The Snooze Button

One is an actual rock star - Lawrence Gowan from Styx talks about health, fitness and sleeping on the tour bus for rock stars who are, like fine wine, getting better with age. (He also weighs in on Styx not being members yet of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.)The other is a rock star in the sleep world - Dr. Mark Boulos from Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto is Neil's sleep specialist, and offers important information that could completely change the life of someone you care about if sleep issues come along with mental health concerns as well.

Screw your opinion, what does the science say?The Snooze Button is back after an eighteen-month hiatus with an all-star panel of experts to tackle this (t)horny question: Does sex improve your sleep?

Hey, Bedheads! We're back!

Diane Macedo's first book, The Sleep Fix, officially came out today, and we were fortunate to grab some time. (You can win a copy of The Sleep Fix by clicking here.) Diane points out that she and Neil are kind of kindred sleep spirits. They both figured that their sleep challenges were linked to their careers in the media. In Diane's case, Ambien stopped working. Her health was declining. She tried everything. However, relief was coming. Diane the insomniac tackled the problem like Diane Macedo the journalist would - by talking to the world's leading sleep researchers, learning the science, and searching for the truth.

Sleep trackers and tracking technology are among the many obsessive interests of one Jesse Cook, PhD student and perhaps Twitter's most prolific sleep nerd. He's written a ton of papers about trackers and sleep tech. He geeks out with Neil this week on wearables, "nearables" and where the gear is heading. The two also cover Restless Legs Syndrome, and how trackers can serve as beacons for RLS.

This week, Erin Davis and Drift take over The Snooze Button podcast, with Erin fresh from last year's induction into the Broadcasters Hall of Fame. She spent decades waking people up with a smile on one of North America's largest radio morning shows. But now, she focuses on the other end of the sleep experience. Erin's new podcast, Drift, features peaceful bedtime stories to help soothe you toward a comfortable night's rest.

We kick off our third season of The Snooze Button with the return of Dr. Chris Winter, sleep specialist and author of The Rested Child. Chris and Neil get into everything from setting a specific bedtime for kids, to school start times, to smart cribs. They even get into the "cry it out" episode of Mad About You, Simone Biles, and 102 mph fastballs.

We're back on October 11 with a new season, new experts, new celebrity guests and a brand new website! See you then!

Dr. Alex Auerbach is the Director of Wellness and Development for the Toronto Raptors. He joins Neil to talk about all things "north of the neck" for elite athletes. They cover sleep, self-care, the drive that can lead athletes to incredible injury recoveries, and even  the psychology behind performance-enhancing drugs.

Sleeping in space is, quite possibly, one of the least glamorous parts of the entire astronaut experience. It's rarely shown in space movies, unless the sleep leads to some kind of attack from alien baddies. Except that how to allow astronauts to sleep in orbit is quite possibly one of the more difficult things to consider about space travel. Think about it: How do you train for something like that? Sleeping in space is completely unlike sleeping in any other scenario known to humankind. In addition, you can't re-create those conditions on Earth. After all, you have to put an airplane into free fall to duplicate a zero-gravity environment. Not exactly a calming vibe to let you drift off. On the other hand, think about all the cool advantages. For example, you don't sleep on a lumpy mattress – there is no mattress. Then again, there's no cool side of the pillow; you don't need a pillow when you're sleeping in space. But consider this: On the International Space Station, there's another sunrise every 90 minutes. Just imagine what that does to your circadian rhythms. On this week's episode of The Snooze Button podcast, we talk to Astronaut Nicole Stott. In particular, we're fascinated by the answer to the question, “How did you possibly get any sleep the night before you became just the 10th woman in history to walk in space?!” Once we get Nicole's secret to space sleep, as we've done with our other celebrity guests, we pass the science of Nicole's “sleep hack” through the scientific filter of Dr. Michael Grandner from the University of Arizona. This interview was recorded just hours after the latest mission to Mars saw us flying a helicopter out there, and controlling it from here. And we get into far more about the final frontier than just a good night's sleep. Linkapalooza https://twitter.com/Astro_Nicole (Nicole Stott on Twitter) Nicole's amazing book, Back to Earth: What Life in Space Taught Me About Our Home Planet―And Our Mission to Protect It (Affiliate link) A look at Inspiration4, a groundbreaking program from NASA in support of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital https://www.facebook.com/SpaceForArtFoundation/ (The Space for Art Foundation homepage)

The nap is a completely foreign concept to our host, Neil Hedley. Because Neil typically takes an hour or so to fall asleep, intentional short-duration sleep has normally been beyond his grasp. Then, he met Dr. Sara Mednick. Sara is Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of California, Irvine and author of the book, Take a Nap! Change your life (affiliate link). She looked at data from a study involving napping habits in nearly 4,000 elementary school children. Subsequently, she and her team found some fascinating patterns. For example, it turns out that the nap is among the things credited for improvements in cognition, psychological wellness - including what Sara and her team referred to as "grit" - and reduced emotional and behavioral problems. We've talked before about sleep duration, like in two episodes with Dr. Adrian Owen OBE, but we've never gotten into detail on a quick siesta. As a result, that detail shows up here. We talk about everything from how sleep hygiene applies to a short snooze, to the idea of a coffee nap. We're wired to nap, Sara says. Or at least some of us are. Daylight doesn't have the same impact on the crowd that's predisposed for grabbing some quick shut-eye, for example. Furthermore, some people actually get better sleep at night when their day includes a nap. Especially when it happens as far removed as possible from their nighttime sleep. Sara told us, "a twenty-minute nap at any time of the day is really not going to interfere with your sleep." Moreover, she says if you do it earlier in the day, and for a little bit longer, even an hour and a half, "we haven't shown any differences in nighttime sleep." Linkapalooza https://www.saramednick.com/ (You've got to see Sara's website). (Be sure to check out the Nap Wheel!)

