger. The Siberian tiger is one of the

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Speaker 1: rarest animals on the planet. Just four hundred are estimated

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Speaker 1: to live in the wild, all of them hidden within

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Speaker 1: this incredibly remote, frozen landscape. Park spent five years filming

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Speaker 1: for months at a time in negative twenty two degree weather.

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Speaker 1: Chris observed the stamina and sleep process required for this

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Speaker 1: remarkable feat firsthand as Park recreated his experience for the

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Speaker 1: PBS documentary Siberian Tiger Quest. We've lost about ninety seven

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Speaker 1: of tigers around the world just in the last hundred years.

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Speaker 1: Wherever they are, they're special, and these ones are particularly

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Speaker 1: special because they're out there on their own in this

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Speaker 1: little corner of Russia, in an area about the same

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Speaker 1: size as Washington State. The physical and emotional effects of

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Speaker 1: around the clock work schedule and hostile environments can really

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Speaker 1: take its toll, and hiding in plain sight from one

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Speaker 1: of the planet's most lethal predators is no easy feat.

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Speaker 1: As Chris learned from Park, he had a four by

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Speaker 1: six hole in the ground that was his hide, tiny

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Speaker 1: little space that you couldn't stand up and you could

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Speaker 1: just about sit up straight in And in the first

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Speaker 1: year that he was there, he spent seven months in

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Speaker 1: that hole in the ground and it was his hide,

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Speaker 1: white to film and seeing capture on film for the

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Speaker 1: first time Siberian tigers. No one had done it before.

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Speaker 1: But then he goes on to say that he was

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Speaker 1: doing this in the winter months, which is the best

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Speaker 1: time to see the tigers. There. At one point, I say,

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Speaker 1: and how long was it till you saw your first tiger?

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Speaker 1: And he said, oh, two or three months. I just

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Speaker 1: learned so much from the guy. He must have had

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Speaker 1: some on off switch where he could sleep at a

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Speaker 1: moment's notice and be able to just wait out the

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Speaker 1: hours until a cat showed up. And he has insane

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Speaker 1: stories of one more than one getting onto the roof

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Speaker 1: of his hide. At one point one of them swiped

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Speaker 1: past his his camera on his hand, and he had

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Speaker 1: some really up close intense experiences with him. Well, you

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Speaker 1: have to be tough as nails to camp out perfectly

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Speaker 1: still in this little hide for five months at a time.

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Speaker 1: So how did he sleep in there? He didn't get

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Speaker 1: much sleep, but he had plenty of warm sleeping bags

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Speaker 1: and enough to get him through the winters, you know,

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Speaker 1: and but of course no fire, because he didn't want

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Speaker 1: to give his sent away or the well of anything

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Speaker 1: sort of human like. He'd be able to stretch out there,

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Speaker 1: you know. It's about six ft long, this hole in

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Speaker 1: the ground, so we could stretch out straight, you know,

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Speaker 1: and take naps. He sort of talked me through the

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Speaker 1: process of this and left me to it. I built

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Speaker 1: a platform in the woods where I could try and

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Speaker 1: sort of recreate a little bit what he did and

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Speaker 1: how he did it. I don't know how he pulled

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Speaker 1: it off, you know, but the proof is in his footage.

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Speaker 1: I think at one point you said that your mustache

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Speaker 1: felt like it was freezing. And when you're sleeping out

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Speaker 1: there on that platform in the middle of the night,

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Speaker 1: you had to wake up because it was so cold,

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Speaker 1: And I think you said, put on warmer clothes. What

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Speaker 1: is it like, you know, for you sleeping out there

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Speaker 1: in the dead of night in Siberia, And do you

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Speaker 1: have to do anything to be able to sleep out there?

