Sleep Health Science

Sleep is one of the most important aspects of our life, health and longevity and yet it is increasingly neglected in 21st century society, with devastating consequences: every major disease in the developed world - Alzheimer's, cancer, obesity, diabetes - has very strong causal links to deficient sleep. Until very recently, science had no answer to the question of why we sleep, or what good it served, or why its absence is so damaging to our health. Compared to the other basic drives in life - eating, drinking and reproducing - the purpose of sleep remained elusive.

Sleep is the hottest of hot topics. Experts queue up to warn us that lack of sleep, or the wrong kind, will bring down a bewildering array of dire consequences. But how do we keep from being overwhelmed by this deluge of data? What if all this knowledge just feeds anxiety and drives sleep even further from our grasp? Heather Darwall-Smith's message is simple: don't panic! Humans are biologically programmed to sleep - and by interrogating the factors that might impede this innate instinct, we can make changes in our lifestyles and find our way back to good sleep.

Humpback whales are among the most intelligent animals on Earth. Some scientists believe they might even surpass humans in self-awareness, empathy, and communication skills. In this episode, we swim with a whale as he teams up with other humpbacks to use bubbles to catch fish, rescues a sea lion, and puts his own spin on melodies sung by whales across the Pacific Ocean. This is the world in its natural state, defined by seasons, routines, and cycles. By the time this whale is ready to close one eye and go to sleep, you will be too.

For many people who have trouble sleeping, each night is an anxious odyssey where getting a good night’s sleep feels like a battle to win rather than a basic biologic process. Hello Sleep is a guide for people with insomnia to help them shift their relationship with sleep, so that it stops being a battle and starts being enjoyable and natural again. It is a practical, self-guided tour through evidence-based interventions for chronic insomnia.

Learn from Dr. Sarah Mitchell, an experienced sleep coach and member of the Society of Behavioral Sleep Medicine, how to put your baby to sleep with ease. If you are tired of the sleepless nights, the endless cycles of soothing, and the exhaustion that's taking a toll on your family, then this book is your ultimate lifeline.

You probably didn't click on this page by accident. You may well be feeling irritable, stuck in a continuous loop of exhaustion. Your child's bouts of crying have you at your wit's end. You feel that you have somehow failed as a parent. And you finally want to have some sense of normality in your life again. Don't worry. As early as tomorrow, your child will be drifting off and sleeping through the night. We have created Baby Sleep Solution, a series of audios that have been designed especially to help calm your little ones down and put them to sleep.

In How Babies Sleep, Sofia Axelrod, PhD - neuroscientist, sleep consultant, and mother of two - introduces the first baby sleep method that is truly rooted in the science of sleep. After having her first child, Axelrod realized that the typical baby sleep advice conflicted with the actual science of sleep, including the findings from her mentor's Nobel Prize-winning sleep lab. She developed her transformative method based on the latest discoveries about our body's circadian clock and how it is disturbed by light and other external stimuli.

Elephants are the largest land animals in the world. They are also intensely social and have advanced long-term memories. In this episode, a parade of Asian elephants makes its way through the Sri Lankan forest to a lake for drinks and mud baths, stopping periodically for group naps. The female leading the parade uses infrasonic rumbles—inaudible to humans, but traveling as far as two miles along the surface of the Earth as seismic waves—to invite friends and family around the forest to join her at the reservoir.

Dung beetles might sound dirty, but the ancient Egyptians believed their god took the form of a dung beetle to roll the morning sun across the sky every day. In this episode, we roll with dung beetles around the world as they push their precious dung—often in balls many times larger than they are—over Florida pastures, Armenian highlands, and the vast South African savanna.

Platypuses are mammals unlike any other on earth. They lay eggs, ooze milk through their skin, and can sense electricity. In this episode, we travel with a platypus as he moves through his nightly routine on the island of Tasmania. He uses electroreceptors to hunt underwater and does a synchronized swimming courtship ritual with his mate, who then digs a burrow 40 feet deep into the riverbank to nest.

Fennec foxes’ ears can be up to half as long as their bodies. They use them to track movement across the Sahara Desert, including under the sand. In this episode, we follow a fox as he meanders home to his family through the sand dunes as they slowly shift with the wind.

Dogs are a familiar and comforting part of many of our lives. In this episode, we take a walk with a pet xoloitzcuintli, or Mexican hairless dog, as he greets his blocks by smell. Along the way, we learn the backstory of squirrels in U.S. cities and observe the very smart and clean neighborhood raccoon.

The Science of Sleep, by developmental molecular biologist Dr. John Medina, gives you the facts - and the prescription to sleep well - in his signature engaging style. Adapted from Medina's Brain Rules for Aging Well: 10 Principles for Staying Vital, Happy, and Sharp, in this chapter, you'll learn how the sleep cycle is born of a constant tension between hormones and brain regions vying to keep you awake and hormones and brain regions trying to make you go to sleep. This is called opponent-process theory.

How to Sleep Well is a guidebook that can change your sleep and help you live your life more fully. Whether you struggle to fall asleep, sleep too lightly, wake too often, or simply cannot wake up, this book can help you get on track to sleeping well and living better.

Terrible twos, temper tantrums, and grocery store meltdowns are usually the first things that come to mind when people think of toddlers. But pediatric emergency medicine physician and researcher Dr. Hasan Merali has long thought toddlers are among the best people in our society and adults could do well to learn from them. These extraordinary youngsters can be impulsive, yes, but with this comes a remarkable ability to take risks and ask questions—two qualities that can help us enjoy life more

This groundbreaking book takes a deep dive into the latest scientific research on sleep, revealing the fascinating complexities of the sleep process and its crucial role in our overall health and well-being. You'll learn about the different stages of sleep, the impact of sleep deprivation, and the surprising benefits of napping.

In this audiobook, you will discover much about sleep you probably didn’t know. This audiobook delves into the most important issues around sleep in easily understood detail. If you are curious about the nature of sleep, as in how much we actually know about what sleep is, the purpose it serves in our lives, and what happens when we don’t sleep enough, you have ordered the perfect audiobook.

If you’ve tried every trick in the book to improve your sleep, it’s time to take a more holistic approach… Enter biohacking! Do you find yourself lying awake and staring at the ceiling at night, only to struggle to get out of bed in the morning and make it through the day? Biohacking is here to save the day… and when you understand how to harness its powers, you’ll gain the high-quality sleep you thought you’d never get and see huge improvements in your energy levels and mood.

Sleep is essential to being human; we cannot live without it. However, a good night's sleep can be challenging for many of us. Fortunately, Rina Harri's book The Science of Sleep offers listeners a comprehensive guide on how to get a good night's rest and maximize the benefits that come with it.

Anyone having trouble sleeping has heard all the old rules: Don’t drink caffeine after 2:00 p.m., use the bedroom only for sleeping, put down your screens an hour before going to bed. But as the millions suffering from poor sleep can attest, just following these overly simplistic, one-size-fits-all directives doesn’t work. How to Sleep is here to rewrite the rules and help you get to sleep—and stay asleep—each and every night. Dr. Rafael Pelayo offers a medically comprehensive and holistic approach to the myriad issues that might be affecting your sleep.