When we say that Congresswoman Stacey Plaskett from The US Virgin Islands has a surprising sleep routine, we don't mean that she does anything strange or unusual. It's simply that like so many of us, sleep is something that shows up for Rep. Plaskett when she's run out of things to do. And like our friend Chilina Kennedy from a couple of episodes ago, she's stumbled upon a sleep solution that, according to Dr. Michael Grandner from the University of Arizona, has at least a loose basis in science. Of course, if the name doesn't immediately register, quickly Googling Congresswoman Stacey Plaskett should immediately reveal why we were excited to get her on the show: She had a colossally big day. One that made history. And though it would be easy to dismiss as a "third rail" subject that we shouldn't address on a sleep podcast, she's exactly the kind of person we should be talking to, because the question arises, "How did you possibly manage to fall asleep the night before?" We talk not only about the Congresswoman's ongoing sleep issues, but also things like the study from Dr. Dayna Johnson at Emory University, linking race with sleep in a way that is stark and disturbing. We also get into school start times in The US Virgin Islands, and how our Congressional Representatives go about affecting change when the science is undeniable. However, the Congresswoman has a "mic drop" moment at the end of her interview with Neil, where she makes a veiled reference to sex being good for sleep. We pursue that as a subject of conversation, almost to the point of being uncomfortable, with Dr. Grandner. And you'll be surprised what that conversation reveals about the data concerning sex and sleep. Linkapalooza Congresswoman Stacey Plaskett and her official Congressional web page.

"High performance" is something that most of us share as a common goal, whether by design or by default. After all, no one thinks to themselves, "I really want to be mediocre today." Elite athletes are learning that the key to high performance is in the things they do when they're not playing. Sure, traditionally that has included things like nutrition and training, but tons of research has shown that an hour in the sheets might be better than an hour in the weight room. Dr. Chris Winter is known in the sports world for his work with elite athletes - not only one-on-one, but with entire teams. He's also recognized as a high performance specialist in his own right - a fully board certified neurologist and double board certified sleep specialist, he's been improving sleep at his private clinic and in group consultations with a presence in sleep medicine for more than twenty-five years. His first book, https://amzn.to/3uA7Jro (The Sleep Solution: Why Your Sleep Is Broken and How To Fix It) (affiliate link), just marked its 4th birthday on shelves; now, it's being followed by https://amzn.to/2PE6zMJ (The Rested Child: Why Your Tired, Wired, or Irritable Child May Have a Sleep Disorder--and How to Help) (affiliate link), which is now available for pre-order. It lays out the path for high performance children by first cutting through common misdiagnoses of things like diabetes, learning disorders, chronic pain or others, which actually are just sleep disorders that aren't so carefully disguised. Dr. Winter joins the show and along with host Neil Hedley, has almost a little too much fun, if there is such a thing. They discuss everything from high performance athletes to high performance kids and everything between. Linkapalooza http://www.cvilleneuroandsleep.com/ (Charlottesville Neurology and Sleep Medicine) - Dr. Winter's private clinic. https://twitter.com/sportsleepdoc (Here's a link to Dr. Winter on Twitter).

Actress Chilina Kennedy had a night that most of us can only imagine: Portraying one of her heroes, on Broadway, while that hero sat in the audience watching. As the star of Beautiful: The Carole King Story, Chilina did hundreds of shows as the legendary singer/songwriter. However, our guess is that if you look up the word "pressure", there's probably a picture of Chilina the night before. (Turns out we'd be wrong, according to Chilina.) How do you fall asleep in a situation like that, when you have such a massive day ahead of you? We start exploring that question with people from all walks of life, both famous folks and the everyday people you're probably in line with to get your coffee. For her part, Chilina swears by a calm, comfortable environment when she's trying to sleep - she adds relaxation exercises and body scan processes not only for herself, but for her young son as well. But what does the science say? Enter Dr. Michael Grandner from the University of Arizona, who talks about the difference between relaxation and sleep, and looks at the science behind the routine Chilina has been using for years. In addition, we talk to Michael about something called "sleep friendly ice cream", and Neil's #Beditorial looks at media articles and segments that don't give sleep the attention and seriousness it deserves, by highlighting products with ill-informed claims that offer false hope, and by shunning science in pursuit of click-baity headlines. Plus, we preview next week's show, and give you a peek at the special guest who joins us for the April 19th episode, as we continue talking to people who had to fall asleep the night before a massive day. Linkapalooza Get the latest on Chilina Kennedy and what she's working on (including an exciting new musical) here. Learn more about the "sleep-friendly ice cream" by going to Nightfood's website https://nightfood.com/ (here).