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Speaker 1: I think the most important thing is making sure you've

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Speaker 1: got enough layer so you can add them and lose

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Speaker 1: them as you need to. But I ended up wearing

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Speaker 1: everything I've got because it was damn cold, you know,

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Speaker 1: So just a really good down sleeping bag, a really

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Speaker 1: good thermal mattress, you know, just there's at least a

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Speaker 1: couple of inches thick that keeps you off the ground,

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Speaker 1: or in this case, keeps you off this wooden platform

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Speaker 1: that i'd built in the forest. I had a tent

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Speaker 1: around me as well to keep off some of the cold.

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Speaker 1: But there's not much you can do much more than that,

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Speaker 1: other than just making sure that you're wearing really good thermals.

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Speaker 1: You know, when it comes down to it, it is

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Speaker 1: like really good wool thermals. There's nothing better than a

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Speaker 1: sheep to keep you warm at night. You know, they've

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Speaker 1: learned over thousands of years out to stay warm. I

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Speaker 1: also use those chemical handwarm as a lot. I actually

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Speaker 1: get really quite bad circulations, so that often wakes me up,

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Speaker 1: you know, my fingers or toes are called. So just

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Speaker 1: having those chemical handwarm as handy is really good. And

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Speaker 1: you keep all your clothes on and you're ready for

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Speaker 1: action to jump out of a tent or sleeping magg

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Speaker 1: at any moment if something happens, to film or watch

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Speaker 1: or record round the clock vigilance Disrupted sleep routines and

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Speaker 1: less than ideal conditions create a world of challenges for

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Speaker 1: professionals like Chris. Dr Jade Woo is a board certified

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Speaker 1: sleep medicine specialist and a research or at University School

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Speaker 1: of Medicine, and Chris's story reminds her of another population.

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Speaker 1: What this reminds me of is actually people with a

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Speaker 1: military background, because when people are deployed, for example, they

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Speaker 1: really do need to be up at a moment's notice.

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Speaker 1: It can be any time of night or day. You know,

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Speaker 1: there's not much preparation for it, not much advanced notice,

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Speaker 1: if any at all. And the pattern that I see

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Speaker 1: when they get home when they're living a civilian life

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Speaker 1: now is that they're more on high alert. So even

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Speaker 1: when they intellectually know that all is safe and they're

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Speaker 1: not on duty they don't have to do anything at night,

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Speaker 1: their body is still wired to be more on high alert,

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Speaker 1: more easily woken up. And I think this is probably

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Speaker 1: similar for Chris because he's also used to having to

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Speaker 1: just pop up into consciousness and be ready to function

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Speaker 1: right away. So yeah, I can see how it would

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Speaker 1: be more difficult to sleep long stretches, more difficult maybe

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Speaker 1: to relax into deep sleep and maybe more easily woken

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Speaker 1: by small noises or lights. While Chris has a lot

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Speaker 1: of experience filming at night in a state of hyper vigilance,

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Speaker 1: has heightened awareness of his surroundings and dedication to the

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Speaker 1: wild life that he's there to research, has a big

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Speaker 1: advantage when it comes to establishing a sleep pattern that

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Speaker 1: won't compromise the shoot. One of the things I've noticed

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Speaker 1: from a lot of your your films and your shows

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Speaker 1: is you you do a lot of work at night.

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Speaker 1: Are you naturally a night owl? Is that sort of

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Speaker 1: a prerequisite for the job? I am a bit more

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Speaker 1: of a night owl. I'm not an early morning guy,

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Speaker 1: but I have found that I which sounds weird, doesn't

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Speaker 1: it for a whild left guy, But I found I'm

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Speaker 1: able to adjust quite well, and especially on longer trips

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Speaker 1: into the wilderness where I kind of get a chance

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Speaker 1: to just start to flow with the rhythms of nature,

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Speaker 1: and the rhythms of nature or what the animals, the

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Speaker 1: wild animals that we are there to see research, the

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Speaker 1: film record, whatever it would be there, They're of course

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Speaker 1: tuned into that rhythm of nature really well. Because if

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Speaker 1: there are thousands of years of uninterrupted history with that

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Speaker 1: natural circadian rhythm right of sleep cycles, whereas we've lost

