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Why do we feel exhausted but wired? Why is it so hard to unplug, slow down, or sleep deeply—even when we’re tired?

In this episode of Beyond Breathing, we dive into the science of dopamine, the brain’s powerful reward and motivation chemical, and explore how modern life—chronic stress, constant stimulation, caffeine, and technology—has quietly hijacked our nervous systems.

You’ll learn how dopamine overconsumption fuels the pleasure–pain cycle, drives compulsive behaviors like phone scrolling and late-night stimulation, and disrupts sleep, breathing, and airway stability. We connect the dots between dopamine dysregulation, mouth breathing, poor sleep quality, and chronic fight-or-flight—and most importantly, how to reset without extremes or shame.

This episode blends neuroscience, sleep science, airway health, and practical nervous system tools to help you reclaim focus, rest, and resilience in an overstimulated world.

🧠 What You’ll Learn in This Episode

• What dopamine really is—and why it’s about motivation, not just pleasure
• How dopamine overconsumption traps us in the pleasure–pain cycle
• Why we crave constant stimulation from phones, caffeine, and novelty
• The connection between dopamine, chronic stress, and nervous system dysregulation
• How overstimulation disrupts sleep, breathing patterns, and airway health
• Why insomnia is often a 24-hour nervous system issue, not just a bedtime problem
• The link between stress, mouth breathing, and fragmented sleep
• Practical, science-backed ways to reset dopamine sensitivity and support deep sleep

😴 Key Themes We Explore

• Dopamine and the nervous system
• Chronic stress and “exhausted but wired” states
• Sleep disruption and circadian rhythm imbalance
• Airway health, nasal breathing, and sleep stability
• Technology, habit loops, and behavioral addiction
• Regulation vs. deprivation (why “dopamine detox” isn’t the answer)

🌿 Practical Takeaways

• How to reduce “cheap dopamine” without eliminating joy
• Simple morning habits to stabilize dopamine rhythms
• Daytime strategies to lower nervous system overload
• Evening cues that signal safety and promote sleep
• Why breathing patterns matter for dopamine and rest
• Small, sustainable shifts that create lasting change

🌊 Call to Action

You are not broken—you are overstimulated.

This episode invites you to pause, breathe, and make one intentional change that supports your nervous system today. One less scroll. One deeper breath. One choice that helps your body feel safe enough to rest.

Small shifts create powerful ripples.

📚 Referenced Concepts & Influences

• Dopamine and reward circuitry (mesolimbic pathway)
• Pleasure–pain balance and homeostasis
• Nervous system regulation (sympathetic vs. parasympathetic states)
• Sleep architecture and circadian rhythms
• Behavioral addiction and tech-driven stimulation
• Insights from Dr. Anna Lembke and Mel Robbins on dopamine and modern habits

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Episode: Big Tonsils, Little Airways
Description: Pediatric sleep apnea is often missed — and enlarged tonsils and adenoids are one of the most common causes. In this episode, Lancette explains the science, symptoms, and ENT-backed reasons why airway obstruction should never be ignored.

Key Topics:

• Pediatric OSA vs adult OSA
• Signs parents can spot at home
• Why tonsils/adenoids enlarge
• Brain development & behavior links
• Why surgery is recommended when apnea is present
• Why sleep studies matter
• Mouth breathing, tongue ties & airway health

Credible References:

• American Academy of Pediatrics – Pediatric OSA guidelines
• American Academy of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery – Tonsillectomy guidelines
• Mayo Clinic – Pediatric sleep apnea overview
• StatPearls / NCBI – Pediatric OSA & adenoid hypertrophy

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 In this special end-of-season 3 episode, Lancette reflects on the most impactful conversations of 2025—from sleep fragmentation and airway anatomy to nitric oxide, longevity, and prevention-focused care. This episode celebrates the growth of the Beyond Breathing podcast, explores emerging science shaping the future of sleep and airway health, and closes with the top five trends redefining healthcare as we move into 2026.