Cognition – specifically, cognitive decline – are at the heart of why The Snooze Button began in the first place. And it's front and center as we officially kick off Season Two of the show, with not only a continuation, but an evolution as well. Our Guests We're excited to welcome Dr. Adrian Owen, OBE back to the show – he was our first guest ever, and we talk not only about his massive study of sleep and cognition that led to conclusions that even the researchers weren't expecting, but get his “signoff” on our approach to the research into cognitive function and sleep that will be the cornerstone of Season Two. If you'd like to revisit the details of the study where Dr. Owen's team found “the sweet spot” for sleep for most people – and what happens to your cognitive function if you get too little or too much sleep compared to that sweet spot, you can find it here (don't worry, it'll open in a new tab). In addition, our friend Dr. Seema Khosla returns for a look at what COVID has done to our sleep, what it's done to sleep research, and what sleep does to COVID, too. Continuation and Evolution Season Two marks a slight shift in not only direction, but also presentation of our show. First, the direction of the show is shifting slightly toward research, in addition to continuing the learning. Season Two continues the conversations with sleep researchers and scientists from around the world, but now also includes Neil's research into his own sleep issues. We'll be talking regularly with celebrities, high achievers and newsmakers who have sleep challenges baked into their day-to-day experience. Each of them will offer Neil a sleep tip which he'll try out for a couple of weeks, testing his cognitive performance and sleep data along the way, and bringing you into the loop so you can see which things worked, and which things didn't. Second, there's the presentation of the show – we're now on YouTube! The YouTube version of the show is the exact same content as the full-length podcast, just with a video element added. We hope you like it. That, too, will evolve as we get better at playing with all the fun video tools. Linkapalooza https://www.cambridgebrainsciences.com/science/tasks (Cambridge Brain Sciences) is the website where you'll find the tests of cognition that Neil and Dr. Owen discussed. There's no charge to take the tests – try them for yourself, and let us know what you find out! This link will take you to Talking Sleep with Dr. Seema Khosla – the official podcast of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. Our Sponsor If you need hosting for a website project, our humble opinion is that you can't do better than Nexcess Managed WordPress Hosting. However, if you https://neilsentme.com/ (click this link) and visit https://neilsentme.com/ (NeilSentMe.com) (affiliate link), you'll get a sweet 25% discount on your first three months! It's the same platform this website sits on, and the platform that our company uses for every website project it's involved in (we currently have six on the go).

COVIDsomnia is its own special brand of sleep disorder, brought on in one way or another by COVID-19. Sleep experts say it's not only the physical toll the virus is taking on the people who've been infected. It's also keeping people awake at night with worry about whether they or their loved ones will get sick, too. We cover COVIDsomnia this week with a couple of experts dealing with very different groups of patients. First, Neil talks with https://drschneeberg.com/ (Dr. Lynelle Schneeberg). She's an Assistant Professor at Yale School of Medicine and Director of the Behavioral Sleep Program at Connecticut Children's Medical Center. She's also the author of the terrific book for parents, https://amzn.to/3keeI4g (Become Your Child's Sleep Coach). (Affiliate link.) Then, we look at COVIDsomnia with Dr. Seema Khosla from the North Dakota Centre for Sleep. You might also have seen her just recently as the sleep expert on Good Morning America. Seema talks about the eleven patients in her practice who've tested positive. We cover a lot of ground in these two conversations. COVIDsomnia sparks discussion about everything from sleep apnea to delaying school start times. LINKAPALOOZA You've heard Dr. Schneeberg on the show before. She was first on with us last October to talk about her book, Become Your Child's Sleep Coach. She also joined the show February 10 to talk about sleep crutches and how they affect kids and adults. In addition to talking about COVIDsomnia this week, Dr. Khosla is a regular guest, too. Among Seema's highlights: We discussed her podcast, Talking Sleep, on our episode from May 24, 2020. She came back in September to talk about wearable sleep trackers. And she was back again last week to talk about the crazy COVID dreams people have been having. That chat was an early intro to the COVIDsomnia conversation in this week's episode.

Okay, we all know that REM sleep is important, so maybe the headline is a little sensationalized; but the data don't lie. Dr. Eileen Leary joins the show this week to talk about a fascinating look at nearly ten thousand people, that points to a reduction in REM sleep as a risk factor for mortality. One of the things that's fascinating about this data is that Eileen tried - repeatedly - to come up with another way to explain what she found. Instead, she can quantify the risk of all-cause mortality that you sign up for when you don't get enough REM sleep. Couple that with the work Laura Bojarskaite is doing at The University of Oslo looking into the glymphatic system and REM sleep, and suddenly we see a picture starting to materialize where deep sleep isn't the holy grail after all. (We talked to Laura on the September 7 episode of The Snooze Button podcast.) Additionally, Dr. Michael Grandner from The University of Arizona talks about amateur epidemiology, and Dr. Seema Khosla from The North Dakota Center for Sleep talks COVID nightmares. We also have an update for Seema about how in love we are with the new https://dreem.com/#ae247 (Dreem 2 headband) (affliate link) that she sent our way, and the changes in REM sleep it's measuring compared to the Fitbit Versa 2.   https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/13590879 (Here's the link to Eileen's dissertation at Stanford). Perhaps better suited to North American attention spans, http://rem-mortality-poster.eileenleary.com/ (here's the infographic version of Eileen's REM sleep study). Note: As I'm writing my book and researching which "hacks" worked and which didn't, I'll be tracking my sleep with a Dreem 2 headband. The people at Dreem didn't give me a tracker to use; far from it, in fact. However, https://dreem.com/#ae247 (if you click this link) or the one above and end up getting a Dreem 2 headband of your own, I get a tiny little "thank you" check from them.