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Speaker 1: touch with it, you know, with alarm clocks and TV

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Speaker 1: till late at night, and you know, changing our clocks

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Speaker 1: and all kinds of disruptions to that natural cycle. But

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Speaker 1: these wild creatures do it well. And I've noticed that

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Speaker 1: I can kind of switch. If I'm giving enough days,

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Speaker 1: I can kind of switch into the same rhythm as

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Speaker 1: the animals that we they're looking for. We'll be right

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Speaker 1: back after a brief message from our partners at Mattress Firm,

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Speaker 1: and now back to chasing sleep. If you think about

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Speaker 1: your own bedtime routine, maybe brushing your teeth, had a

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Speaker 1: sink in a bathroom, adjusting the temperature in your bedroom,

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Speaker 1: or putting on pagile was you're giving your brain cues

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Speaker 1: that it's time to go to sleep. Dr Wu says

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Speaker 1: that ideally you'd create as much separation as possible between

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Speaker 1: your waking life and sleeping life for your best chance

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Speaker 1: at a good night's rest. But what about someone like

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Speaker 1: Chris who has been living with a heightened state of

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Speaker 1: awareness of his surroundings and all kinds of disruptions to

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Speaker 1: sleep for weeks or months at a time and can't

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Speaker 1: give his brain those traditional signals when he is out

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Speaker 1: on a project and you know, he can't have home

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Speaker 1: mode and these relaxing sort of cues for the body.

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Speaker 1: I would say, really using napping strategically is good. Funny.

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Speaker 1: Dr Wu should mention that, as Chris did mention his

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Speaker 1: nontraditional method for napping. Once you've been really focused on

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Speaker 1: your target, it can get mentally and physically really exhausting.

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Speaker 1: And if you're out there long enough, you're able to

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Speaker 1: figure out when the animals are active and when they're not,

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Speaker 1: and when and not you can take a nap. So

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Speaker 1: I've got really good at taking literally sometimes a two

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Speaker 1: minute nap. I can put my head down and incident

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Speaker 1: situations out in the middle of nowhere and be asleep

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Speaker 1: in sixty seconds. Take a two or three minute nap,

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Speaker 1: you know, fifteen minutes if you're really lucky. I've learned

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Speaker 1: to do that, and I've learned different positions. I heard

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Speaker 1: the military has this as well. You know, guys in

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Speaker 1: the military are taught if they sleep on their backs

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Speaker 1: with their knees bent and their calves up on a

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Speaker 1: chair Apparently having that blood drained from your legs into

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Speaker 1: your core is good for sleep. So I try to

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Speaker 1: do that, put my feet up, take a nap, get

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Speaker 1: a quick power kip in whenever I can, especially if

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Speaker 1: there's like between action, and it really works. Yeah, I

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Speaker 1: think that's a really good strategy for when you can't

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Speaker 1: get more than two minutes at a time. Hey, two

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Speaker 1: minutes is better than nothing, right, So absolutely I support that.

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Speaker 1: As a parent. Just coming out of the haze of

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Speaker 1: newborn life, I can absolute say two minutes will do

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Speaker 1: something for you. It'll refresh you, It'll give you your

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Speaker 1: body a little bit of a refresh. It's certainly not

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Speaker 1: enough to only sleep in these little chunks throughout the day.

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Speaker 1: We do need to come back down to earth and

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Speaker 1: really replenish our body with deeper, longer, more restorative sleep.

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Speaker 1: But you know, when you're in action mode, you know,

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Speaker 1: if that's what you can get, that's what you can get.

