Sleep Unplugged with Dr. Chris Winter

Latest Episodes:

#163 - Insomnia and Public Health: You're Looking Tired And More Than A Little Human Aug 04, 2025

Show notes

We all think we know what insomnia is: trouble sleeping, tossing and turning, maybe staring at the ceiling until sunrise. But does the public really have a clear picture of insomnia and does that impact the massive health impact it has? In this episode, we will:

Explain how insomnia is not a single problem but a progressive condition, starting with a few rough nights and, in some, developing into a chronic disorder
Explore why insomnia is often a disorder of perception, where patients significantly underestimate how much they sleep
Review what studies show about actual sleep time in insomnia—based on polysomnography, actigraphy, and other objective measures
Identify how public misunderstanding of insomnia has contributed to ineffective treatments and persistent myths
Walk through a new six-level clinical framework for managing insomnia, from public health education to relapse prevention
Highlight why “doing nothing new” after a bad night may be the best form of early treatment—and why CBT-I remains the gold standard when things don’t resolve
Discuss the role of hyperarousal, sleep identity, and over-attention to sleep in making insomnia worse over time

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!

#162 -Sleep in the Gilded Age: If You Know Your History Jul 28, 2025

Show notes

In our modern world of blue light and burnout, it’s easy to forget that sleep has always been shaped by the forces of its time. In this episode, we travel back to the Gilded Age—a period of dazzling progress, deep inequality, and curious beliefs about sleep. In thenis episode, we will:

Explore how medical professionals in the late 19th century understood sleep—and misunderstood insomnia
Learn what physicians were prescribing to sleepless patients in an era of opium, electricity, and moral fatigue
Contrast the sleep practices of the working poor and the wealthy elite, and how each class shaped our modern assumptions
Examine the “rest cure,” neurasthenia, and other diagnoses born from a world grappling with industrial change
Discover the surprising technologies and bedding innovations that started appearing in Gilded Age bedrooms
Reflect on how beliefs from this gilded era still echo in our bedrooms today—from sleep hygiene to the fear of lying awake

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!

#161 - Sleep on Television: The Dream’s Dream on the Small Screen Jul 21, 2025

Show notes

We’ve talked extensively about sleep and its science, but what happens when sleep becomes the story itself—on screen? Television has portrayed sleep, sleeplessness, and dreaming across decades of iconic storytelling. In this episode we will:

Highlight classic TV episodes where sleep or sleep disorders play a central role
Examine how sleep is portrayed in multiple genres
Review how accurately sleep is represented in some of the most famous shows
Discuss why sleep deprivation and dreaming are such powerful storytelling devices
Explore pop culture portrayals of sleep studies, insomnia, and dream manipulation
Share fun facts and behind-the-scenes trivia from episodes of The X-Files, Star Trek, The Simpsons, Schitt's Creek, and more

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!

#160 - Still Sleepy After CPAP: I'm Not Dead, I'm Not Myself Jul 14, 2025

Show notes

We’ve explored sleep apnea in depth on the podcast—its causes, its severity, and the many ways it’s treated. But what happens when the sleepiness lingers, even after treatment? In this episode, we will:

Define sleep apnea, what it is—and what it isn’t
Learn how excessive daytime sleepiness is defined, both on its own and in the context of sleep apnea
Review the most common and effective treatments for sleep apnea
Explore how often treatment truly resolves sleepiness in patients
Consider why lingering sleepiness is frequently missed or dismissed
List treatment options for residual EDS in individuals with sleep apnea

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!

#159 - Extreme Insomnia: You're Killing Yourself If You Don't Believe It Jul 07, 2025

Show notes

The Atlantic recently published a feature article entitled "Why Americans Can't Sleep." The article was written by Jennifer Senior, and fantastically accomplished writer (2022 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing, the 2022 National Magazine Award for Feature Writing, and the 2024 National Magazine Award for Columns & Essays) and details not only her own personal struggles with insomnia, but also attempts to dive deeper into sleep science and what she describes as a "public health emergency." In this episode, we will:

Look at this article in a list of similar articles and books over the decades that detail harrowing personal accounts of insomnia
Understand why the hook of these articles seems to mirror that of other news/extreme weather, where the thrust of the piece is centered around the insomnia being "the worst" and "the most severe"
Discuss how failure to differentiate sleep deprivation and insomnia can lead to erroneous conclusions
Examine how these pieces almost uniformly fail to define insomnia, and in doing so fail to define what a successful outcome/solution would look like. In other words, what does "work" mean?
Imagine what a truly revolutionary article about insomnia might look like

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!

#158 - Bruxism: Put You Through the Grind Jun 30, 2025

Show notes

Bruxism or teeth grinding is a remarkably common occurrence and often happens during our nightly sleep period, disrupting sleep quality and continuity. In this episode we will:

Define bruxism
Explore the epidemiology of the condition
Look at some of the causes of teeth grinding
Touch upon proposed mechanisms of bruxism
Review recent bruxism research
List common treatments for the condition

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!

#157 - Weight Loss Drugs and Sleep Apnea: One Pill Makes You Small Jun 23, 2025

Show notes

Weight loss drugs are everywhere and recently Zepbound (tirzepitide) made big news when it became the first FDA-approved sleep apnea therapy for mild to moderate sleep apnea. In this episode, we will:

Introduce and explain weight loss medications
Review the studies that convinced the FDA to approve Zepbound for sleep apnea
Provide an overview on this class of weight loss medications
Evaluate the risks and determine who is a best match for this therapy
Touch on the cost and difficulty in getting these drugs approved
Revisit Apnimed's SynAIRgy press release and how it relates to our discussion in episode 110 of the podcast

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!

#156 - Research from the 2025 SLEEP Scientific Conference: Make Me a Poster Jun 16, 2025

Show notes

You are looking live at the Seattle Conference Center where sleep researchers from around the world are converging to carry around tote bags and share the latest and greatest sleep research. I was there and saw it all. In this episode we will:

Discuss AI and its emerging role in sleep research
Learn why napping continues to show positives in attention and performance
Continue the focus on chrononutrition and how sleep and circadian factors affect metabolism
Witness the emergence of women's health and menstrual timing and how it is gaining traction in the sleep community
Differentiate subjective sleep versus reality in surprising ways
Test novel wearable and headbands in sleep
Evaluate the heightened focus on adolescent sleep
Praise the continued efforts to study sleep and it's impact on mood

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!

#155 - Oral Appliance and Sleep Apnea: Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is Jun 09, 2025

Show notes

So far on the podcast we had talked about sleep apnea as well as the treatments CPAP and surgery. On this episode of the podcast, we discuss another popular treatment option: oral appliances. In this episode we will:

Review the pathophysiology of obstructive sleep apnea
Outline the mechanism via which oral appliance work
List the pros and cons of oral appliance for surgery
Discuss how the oral appliance fits into the landscape of sleep apnea therapy

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!

#154 - Sleep and the Threat of Danger: I Won’t Do You No Harm Jun 02, 2025

Show notes

One of the biggest obstacles in insomnia treatment is the perceived threat of physical harm related to the sleep difficulty. It's a major cog in the insomnia-fear-arousal cycle. In this episode we will:

Utilize two case studies to illustrate the disruption that fear of harm causes with insomnia recovery
Discuss insomnia is a disorder of distress, not danger
Talk about the lack of any evidence that acute sleep loss causes medical harm
Challenge the catastrophizing that characterizes insomnia
Contrast behavioral and cognitive therapies over medical therapies

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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