The sleep tracker has become the latest must-have tech gadget. I've gone through at least half a dozen myself as my efforts in tracking my sleep have gone through a number of iterations. The obsession with the data sleep trackers spit out can cause its own special brand of insomnia – orthosomnia, the sleep nerds call it. (We discussed orthosomnia a couple of times on the show before. We've talked to Dr. Seema Khosla about it, and Dr. Jade Wu, among others.) However, trying to find just the right way to go about tracking my sleep served a specific purpose, in my case. I'm writing a book about my lifelong battle with insomnia, and I'm trying to help others by road-testing a number of things that claim to give you a good night's sleep. (I leaked the first three chapters in audiobook form here.) The trouble is, if I don't have a dependable sleep tracker, I have no real way of knowing what worked and what didn't. That's where Dr. Seema Khosla comes in. She's the former chair of the Presidential Technology Committee of the https://aasm.org/ (American Academy of Sleep Medicine). As a result, she has seen every gadget and piece of gear that's out there. She has also tried several of them herself. It Was Like Christmas! Last week, Seema sent me a large box, filled with sleep tracker after sleep tracker. I now have more of these gadgets myself than your average Best Buy. However, my conversations – both on and off the air – with Seema have led me to make a change to my original plan for the book, which was to use a Fitbit Versa 2 as my go-to for tracking my sleep. Few people would take my amateur research project seriously, because the data was likely to be flawed right out of the gate. We talk our way through an “unboxing” of the various devices she sent me, while we save for last the one I'm going to be using going forward. [SPOILER ALERT: I'm going to be tracking my sleep with a Dreem 2 headband. You'll hear us discuss why in the episode. The people at Dreem didn't give me a tracker to use; far from it, in fact. However, https://dreem.com/#ae247 (if you click this link) and end up getting a Dreem 2 headband of your own, I get a tiny little “thank you” check from them.]

You probably know her as “Sleep Coach Beth”, from either her https://amzn.to/32rOdC3 (Calm And Cozy Book of Sleep), the https://pod.link/1344335365 (Calm And Cozy Podcast), or her career as a sleep coach. Beth Wyatt has a Facebook group, too, where people with sleep challenges look to their coach and to each other. This week's episode of The Snooze Button podcast is a long one – and it has to be! The Coach – Sleep Coach Beth Wyatt We talk with Beth about what a sleep coach does when sleep doesn't show up. In addition, we cover meditation, the importance of comfort in sleep, and.. uh.. drawing faces on sleeping people, too. Her new book is less than two months old, and we're excited to pick Beth's brain about a variety of sleep concerns. The Expert – Dr. Atul Malhotra We're also answering a listener email this week from Aimy in the UK, who was looking for an expert's perspective on upper airway resistance syndrome (UARS), with some very specific questions that needed answers. We reached out to arguably the world's leading expert on sleep-disordered breathing, Dr. Atul Malhotra from the UC San Diego School of Medicine. Dr. Malhotra is board certified in pulmonary disease, sleep medicine and critical care medicine. (Fun sidebar: Did you know we have a panel of sleep experts who will answer your questions about a variety of sleep issues? And if you come up with something that isn't in our team's wheelhouse, we'll find an expert who can answer your question. Click here for more details.) The President – Dr. Michael Grandner And finally, we're excited to again welcome Dr. Michael Grandner from the University of Arizona. Michael, newly-minted President-Elect of the Society of Behavioral Sleep Medicine, keeps an eye on sleep research like nobody we know. He's been on the show multiple times to keep us updated. This week, he offers perspective on sleep staging that has changed the way we think about sleep.

Deep sleep has traditionally been the focus of any conversation about dementia and sleep. But that's about to change, if Laura Bojarskaite has anything to say about it. Laura is working on her PhD in Oslo, Norway, with a focus on "brainwashing", or the removal of harmful waste products that accumulate in the brain. (Maybe "brain washing" is a more accurate way to write it.) Dementia is at the heart of Neil's journey into the sleep world to begin with. Similarly, cognition has come up on the show multiple times, too, most notably with Dr. Adrian Owen OBE, in a discussion about cognitive decline associated with sleep deprivation. Equally important, REM sleep removes these waste products as well, according to Laura's research. As a result, people who worry about getting enough deep sleep might be able to breathe a little easier. So if you're obsessing over your tracker data because it says you're not getting enough deep sleep and you're convinced you're headed for a date with Alzheimer's... relax. REM sleep matters in a conversation about dementia, too. As a matter of fact, over and over again we see that all the sleep stages play important roles in all aspects of health, not just cognition. We'd say, "take a deep breath", but Laura gets into that subject, too. More of Laura's work here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-17062-2 (Astrocytic Ca2+ signaling is reduced during sleep and is involved in the regulation of slow wave sleep) Astrocytes Play an Important Role in Maintaining Slow Wave Sleep From Laura's own bio: Laura is a neuroscientist and a yogi from Lithuania, currently living in Norway. Laura is finishing up her PhD degree at the GliaLab at Letten Center at the University of Oslo. Her field of research is astrocytes, sleep and “brainwashing” – clearance of toxins and waste products from the brain.