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Speaker 1: So are there any advantages to these conditions? I mean,

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Speaker 1: I have my memory phone, mattress, my white noise machine,

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Speaker 1: my fan, cooling bamboo sheets to help me get my

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Speaker 1: quality sleep. So why is it that someone lying on

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Speaker 1: a frozen platform or in a hole in the ground,

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Speaker 1: could still sleep well, I think, you know, even with

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Speaker 1: a difficult sleep schedule. When he's out there, one major

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Speaker 1: advantage that he has is that he is living by

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Speaker 1: the sun and the moon, right, so he has a

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Speaker 1: much stronger circadia system probably than you or I do

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Speaker 1: because we work indoors, we work in an office, um,

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Speaker 1: and we have to be conscious to make sure we

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Speaker 1: have enough light exposure during the day and not too

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Speaker 1: much screens and you know, light at night to maintain

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Speaker 1: this day night contrast, whereas he just gets that in spades.

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Speaker 1: He's out in the sun all day. He's you know,

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Speaker 1: at the very least getting natural broad spectrum sunlight all

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Speaker 1: day long, and then at night he has maybe his campfire,

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Speaker 1: maybe some devices, but probably not as much as the

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Speaker 1: average person. So you know, in this way, no wonder

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Speaker 1: he is able to function so well even with disruptive

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Speaker 1: sleep is that, you know, his circadian rhythm is at

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Speaker 1: least really really solid, and so whatever sleep he is

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Speaker 1: getting is really good quality sleep. You definitely sort of

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Speaker 1: get into this process of going to sleep when it's

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Speaker 1: dark and then waking up when it's light, and it's

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Speaker 1: exactly what the animals are doing. You just sort of

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Speaker 1: start adapting to that. And there's no reason to stay

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Speaker 1: awake at night at camp in the wilderness after dark,

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Speaker 1: there's nothing to see do what you know, you might

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Speaker 1: as well just sleep and your bloody exhausted anyway. So

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Speaker 1: it depends what time of year though, you know, in

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Speaker 1: Alaska up north as it's it's perpetual daylight a lot

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Speaker 1: of the time, and that whole different subject of like, wow,

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Speaker 1: what do you do then? For Chris or for anybody

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Speaker 1: else that does a lot of traveling or sleeping in

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Speaker 1: unfamiliar or not perfect environments, if you can have like

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Speaker 1: one object that's kind of your like comfy, reliable, Lucky

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Speaker 1: Sleep hat or Lucky sleep I'm ask or Lucky Sleep blanket,

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Speaker 1: then you have something familiar to cue that sleepiness, that

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Speaker 1: ritual or falling asleep, whether you're in the jungles or

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Speaker 1: you know, in a hotel room or wherever, You've got

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Speaker 1: to have these routines while you're out there. You know,

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Speaker 1: breakfast is at this time, lunches at this time unless

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Speaker 1: something gets in the way of it, and then your

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Speaker 1: evening ritual as well. I just love, you know, when

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Speaker 1: I'm in that mode, and I'm up at five o'clock

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Speaker 1: in the morning and watching the sun come up, and

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Speaker 1: you know that the world, the natural world, is coming

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Speaker 1: alive as well. And you know, whether it's wolves or

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Speaker 1: bears or targets, what, you know, they're doing the same thing.

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Speaker 1: You know. They're in their day beds, are in their

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Speaker 1: dens and and they're stretching and slowly waking up. And

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Speaker 1: you're doing the same thing. And you fire up that

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Speaker 1: stove and you hear the boiling water and you see

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Speaker 1: the steam in the early morning and you pour your cupper.

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Speaker 1: I can hear it and smell it. Now you're just

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Speaker 1: talking about it, and it's just you kick back and

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Speaker 1: you're like, this is the start of my day. It's like,

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Speaker 1: I don't know, it's like the best possible coffee commercial

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Speaker 1: you can imagine when you're out in nature doing it.