Topics Covered:
• Airway as the fifth vital sign
• Sleep efficiency vs sleep duration
• Mouth breathing and nitric oxide
• Brain health, cognition, and longevity
• CPAP limitations and personalized care
• Medical-dental collaboration
• Prevention-first healthcare models

 Top 5 Sleep & Airway Trends of 2025

Sections:

1. Personalized Sleep Medicine
2. Annual Sleep Testing (All Ages)
3. Oral Health as Systemic Health
4. Myofunctional & Airway-Centered Care
5. Prevention Over Crisis Care

Footer:
Beyond Breathing Podcast
Education • Prevention • Whole-Body Health

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Restore - Deep Sleep & Recovery Support – SleepHabits

Why Deep Sleep, Oxygen, and Nighttime Biology Matter More Than Hours in Bed

You can sleep for 7, 8 — even 9 hours — and still wake up exhausted.

In this episode of Beyond Breathing, Lancette breaks down a truth most people (and many providers) miss:

This science-based conversation explores deep sleep physiology, brain health, breathing, oxygenation, metabolism, and why many popular sleep aids — and even CPAP — often fail to improve sleep quality. You’ll learn what actually supports overnight recovery and how to think critically about supplements, wearables, sleep hygiene, and testing.

🧠 Key Topics Covered

🔬 What Deep Sleep Really Is

Deep (slow-wave) sleep is when the body:

• Clears brain waste through the glymphatic system
• Repairs tissues and supports immune function
• Releases growth hormone
• Down-regulates the nervous system

You can technically “sleep” without getting enough of this restorative phase — especially with stress, mouth breathing, snoring, or sleep apnea.

🚫 Sedation ≠ Recovery

Many people rely on:

• Melatonin
• Marijuana
• Prescription sleep medications

These may help you fall asleep, but they do not reliably improve deep sleep or recovery biology.

Melatonin is a circadian timing hormone, not a deep sleep hormone — and excess use can disrupt natural sleep architecture without fixing breathing, oxygenation, or nervous system dysregulation.

✅ The 5 Systems That Actually Support Nighttime Recovery

1. Nervous System Balance
   Supporting parasympathetic (“rest and digest”) dominance is essential for deep sleep.
2. Circulation & Oxygenation
   Nitric oxide pathways support vascular health and oxygen delivery during sleep.
3. Inflammation & Antioxidant Balance
   Chronic inflammation fragments deep sleep and impairs recovery.
4. Stable Blood Sugar & Mineral Balance
   Blood sugar swings and mineral deficiencies (especially magnesium) can trigger nighttime cortisol, awakenings, and shallow sleep.
5. Safe, Unobstructed Breathing
   Quiet nasal breathing without airway collapse, snoring, or oxygen drops is foundational to restorative sleep.

🧠 Deep Dive: Sleep Physiology & Brain Health

During deep sleep:

• Cerebrospinal fluid flushes metabolic waste from the brain
• Cortisol drops while growth hormone peaks
• Synaptic pruning supports memory and learning
• Neuroinflammation decreases

Disrupted deep sleep is linked to brain fog, mood disorders, metabolic dysfunction, and increased long-term risk for cognitive decline.

Sleep is increasingly recognized as a brain health intervention, not just a lifestyle habit.

⌚ Wearables: Helpful Data or False Reassurance?

Wearables can track trends like sleep duration and consistency — but they cannot diagnose:

• Sleep apnea
• Airway obstruction
• Oxygen desaturation
• Micro-arousals

If your wearable shows low deep sleep or poor recovery scores, that’s a signal to investigate further, not reassurance that everything is fine.

🧪 Why Annual Sleep Testing Matters

Sleep disorders exist on a spectrum — and many pe

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In this powerful episode of Beyond Breathing, Lancette breaks down stunning new research out of Oregon — a national dataset published in Neuroscience News — showing that insufficient sleep is one of the strongest predictors of shorter life expectancy, second only to smoking. Stronger than diet. Stronger than exercise. Stronger than obesity, loneliness, or alcohol use.

Most people believe that if they get “enough hours,” they’re doing fine. But this episode unpacks the truth:
 👉 Quantity means nothing without quality.