According to the My Podcast Reviews service, by Daniel J. Lewis, there are as of this writing 1,429,590 valid podcasts in Apple Podcasts. Evo Terra had podcast #40. The 40th podcast ever produced belonged to Evo Terra. And Evo has been battling insomnia for something like fifteen years, often with help from a certain herbal remedy that has been discussed by other guests on the show, particularly the episode with Dr. Ryan Vandrey and the one with Dr. Richard Allen, both from Johns Hopkins University. We talk about the impact said remedy has had on his insomnia, and whether he thinks he's taking a performance hit from his usual four or five hours of sleep per night. In the second part of the show: Ever have a night where it seems like you literally blinked, but you look at the clock and hours have gone by? Or you woke up feeling like you slept pretty well, but your partner's mad at you because you actually were tossing and turning all night long and you have no memory of it? That's something called sleep state misperception - among other things. We'll get into that and a bunch of other insomnia-related topics with Dr. Spencer Dawson from Better Sleep Bloomington. Spencer is a clinical psychologist in private practice specializing in Behavioral Sleep Medicine. He's focused on sleep discrepancy, insomnia comorbid with sleep apnea, narcolepsy, and idiopathic hypersomnia. He's also focused on the puppy who kept him from getting a good night's sleep last night. Neil also has a special invitation for the hundreds of talented researchers and presenters at this year's SLEEP2020 virtual conference. And Hazleburg left a review of The Snooze Button from somewhere in America, and a five-star rating, too. Neil shares that and offers a way for you to leave your own feedback.

Dr. Mark Boulos from Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center in Toronto has just won the 2020 Wayne A Hening Sleep Medicine Investigator Award from the American Academy of Neurology (and he's Neil's sleep doctor). Mark joins the show to talk sleep apnea, where we are with diagnosis and treatment, and new ways of treating sleep apnea that go beyond CPAP. Dr. Michael Grandner from the University of Arizona is back, too, with a look at what we've learned about sleep from what might be the largest science experiment in human history. Photo credit: Doug Nicholson, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre

Fitbit sleep trackers made the cash register ring 16 million times in 2019, according to one report. But how much of the sleep data is actually usable? Fitbits seem to have risen as the cream of the sleep tracker crop, especially considering that the crowded field includes ridiculous items like phone-based apps that claim to be able to track your sleep while they're sitting on your night stand. It's a subject we've spent time looking at before on The Snooze Button podcast, but this week's guest has based a ton of research on real-world sleep tracker data from Fitbits in particular. We've even featured an interview with the lead sleep scientist at Fitbit, Dr. Conor Heneghan, about Fitbit's "sleep score", with details about how it's calculated and what it means. Among the most troubling things about sleep trackers, though, is that people can get so obsessed with the numbers their devices are spitting out that the stress associated with small changes can create their own brand of sleep issues, branded as orthosomnia - a legit sleep disorder that's causing real-world issues for people who haven't considered whether their tracker is even generating accurate data to begin with. The bottom line? Dr. Michael Chee - the award-winning researcher who basically put Singapore on the world sleep map - says there is one nugget of data from a wearable sleep tracker that you can depend on, and that deals with whether there's an overall trend. Sleep staging? Nope. Sleep quality? Nope. Sleep duration? Yeah, kinda. Michael fills us in on the details. Additionally, you can grab some of Michael's research on wearable sleep trackers here.

Dr. Michael Grandner is back for a wide-ranging discussion on a ton of sleep topics, including why sleep doesn't get a ton of attention in med school, and a new study that explores the link between daytime sleepiness and suicide.

Dr. Jason Ellis is regarded as one of the heavyweights of sleep science, particularly when it comes to his work with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia, or CBT-I. In this episode, we talk about Jay's book, The One Week Insomnia Cure, and how a quick hit of CBT-I worked in 73% of patients with acute insomnia. It really is a fascinating and wide-ranging discussion that includes everything from melatonin to med school, and what "the system" can do to make things better. Some key takeaways: “I think that [the COVID-19 pandemic] is actually going to create a lot of opportunities for sleep and sleep funding in the future. In the general population at any given time point, a snapshot of how many people might have acute insomnia works out to about 8% of the population. When I've extrapolated the data from Italy and from China, it looks like it's going to be about 45%. So we're going to see a huge uptake in acute insomnia. And I think that that's going to drive more funding in the future.” “There is actually one study which demonstrates that CBT-I does decrease the symptom profile of RLS/PLMD. Now, what that study showed was, it's not as if it stops somebody from having those periodic limb movements. But what it does do is it keeps them asleep during that time. And so one of the things [CBT-I] does is it deepens sleep. And if you deepen sleep enough, even somebody who's in chronic pain will wake up a lot less. That's why we see CBT-I works quite nicely in lots of pain conditions. And this one study did demonstrate that although people would have those arousals, they wouldn't be woken up by them. So CBT-I is an option.” “Certainly in the UK, the amount of teaching in the area of sleep is minimal. I think it works out something like seven minutes overall.” LINKAPALOOZA Jay's book, The One Week Insomnia Cure on Amazon Jay's study about quick-hit CBT-I and acute insomnia

