The Snooze Button EXPRESS

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 Express with the return of Dr. Chris Winter, sleep specialist and author of The Rested Child. In the full 40-minute conversation from The Snooze Button podcast, 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. The Snooze Button Express is your weekly 9-minute highlight package.

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

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 sleep, friendship and morning radio. 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)

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. 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.

This is the 9-minute Express version of The Snooze Button podcast. Neil's sleep doctor, Dr. Mark Boulos from Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto, made exactly two tweaks to Neil's sleep after his first in-lab sleep test.  Now it's time to see the results of the second sleep test, to see if those tweaks made a difference. Also, we have some great news to share about Episode 14 from a couple of different angles!

Sleep is a mysterious thing, in terms of just what happens in your brain. How do you explain people who walk in their sleep? Talk in their sleep? Or ride motorcycles? Or worse? Dr. Guy Leschziner's new book, "The Nocturnal Brain", shows just how much we still have to learn.

He's got listeners in more countries than he even knew existed. And for them, what John Watson is doing is making a huge difference. John runs an online radio station that plays relaxation music and binaural beats to tens of thousands of people every month. We talk about how the project started, where it's headed and how musicians can get their material played online. # # # LINKAPALOOZA Email: sleepradio@watsons.co.nzWeb: http://www.sleepradio.co.nz/ (www.sleepradio.co.nz)Social media: Facebook | http://www.twitter.com/sleepradionz (Twitter) Please help Sleep Radio stay on-air by clicking here.

NOTE: This episode is an edited "highlight package" version of a longer interview that runs as part of The Snooze Button podcast.  If you want the full version, click here. Rather than ask somebody that runs a mattress shop for advice about the best mattress to get, we thought we'd get a different opinion.  What about a chiropractor? Meet Dr. Jon Saunders - he's Neil's chiropractor - who gets complaints and questions all day long from patients who are looking for better answers about sleep as it relates to things like back and neck pain. So Jon and Neil cover a little of everything in this episode, from sleeping positions, to what to look for when it comes to pillows and mattresses, too. LINKAPALOOZA: https://twitter.com/drjonsaunders/ (Dr. Jon on Twitter) http://chirofirst.ca/ (Website for Dr. Jon's practice) https://www.instagram.com/chiropractic_on_eagle/ (Dr. Jon's Instagram) https://www.facebook.com/chiropracticoneagle/ (Dr. Jon's Facebook page) And here's the link to the video about sleeping posture that Jon refers to in this episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15DBe9XrgF4

Dr. Conor Heneghan is the Lead Sleep Researcher at Fitbit.  in this episode of The Snooze Button Express, he talks with Neil about trackers, best practices for sleep trackers, and how Fitbit's new 'Sleep Score' is calculated.

Neil flies solo for a special episode of The Snooze Button podcast, with a chance to do a little housekeeping, answer a little mail, and call out an ad that swaps false hope for a few bucks. Our regular format returns next week.

Let's talk trackers! Dr. Michael Grandner is the Director of the Sleep & Health Research Program, and the Behavioral Sleep Medicine Clinic, both at the University of Arizona. In this episode, he walks through Neil's obsession with his wearable tracker data, and whether it's dependable to begin with. LINKAPALOOZA https://twitter.com/michaelgrandner (Dr. Michael Grandner on Twitter) MichaelGrandner.com

The second of two parts in a conversation about Major League Baseball as the 2019 PostSeason continues to unfold. Part 1 featured Dr. Ravi Allada from Northwestern University, discussing a link between jet lag and specific statistics that demonstrate its impact. In Part 2, we meet up with Dan Shulman from ESPN (or as Neil prefers to call him, The Voice of Major League Baseball) and talk about what it's like traveling to a different city every night to cover the games and what impact that has on his own sleep, and we get his thoughts on Dr. Allada's study and others like it.   LINKAPALOOZA https://twitter.com/DShulman_ESPN%20 (Dan Shulman on Twitter)

Dr. Ravi Allada, Professor at Northwestern University, has combed through the statistics from decades of Major League Baseball games, and has discovered one specific statistic that is profoundly impacted by jet lag. As we begin the 2019 PostSeason in MLB, Neil talks to Dr. Allada about the role circadian rhythms play in America's national pastime, and in other sports as well. We continue our 2019 MLB PostSeason theme with a special Bonus Episode on Wednesday, October 9 featuring Dan Shulman from ESPN.   LINKAPALOOZA: https://twitter.com/AlladaSleep (Dr. Ravi Allada on Twitter) https://www.pnas.org/content/114/6/1407 (How Jet Lag Impairs MLB Performance) (Study)

One of America's leading sleep clinicians, Dr. Lynelle Schneeberg joins Neil to talk about her new book, "Become Your Child's Sleep Coach", and how helping THEM can help YOU, too.   LINKAPALOOZA: https://twitter.com/DrSchneeberg (Dr. Schneeberg on Twitter) "Become Your Child's Sleep Coach" on Amazon https://drschneeberg.com/ (Dr. Schneeberg's website) https://patreon.com/thesnoozebutton (Get Access to the FULL Interview)

For Episode 4, Neil took his recording gear into an appointment with his sleep doctor to review the results of his sleep study at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center in Toronto. ...and there are plenty of surprises to be had. LINKAPALOOZA Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center  https://omc.ohri.ca/psgnorms/ (PSGNORMS) - Sunnybrook's meta analysis of thousands of sleep studies to determine "what's normal in a sleep lab?"  http://patreon.com/thesnoozebutton (Become a Bedhead) for full access to the entire 50-minute episode. Bedheads get bonus content and other perks, for only a dollar a month.  Click the link where it says, "Become a Bedhead" for details!

Roy Parvin was an award-winning author whose career was chugging along, until one night he couldn't sleep. ...which became two. ...which became three. ...which eventually led to Roy's book, My Year Of Sleeping Dangerously. Roy walks us through the dangers of self-diagnosing your sleep issues, or trying to do it without the help of a sleep specialist. LINKAPALOOZA https://amzn.to/306DT1Q (Yoga For The Inflexible Male) (Roy writing as Yoga Matt) https://twitter.com/parvin_roy (Roy Parvin on Twitter) https://www.facebook.com/roy.parvin.71 (Roy Parvin on Facebook) https://www.royparvin.net/ (Roy's website)

Referred to by Neil as a "neuroscience rock star" - not because of his role as the lead singer / lead guitarist of an all-scientist rock band, but because this year, he was made an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for his contributions to science - Dr. Adrian Owen brings perspective and wisdom gleaned from a career spent looking at brains. Neil and Dr. Owen cover a wide range of topics here, including: The Terri Schiavo case (and "persistent vegetative states") The relationship between neuroplasticity, Dave Matthews and the TV show House The impact of getting too little sleep on cognition The impact of getting too much sleep on cognition What IS cognition, anyway?  (SPOILER ALERT: It's not just about Alzheimer's and memory. You depend on your cognition hundreds, even thousands of times a day.) A test you can take - right now - that's basically a breathalyzer for your cognitive function. LINKAPALOOZA: https://twitter.com/ComaDork (Dr. Owen on Twitter) http://cambridgebrainsciences.com/ (Cambridge Brain Sciences) https://owenlab.uwo.ca/index.html (The Owen Lab, Western University) Dr. Owen's groundbreaking 2017 book, Into The Gray Zone: A Neuroscientist Explores the Border Between Life and Death  

In the premiere episode of The Snooze Button, veteran broadcaster Neil Hedley sets the table for a journey toward a good night's sleep that will essentially turn him into a lab rat.