Sleep Unplugged with Dr. Chris Winter

Latest Episodes:

#13 - Restless Legs Syndrome: You Gotta Move Sep 19, 2022

Show notes

Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) is a unique and relatively common sleep disorder that quietly affects the sleep of 15% of individuals (by some generous accounts). Despite its initial description dating back to 1672, it still remains somewhat of a mystery--suffered miserably by many but often missed as a sleep diagnosis. In this episode, we will:

learn the unusual history of the multiple 'discoveries' of RLS
give an overview of the symptoms of RLS and the varied ways in which they are described and experienced
dissect the diagnostic criteria of RLS
differentiate primary RLS from secondary RLS
list the risk factors for RLS including low iron, pregnancy, and certain medications
discuss the treatments (both medicinal and non) of RLS including weighted blankets

Produced by: Maeve Winter

Twitter: @drchriswinter
IG: @drchriwinter
Threads: @drchriswinter
Bluesky: @drchriswinter
The Sleep Solution and The Rested Child

Thanks for listening and sleep well!

#12 - Sleep and Athletic Performance: Major League Sleep Sep 12, 2022

Show notes

The intersection of sleep and athletic performance, relatively speaking, is a new frontier. In the last two decades, the interest in how sleep optimization can improve achievement within sports has exploded. In this episode I will discuss:

the history of how sleep has been looked at in sports and the earliest observations on the subject
how I became interested and eventually involved with research in sleep and sport
the story behind my initial studies with Major League Baseball and travel
the topic of circadian advantage and how we measured it over ten years of Major League Baseball games
how chronotype seems to impact the performance timing of elite athletes
the influence of sleepiness on athletic performance, success in a sport, and potentially longevity as an athlete
other influential research and researchers in the field
what it all means for not only professional sports organizations, but also the average athlete

Produced by: Maeve Winter

Twitter: @drchriswinter
IG: @drchriwinter
Threads: @drchriswinter
Bluesky: @drchriswinter
The Sleep Solution and The Rested Child

Thanks for listening and sleep well!

#11 - Sleeping Pills: Sleeping With The Enemy Sep 05, 2022

Show notes

As a sleep physician, I am constantly confronted with sleeping pills and the misunderstanding that seems to be inherent to their existence. While I do feel like there are specific instances where sleeping pills are helpful, I think the vast majority of sleep experts and behavioral sleep therapists would generally frown upon their use. In this episode, we will cover:

why I feel sleeping pills are largely unnecessary, particularly given the fact that everyone sleeps (Episode 2)
to whom these pills are marketed and how ad prey upon fear of sleeplessness as a means to create a market for their product
the surprisingly modest sleep improvement results (sleep latency, sleep efficiency) these medications produce and how these stand in direct opposition to what the average user thinks is happening
the risk of sleeping pills
how the relevance of these promoted benefits is of unclear significance
failure of sleeping pill research to prove health or performance benefits
the repetitive history of the sleeping pill cycle and how history has judged the fate of many that have come before

Produced by: Maeve Winter

Twitter: @drchriswinter
IG: @drchriwinter
Threads: @drchriswinter
Bluesky: @drchriswinter
The Sleep Solution and The Rested Child

Thanks for listening and sleep well!

Bonus: Behind the Scenes of Sleeping Around Sep 01, 2022

Show notes

In January of 2015, I spent the night in a haunted hotel in Oklahoma City and wrote about the experience in The Huffington Post. That would begin a series of articles I called "Sleeping Around" where I explored unusual sleeping situations and what they could teach us about our own sleep.
In 2020, I began working with Sleep.com to create content for their new website completely devoted to sleep and topics surrounding it. One day, Sam Bennett, their senior vice president of marketing asked me what my dream sleep project would be.
Easy. I want to make a film version of Sleeping Around.
A few weeks later we were filming three episodes: a few days on the road with musical artist Shakey Graves, 24 hours with the Fort Worth Fire Department, and a night sleeping on a portaledge with professional Red Bull climber Sasha Digiulian.
To mark the milestone of recording our tenth episode, I wanted to record this bonus episode for listeners to take them behind the scenes of this project, and hopefully share why it is so important to me.

Produced by: Maeve Winter

Twitter: @drchriswinter
IG: @drchriwinter
Threads: @drchriswinter
Bluesky: @drchriswinter
The Sleep Solution and The Rested Child

Thanks for listening and sleep well!

#10 - Alarm Clocks: Starting Your Day Right Aug 29, 2022

Show notes

Alarms clocks may be responsible for the most dreaded sound in our lives. Despite their constant presence, how do you choose the right alarm for your circumstances and maybe more importantly, how does that alarm fit into a healthy morning routine?
In this episode we will cover:

the definition of sleep inertia and why some people struggle to wake up in the morning
the science behind the different types of sounds alarm clocks utilize and which tend to awaken individuals more effectively
the circadian influence of alarm clocks that utilize lights
the ‘Snooze Button’ and should you use it
strategies for utilizing escalating alarms
the variety of more extreme alarms (shaking a bed, shocking a sleeper) for helping people awaken on time.
the importance of a scheduled awakening and how it fits with other activities in the morning

Produced by: Maeve Winter

Twitter: @drchriswinter
IG: @drchriwinter
Threads: @drchriswinter
Bluesky: @drchriswinter
The Sleep Solution and The Rested Child

Thanks for listening and sleep well!