Dr. Ryan Vandrey from Johns Hopkins University is one of the leading authorities on cannabis, CBD and their impact on sleep and insomnia. He joins Neil for an update on the science related to cannabinoids, and whether cannabis and CBD have a measurable, beneficial impact on sleep, or if the claims about their efficacy as treatments for insomnia are merely marketing hype. Among the key takeaways in this week's episode: "There is data to support that it'll help you get to sleep faster, and that's going to be specific to THC. That has not been demonstrated with CBD." "Cannabis and CBD are being extolled as cures for all kinds of stuff. So we have this interesting scenario where this is an industry born in the illicit drug use market - and it's become licit and legal, but it's not very tightly regulated. So people are making all kinds of claims and marketing and trying to get people to use it for anything and everything. There needs to be some level of skepticism with the claims. And as a scientist, I always say, "Show me the data." "The other thing that's really limited in understanding the effects of cannabis on sleep - especially as a treatment for sleep problems - is that most of the studies have been done have been on healthy individuals without sleep problems." Along with Ryan, Dr. Michael Grandner is back with the latest in sleep science. (And we follow up on a Twitter exchange that revealed a fun blast from Michael's past!) LINKAPALOOZA: Dr. Ryan Vandrey's bio on the Johns Hopkins website (with links to much of his work) Ryan's 2014 study on the intersection of sleep disorders, PTSD and substance abuse Our ranking of The All-Time 15 Best Songs About Sleep The study Michael refers to about a blood test for sleeplessness is here.

Did you know that The Snooze Button podcast is really just the research phase of a book, made public? Now, we're "leaking" the first three chapters of the manuscript, in audiobook form, read by the author - Neil Hedley. Additionally, Dr. Michael Grandner returns with another weekly update on the latest in sleep science. LINKAPALOOZA: https://thesnoozebutton.com/reviews-feedback-support/ (Here's the link) to the page to support The Snooze Button book project. Here's the first of the two studies Michael mentioned. https://jcsm.aasm.org/doi/10.5664/jcsm.8668 (Here's the second) of the two studies Michael referred to.

Known around the world for his WIRED video talking about sleep, Dr. Aric Prather joins the show to talk about his study linking sleep to resistance to the common cold - and how that study can inform our approach to viruses today. But that's just the beginning in a wide-ranging discussion that touches on everything from vaccinations to tweaking the sleep patterns of a 4-year-old. Plus, Dr. Michael Grandner is back to discuss the latest in sleep science. LINKAPALOOZA: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4531403/ (Aric's study about sleep and the common cold) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OB61yG8WDyU (Aric's WIRED video) Recommendations and resources from Michael's group

Dr, Dayna Johnson's review of how sleep is impacted by race is almost a year old; but it has never had more relevance than it does right now. Toward the end of the chat, you'll hear the one piece of data from the review that actually made Neil angry. Plus, we're joined by Dr. Michael Grandner in this first of his weekly visits to update us on the latest in sleep science. Some Key Takeaways: “So when you encounter experience discrimination or experience, an act of racism, you have a physiologic response, a stress response. And so then that can affect your sleep. When we sleep, there are many things that happen that are important for our health. So whether it's hormone secretion, whether it's rest for our blood vessels, whether it's our memory consolidation, when we have a disturbance to that it causes our sleep to be disturbed, and then we have a poor health outcome.” “So if it's memory, we're thinking about cognitive decline, for example, or if it's some damage to our cardiovascular system, we're thinking about a higher risk of harm – hypertension or cardiovascular disease. And so if we have some groups of or some populations such as African-Americans that are consistently encountering discrimination and racism, other stressors, they're they're regularly at this and experiencing the stress at this high level, and then consistently have disruptions to sleep, which interrupt these other factors. And so it's a linear effect. One thing happens and then another, and then you know, it affects your health overall.” “Black people tend to under-report insomnia. So they under-report problems with sleeping. Some of the reasons for sleep disparities – which date back to slavery times – were that pictures of black people sleeping were labeled as lazy. And so this stereotype has emerged, that if you sleep enough – but really the amount that you need in order to be healthy and operate and have a good quality of life – implies that you are being lazy.” LINKAPALOOZA Dr. Dayna Johnson's bio on the Emory University website Here's the link to the review referenced in the episode linking sleep quality with race. https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html (Click here for the Project Implicit test from Harvard that will privately and anonymously evaluate your unconscious biases.)

Dr. Seema Khosla is the medical director of the North Dakota Center for Sleep, board certified in internal medicine, pulmonary disease, critical care medicine, and sleep medicine. And yes, she's the Consumer and Clinical Technology Committee with the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. But she's ALSO the host of Talking Sleep, a brand new podcast from that same American Academy of Sleep Medicine. As soon as we heard her show, we knew we needed to have Seema on The Snooze Button. Plenty of sleep information to geek out on here. LINKAPALOOZA Talking Sleep - the new podcast from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine

Julie Flygare is - if you'll pardon the expression - a tireless advocate for people suffering with narcolepsy. Learn how much you didn't know - including how the movies have made it worse for everyone - and what can be done to help. LINKAPALOOZA: https://project-sleep.com/ (Project Sleep's website) http://julieflygare.com/about/ (Everything else you wanted to know about Julie, you can learn here.)