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Speaker 1: And I just love that part of the day. So

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Speaker 1: even when you're out there, you know, in the middle

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Speaker 1: of Siberia or you know, the jungle or wherever it is,

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Speaker 1: there's still a structure and routine involved in your your

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Speaker 1: daily schedule. It sounds like, yes, it does depend for

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Speaker 1: the longer shoots. Definitely, if you're out there for weeks

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Speaker 1: or months, you've got to have that routine, I think,

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Speaker 1: but then always be ready for something to completely disrupt

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Speaker 1: it and and get in the way of it. And

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Speaker 1: it's usually an animal. You know, you've gotta be ready

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Speaker 1: to jump up at the instant, you know, without a

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Speaker 1: moment's notice, with with gear and to wherewithal to get

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Speaker 1: into the right spot if someone spotted an animal, or

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Speaker 1: if we know that something is happening when you hear something.

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Speaker 1: So it's kind of that blend of like having a routine,

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Speaker 1: but be ready to break a moment's notice. What would

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Speaker 1: you recommend, generally speaking, are some good things to add

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Speaker 1: for an adult until wind down routine, UM, and things

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Speaker 1: that maybe like that you can do on the road.

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Speaker 1: So for someone like Chris who's out there in the wild,

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Speaker 1: if you're Chris, you're out there in the wilderness, you

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Speaker 1: can do a body scan, which you can also do

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Speaker 1: at home, which is where you just walk your attention

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Speaker 1: through your body from head to toe or from toe

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Speaker 1: to head, and you know, without judgment and without trying

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Speaker 1: to change anything. So even if you have pain or

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Speaker 1: discomfort or something like that. UM, just very non judgmentally,

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Speaker 1: ask your body, how does it feel? You know, like, hey,

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Speaker 1: little toe on my left foot, how do you feel,

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Speaker 1: haven't talked to you all day? And you know, moving

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Speaker 1: to the other toes and to your feet, your ankles

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Speaker 1: and slowly and gradually up. And often my patients will say,

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Speaker 1: you know, I did the body scan and by the

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Speaker 1: time I didn't, you know, I've never even made it

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Speaker 1: up to my shoulders and I was asleep on the couch.

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Speaker 1: So whatever you can do to signal that switch, I

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Speaker 1: think would be really helpful to have in the bedtime routine.

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Speaker 1: Sleep never feels so good after a trip like that.

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Speaker 1: It's funny. I love I love traveling, and I love

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Speaker 1: being out in wild places, and I feel lucky and

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Speaker 1: privileged to be there and experience them. It's my life,

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Speaker 1: you know. I love these places deeply, so I put

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Speaker 1: my all into it when I'm there, and then when

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Speaker 1: I get back, oh my god, it just feels so

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Speaker 1: luxuriant to have a bed and to have curtains that

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Speaker 1: you can close, and to need an alarm clock to

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Speaker 1: wake up, and it's like I just kind of hit

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Speaker 1: the sack and don't want to get out of it

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Speaker 1: for a few days once I'm back, and it's really

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Speaker 1: really nice feeling because you feel like, Okay, this is

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Speaker 1: just a but that's all for this episode. Join me

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Speaker 1: again next week when we learn about sleeping in the

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Speaker 1: Final Frontier, how astronauts get the rest they need while

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Speaker 1: working in conditions no human was made to be in.

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Speaker 1: So imagine being so excited to be in space for

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Speaker 1: the first time, looking at the Earth floating you know where,

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Speaker 1: in this weird environment, feeling a little weird, and four

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Speaker 1: hours after launching into space for my first time, I

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Speaker 1: had to go to sleep. We want to hear from you.

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Speaker 1: Leave a rating or review for our show on your

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Speaker 1: podcast player of choice. You can find me on Twitter

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Speaker 1: at on At O'Connor. Until next time, hoping you're living

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Speaker 1: your best while sleeping your best. Chasing Sleep is a

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Speaker 1: production of I Heart Radio and partnership with Mattress Firm.

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Speaker 1: Our executive producer is Molly Sosha. Our EP of post

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Speaker 1: is James Foster. Our supervising producer is Kia Swinton. Our

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Speaker 1: producer is Sierra Kaiser. This episode was written and researched

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Speaker 1: by Erik Leisa and Jesscopatia. This show is hosted by

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Speaker 1: me on a hot O'Connor