Lancette takes listeners through the science, the implications for children and adults, and why restorative sleep must become a vital sign in healthcare — screened annually, across all ages, starting at age 2.

🔬 What You’ll Learn in This Episode

• The groundbreaking Oregon sleep study (2019–2025)

Researchers compared CDC sleep data with county-level life expectancy across the U.S. Their findings were undeniable:

• Communities with higher levels of short sleep had significantly shorter life expectancy
• Insufficient sleep was more predictive of early mortality than inactivity, obesity, loneliness, or alcohol
• This trend held across all states, demographics, and years

Bottom line: Sleep is now considered one of the strongest levers for human longevity.

🧠 Why Poor Sleep Shortens Life

Lancette simplifies the physiology of sleep deprivation, including:

• Cardiovascular strain
• Glucose dysregulation
• Brain inflammation
• Immune suppression
• Glymphatic system impairment
• Emotional and cognitive decline

These accumulate over years, silently accelerating chronic disease and aging.

👶 Sleep Needs Across the Lifespan

Children are more sleep-deprived than ever. You’ll hear the breakdown of evidence-based sleep duration needs from newborns through adolescence — plus why parents also require 7–9 hours of quality sleep to function and care for their families.

😴 What “Good-Quality Sleep” Actually Means

This episode explains how true restorative sleep requires:

• An open airway all night
• Stable oxygen
• Minimal arousals
• Natural progression through all sleep stages
• No untreated sleep apnea, snoring, or mouth breathing

Without these, your hours in bed are not restorative — they’re survival mode.

🚨 The Wake-Up Call

Snoring is not benign.
 Mouth breathing is not harmless.
 Nighttime urination isn’t “just aging.”
 Morning fatigue is not normal.

And 80% of people with sleep apnea don’t know they have it.

Lancette issues a clear call to action for:

• Adults → Commit to yearly sleep studies
• Parents → Annual sleep assessments for every child age 2+
• General Public → Treat sleep as a vital sign
• Healthcare Providers → Screen every patient, every visit, every time

Sleep disorders develop slowly and silently — but early detection can change the entire trajectory of a person’s health, performance, and lifespan.

Lancette offers a list of simple screening questions for adults and children, reminding clinicians that:

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 Why Medical & Dental Providers Must Lead the Sleep & Breathing Revolution

In this powerful, science-driven episode, Lancette reveals the silent epidemic hiding in plain sight: undiagnosed mouth breathing and sleep-disordered breathing. With up to 1 billion people worldwide affected by sleep apnea—and 80–90% undiagnosed—healthcare can no longer afford to ignore the airway.

Lancette breaks down the physiology of mouth breathing, why sleep apnea destroys health, how airway dysfunction impacts every body system, and why airway must be recognized and screened as the fifth vital sign.

She issues a compelling challenge to all medical and dental providers:
 Screen every airway. Every patient. Every visit.
Because prevention is powerful—and early detection saves lives.

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS & KEY TOPICS

00:00 – Introduction: Why the Airway Matters More Than Ever

A reminder that breathing and sleep are the foundations of health—and the most overlooked.

01:00 – The Silent Airway Crisis

Staggering data on sleep apnea prevalence and underdiagnosis.
 Why mouth breathing in children alters development and sets the stage for chronic disease.

04:00 – The Science of Mouth Breathing

How nitric oxide production, oral microbiome balance, immune function, and nervous system regulation depend on nasal breathing.
 Why mouth breathing leads to sympathetic overload, poor sleep quality, inflammation, and oral-systemic disease.

08:00 – ✨ Airway as the Fifth Vital Sign

Why traditional vital signs miss the whole story.
 How oxygenation, airway stability, and sleep architecture influence every other vital sign.
 Why airway is the most important measurement we aren’t documenting.

11:00 – Why Providers Are Missing This

Silos, lack of training, and symptom-based care keep airway disorders invisible.

13:00 – What Screening Looks Like in Medical & Dental Settings

Simple, fast, evidence-based screening tools and observations.
 What to look for in adults and children.