We welcome Dr. Michael Grandner back to the show - he's the Director of the Sleep & Health Research Program, and the Behavioral Sleep Medicine Clinic, both at the University of Arizona. Michael and Neil cover everything from polyphasic sleep to pandemics and everything in between, but much of the conversation revolves around the myriad things that humans have done to screw up sleep for the entire species. LINKAPALOOZA https://twitter.com/michaelgrandner (Dr. Michael Grandner on Twitter) MichaelGrandner.com

You know meditation teacher Jeff Warren from apps like Calm and Ten Percent Happier - here, he leads an exclusive guided sleep meditation for subscribers to The Snooze Button podcast.

Neil admits to being a bit of a fanboy here - he's been listening to Jeff Warren meditations for years as part of the Ten Percent Happier app; here, they discuss the ways that meditation can help your sleep, how to start a meditation practice, and Jeff even leads a guided 8-minute sleep meditation toward the end of the show. Plus, Neil's got details about a terrific offer for healthcare workers (and now grocery and food delivery workers, too) that can get you a no-strings attached six-month FREE subscription to the Ten Percent Happier app. LINKAPALOOZA:   Website: https://jeffwarren.org/ (https://jeffwarren.org/) Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jeffwarren.org/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_jeffwarren_/?hl=en YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUOpVNy60LTCmAwfZ6zOroQ Do Nothing Project: https://jeffwarren.org/event/do-nothing-project/ (https://jeffwarren.org/event/do-nothing-project/) Books: https://jeffwarren.org/books/ Consciousness Explorers Club: http://cecmeditate.com/ (http://cecmeditate.com/) BONUS Ten Percent Happier Offer https://tenpercent.com/care (https://tenpercent.com/care)

Ever been lying in bed, trying to sleep, and you just get the urge to move your legs? Or the feeling that if you don't, you're going to jump out of your skin? Meet a man who's devoted an entire career to Restless Legs Syndrome and Periodic Limb Movement - Dr. Richard Allen just received the Outstanding Scientific Achievement Award from the Sleep Research Society, and we get into the weeds about what causes RLS in the first place, and what we can do about it.

If the first thing you think of when you hear the word "hypnosis" is a Vegas act making people bark like a dog, this episode is for you. If you've tried just about everything to fix your sleep and are ready to try just about anything, it's for you, too. Neil enters the conversation about hypnosis and sleep from a skeptical perspective. See if Dr. Dyan changes his mind, and maybe yours, too. LINKAPALOOZA: http://www.drdyan.com/ (Dr. Dyan's Website)   The discount code to save 50% off Dr. Dyan's "Deep & Easy Sleep" Self-Hypnosis package is HEAL2020 -  get the package and apply the code here.   The free video and eBook called The 3 Biggest Problems with Sleep & the ONE Thing You Can Do by 3pm Today to Sleep Better can be accessed via www.selfhypnosisforhealing.com/sleep

Prepare to toss aside much of what you've heard about dreams - Dr. Celyne Bastien walks us through dreams, nightmares, lucid dreaming, somnambulism and the different stages of dreaming. Plus, a ton on sleep apnea, and even bedwetting. LINKAPALOOZA https://sleeponitcanada.ca/ (Sleep On It! from the Canadian Sleep Society) https://cervo.ulaval.ca/en/celyne-bastien (Dr. Bastien's page at Laval University) https://cervo.ulaval.ca/en (The CERVO Brain Research Centre)

The President of the Canadian Sleep Society joins the show this week as part of a critical effort to get Canadians - and the rest of the world - to work on their sleep as a simple part of an effective defense against Coronavirus and COVID-19. LINKAPALOOZA https://sleeponitcanada.ca/ (Sleep On It! from the Canadian Sleep Society) https://cervo.ulaval.ca/en/celyne-bastien (Dr. Bastien's page at Laval University) https://cervo.ulaval.ca/en (The CERVO Brain Research Centre)

Dr. Sara Nowakowski is perhaps the country's foremost expert on cognitive behavioral therapy for menopausal insomnia. She joins Neil to talk about a variety of items related to that subject, and sleep issues in general. PLUS: Do we need a sane, adult place to talk about sleep on the Internet? LINKAPALOOZA: Sara's page on the Baylor website https://twitter.com/sara_sleep (Sara on Twitter)  

Dr. Jenni Pottebaum's perspective on the relationship between sleep, exercise and the immune system is a result of her PhD in Neuroscience AND her certification as a personal trainer and Ironman-certified triathlon coaching. As the world struggles to cope with COVID-19, Neil and Dr. Jenni explore simple things you can do to boost your defenses. Plus, we take a listener call from Heidi in Toronto, share a review of the show, and share news about our sister podcast, The Snooze Button Express. LINKAPALOOZA: https://www.totalwellnesswithdrjenni.com/ (Dr. Jenni's website) http://www.facebook.com/TotalWellnessWithDrJenni (Dr. Jenni on Facebook) http://www.instagram.com/TotalWellnessWithDrJenni (Dr. Jenni on Instagram)

He refers to it as "jet lagging ourselves on purpose." Dr. Michael Grandner is talking about the bizarre practice of Daylight Saving Time. How do you navigate what it does to your sleep? Is there anything you can to in advance to mitigate the damage? Also, Michael talks with Neil about a new survey suggesting that most people only get around 5 and a half hours of sleep, we hear a question for our panel of experts from Keith at UNLV, and a ton more.