#9 - The Controversy Surrounding School Start Times Aug 22, 2022

Show notes

Students everywhere are beginning to head back to school soon, so in this Back-To-School episode, I examine the ongoing school start time debate in this country. In the United States, the vast majority of middle and high school students start school early and thus do not have access to adequate sleep. In this episode, we will:

identify the healthy range of sleep school-aged and high school students require
target the biggest threats to the sleep opportunity of school students
explore the nature of the school start time debate and the organizations/studies supporting the change
explain the factors that tend to derail schools from delaying school start times
dive into the emerging research that came out of the COVID lockdown that overwhelmingly shows that delayed start times and virtual learning tends to increase total sleep time and the percentage of kids sleeping adequately.
dissect the negative psychological outcomes of virtual learning that confound the benefits of some studies
learn what can be done at a local level and beyond

Produced by: Maeve Winter

Twitter: @drchriswinter
IG: @drchriwinter
Threads: @drchriswinter
Bluesky: @drchriswinter
The Sleep Solution and The Rested Child

Thanks for listening and sleep well!

#8 - Trendy Sleep Topics: Orthosomnia, Sleep Divorce, and Revenge Bedtime Procrastination Aug 15, 2022

Show notes

In the late 1990's, Dr. James Maas coined the phrase "power nap" and since that time, there have been many trendy sleep terms. In this episode, we discuss three popular sleep concepts and the stories/science behind them. In this episode we will:

define the term orthosomnia and learn more about the concept's origins
understand how orthosomnia applies to the greater concept of sleep monitoring
explore what a sleep divorce entails and the difficulties with the term
dissect the reasons why couples may choose to sleep apart, and how this can ultimately fail to address serious underlying medical conditions
touch upon relationship power imbalances that make sleep apart not an option for some individuals
understand the origins of revenge bedtime procrastination
differentiate "in-bed" procrastination from "going to bed" procrastination
work towards ways to minimize the factors that exacerbate bedtime procrastination

Produced by: Maeve Winter

Twitter: @drchriswinter
IG: @drchriwinter
Threads: @drchriswinter
Bluesky: @drchriswinter
The Sleep Solution and The Rested Child

Thanks for listening and sleep well!

#7 - Why No One Cares Your Child Is Sleepy Aug 08, 2022

Show notes

After sleep apnea, narcolepsy is the most common cause of excessive sleepiness in sleep clinics across the country. A large portion of the nearly 200,000 people who have narcolepsy in this country alone are children and teenagers. As these individuals struggle with disabling sleepiness, why is their plight (a treatable plight) largely ignored? In this episode, we will:

define narcolepsy and look briefly at its origins
recast the image of a narcolepsy patient from something cartoonish and unhelpful to a real person with an unfathomable degree of sleepiness
contrast the disability of sleepiness with other "seen" disabilities
explore why disorders of excessive sleepiness are largely ignored by the media while conditions like insomnia are embraced and reinforced at all levels
understand why narcolepsy and disorders of hypersomnolence are routinely mistaken for other disorders or dismissed by clinicians entirely (even many sleep specialists)
learn that these conditions are not rare and their sufferers are often unseen--they are in fact people we know and work with on a daily basis--and they need our support.

Produced by: Maeve Winter

Twitter: @drchriswinter
IG: @drchriwinter
Threads: @drchriswinter
Bluesky: @drchriswinter
The Sleep Solution and The Rested Child

Thanks for listening and sleep well!

#6 - The Trauma of Insomnia Aug 01, 2022

Show notes

In episode 2, I talked about what insomnia was not--namely sleep deprivation. In this episode, we begin to explore what insomnia is and who is most at risk. I also explore the unique role of trauma both as a precipitant, but also a perpetuator of insomnia. In this episode we will:

revisit how insomnia differs from sleep deprivation and why confusion between the two creates therapeutic problems
examine risk factors for developing insomnia
review studies that demonstrate insomnia patients are generally sleeping relatively normal amounts
uncover studies that reveal that insomnia patients generally do not share identifiable sleep study deficiencies
understand why insomnia patients often develop negative views of their sleep and how this factor alone, irrespective of sleep quality and amount, predicts disbility
explore how trauma can create or precipitate insomnia, but more importantly how insomnia itself, over time, can become its own form of trauma, helping to perpetuate the condition.
appreciate that when a sleep specialist tells a patient that he does not have sleep deprivation when he has insomnia, she is not saying the patient does not have a problem.

While insomnia is often not the problem the patient thinks they have, it can be a tremendous burden in and of itself, and trauma is often playing a central role.

Produced by: Maeve Winter

Twitter: @drchriswinter
IG: @drchriwinter
Threads: @drchriswinter
Bluesky: @drchriswinter
The Sleep Solution and The Rested Child

Thanks for listening and sleep well!

#5 - Mild Sleep Apnea: Death By CPAP Jul 24, 2022

Show notes

Sleep apnea constitutes the lion's share of the diagnoses sleep clinicians see in their clinics. One of the most misunderstood and poorly managed conditions I see is mild sleep apnea, or individuals who generally have 5-15 breathing problems/hour. In this episode we will:

start with the basics of sleep apnea: What is it?
understand the difference between obstructive and central apnea
define what constitutes and apnea (or hypopnea) and how those tallies are utilized to arrive at not only a diagnosis, but a severity designation for the condition
look at the literature and why some experts advocate treating mild sleep apnea and while other do not
understand how patients can sometimes get caught in a situation where they are aggressively treating a mild condition in which the benefits may be few or nonexistent.
begin a much larger dialogue aimed at understanding the nuances of sleep apnea, a very common sleep disorder.

Produced by: Maeve Winter

Twitter: @drchriswinter
IG: @drchriwinter
Threads: @drchriswinter
Bluesky: @drchriswinter
The Sleep Solution and The Rested Child

Thanks for listening and sleep well!

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