Sharon Handy has been reading boring books to people for about a year and a half, and in that time has amassed more than half a million downloads of her weekly show, from people who love listening to her voice as they fall asleep. Maybe it'll work for you, too! Neil also addresses an interesting new entry into the "changing school start times" arena. It's quite a curve ball. LINKAPALOOZA: https://plinkhq.com/i/1438351534 (Click here on mobile to automatically open Sharon's podcast on your device). The http://boringbookspod.com (Boring Books for Bedtime) website https://twitter.com/boringbookspod/ (Boring Books for Bedtime) on Twitter

It's a stupid term - a loaded term that carries a ton of baggage and stigma with it. Instead, let's think about it the same way Wendy Troxel did in her TEDx talk, "Sleep Like Your Relationship Depends On It". This week, she talks with Neil about that and other sleep topics.  Plus, Dr. Guy Leschziner is back to answer a listener voice mail about sleep trackers. LINKAPALOOZA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7ntoFtZK6A (Wendy's) TEDx talk about sleeping separately https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TS6lFDVR-3g (Wendy's) TEDx talk about delaying school start times https://twitter.com/wendytroxel/ (Wendy Troxel on Twitter) Wendy's RAND Corportation bio

Dr. Lynelle Schneeberg is back, Assistant Professor at Yale School of Medicine, and Director of the Behavioral Sleep Program at Connecticut Children's Medical Center with a sleep issue that affects both kids and adults. Ever wonder why you (or your kids) wake up in the middle of the night and have trouble falling back asleep? Lynelle talks to Neil about sleep onset associations, or sleep crutches. LINKAPALOOZA: https://twitter.com/DrSchneeberg (Dr. Schneeberg on Twitter) "Become Your Child's Sleep Coach" on Amazon https://drschneeberg.com/ (Dr. Schneeberg's website) SUPPORT THE SHOW Click here to email an entry to win Roy Parvin's book Click here to email a question for our Sleep Experts https://ratethispodcast.com/snooze (Click here to Rate and/or Review The Snooze Button) Click here to send us feedback https://glow.fm/thesnoozebutton (Click here to support The Snooze Button with a donation)

Jade Wu is one of the heavyweights of the sleep world.  She's a sleep psychologist and clinical scientist at Duke University School of Medicine. She is also the host of the award-winning SAVVY PSYCHOLOGIST podcast. She joins Neil to talk about a variety of sleep topics, including what pregnancy does to your sleep, delayed sleep phases, and the dangers of self-diagnosing and self-medicating. She even weighs in on Neil's "sleep divorce". LINKAPALOOZA: https://www.jadewuphd.com/ (Dr. Jade Wu's website) https://twitter.com/jadewuphd (Jade Wu on Twitter) https://podnews.net/podcast/803978236/listen (The Savvy Psychologist podcast)   EVEN MORE LINKS: Click here to email an entry to win Guy Leschziner's book Click here to email a question for our Sleep Experts https://ratethispodcast.com/snooze (Click here to Rate and/or Review The Snooze Button) Click here to send us feedback https://glow.fm/thesnoozebutton (Click here to support The Snooze Button with a donation)

Neil is joined again by one of the giants in the sleep world, Behavioral Sleep Medicine specialist Dr. Michael Grandner, the Director of Sleep & Health at the University of Arizona, talking about the impact sleep can have on athletic performance, and a new paper he co-authored that gets into the specifics of performance in a number of sports at a number of levels. Bottom line: You want the team you play for to win Sunday? Maybe take those extra hours in the gym and use some of that time to grab some ZZZs.

Major General Melvin Spiese (RET, USMC) has had more to do with how the men and women of the US Marine Corps are trained than perhaps anyone else. Here, he talks with Neil about how training our fighting forces has evolved over the years, how the training has shifted to the area above the neck, and how sleep impacts our soldiers.

Erin Davis and Mike Cooper had the #1 morning radio show in Canada for about a decade. You'll hear the chemistry that put them there while they talk to Neil about the impact their careers had on their sleep and vice-versa. LINKAPALOOZA: https://amzn.to/36P5Qvt (Erin's remarkable book, "Mourning Has Broken") https://www.erindavis.com/ (Erin's website) https://twitter.com/erindavis (Erin Davis on Twitter) OTHER LINKS: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/snooze (BuyMeACoffee) - to support this podcast https://ratethispodcast.com/snooze (RateThisPodcast) - to support by rating and reviewing

U.S. Army veteran and award-winning author Liz Stanley talks with Neil about her new book, Widen the Window - Training Your Brain and Body to Thrive During Stress and Recover from Trauma, and how better sleep can contribute to resilience and recovery. They also flip the script and talk about the impact PTSD and stress can have on your sleep. LINKAPALOOZA: https://amzn.to/2LZMxaf (Widen the Window on Amazon (affiliate link)) https://elizabeth-stanley.com (Elizabeth's website)

Dr. Tucker Peck joins Neil to talk about - among other things - the intersection of sleep and meditation. He'll also throw you a fun curve ball about melatonin. Also, during the opening of the show, Neil gives details about a terrific book giveaway we're doing at thesnoozebutton.com/contests! LINKAPALOOZA MeditateWithTucker.com DrugFreeSleep.com - remember the discount code 'Snooze' to get 1/3 off!

"Mad About You" is back on television, and Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt are here to talk about the series' resumption, about the "cry it out" episode where they sleep-train their baby, and a pile of other subjects. We're also joined by Dr. Lynelle Schneeberg from Yale and Connecticut Children's Medical Center on the "cry it out" thing.