15:00 – Inspiration + Call to Action

A powerful message to the prevention providers of the world:
 Airway is our responsibility. Screening saves lives.
 Together, we can make waves in healthcare.

🧠 KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Mouth breathing is not harmless—it is a sign of dysfunction affecting whole-body health.
• Sleep apnea is a global epidemic, deeply underdiagnosed and widely misunderstood.
• Nitric oxide, craniofacial development, blood pressure, glucose regulation, and mental health are all impacted by how we breathe.
• Airway IS the fifth vital sign and should be documented as routinely as heart rate or blood pressure.
• Dental and medical providers have an opportunity—and responsibility—to lead early detection.
• Screening takes seconds but can save a lifetime of suffering.

📌 CALL TO ACTION

For Healthcare Providers:
✔️ Screen every patient for mouth breathing and sleep-disordered breathing.
✔️ Observe airway anatomy and behavior during routine exams.
✔️ Use validated screening tools (STOP-Bang, Epworth, SleepImage, pediatric questionnaires).
✔️ Refer patients for proper sleep testing—don’t guess.
✔️ Treat airway as a vital sign, not an afterthought.

For Listeners:
✔️ If you or someone you love snores, mouth breathes, grinds teeth, wakes tired, or str

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In This Episode:

• What gratitude does to the brain & nervous system
• How gratitude supports airway health and sleep quality
• Micro-moments of gratitude that create real physiological change
• The surprising research on HRV, inflammation, and emotional resilience
• Why gratitude matters most during hard seasons
• A guided gratitude breathing practice

Key Takeaways:

• Gratitude is biological, not just emotional
• It increases dopamine, serotonin, and HRV
• It reduces cortisol and airway resistance
• It improves sleep architecture
• It stabilizes the nervous system
• Gratitude is most powerful when life feels uncertain
• Micro-moments matter more than big rituals

Call to Action:
Pause today for one 10-second moment of gratitude.
Your nervous system — and your airway — will feel the difference.

#beyondbreathing #sierrasleepwell #sleepapena #gratitude #airway #myofunctionaltherapy #breathewell #sleepwell #sleepsolutions 

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In this episode of Beyond Breathing, Lancette explores the powerful and often overlooked connection between sleep apnea, psoriasis, and autoimmune inflammation. Listeners will learn how nighttime oxygen drops can worsen autoimmune flares, how treating sleep apnea can improve skin health and immune function, and why every person age 2 and above should receive annual sleep screenings.

This episode provides actionable steps for improving sleep, breathing, and overall inflammatory health—empowering listeners to take charge of their wellbeing and advocate for full-body care.

Key Topics Covered

🌡️ The Psoriasis–Sleep Apnea Connection

• Why psoriasis is an autoimmune systemic disease, not just a skin condition
• Inflammation pathways shared between psoriasis and OSA
• How nighttime airway collapse drives immune dysfunction

🧬 Autoimmune Disease & OSA

• Increased OSA risk in people with RA, lupus, Hashimoto’s, celiac disease, Sjögren’s, and more
• How disrupted sleep destabilizes the immune system

😴 How Sleep Apnea Worsens Psoriasis

• Chronic inflammation
• Elevated cortisol
• Impaired tissue repair
• Reduced biologic medication effectiveness
• Emotional dysregulation & stress
• Metabolic dysfunction
• Poor skin healing

🌙 How Treating Apnea Helps Skin & Immune Health

• Decreased flares
• Improved mood
• Lower inflammation
• Better sleep architecture
• Enhanced response to treatments

🧒 Annual Sleep Testing for Age 2+

• Children’s unique apnea symptoms
• Teens & adults’ changing airway patterns
• Autoimmune patients needing yearly monitoring

🧩 Action Steps

• Annual sleep screening
• Airway assessment by dentist or dental hygienist
• Tracking sleep patterns
• Reducing inflammation daily
• Treating apnea early
• Advocating for whole-person, whole-airway care

Call to Action

🌀 It’s time to treat sleep like the vital sign it is.
Book your annual sleep screening.
Talk to your hygienist about airway signs.
Advocate for answers—not bandaids.

#beyondbreathing #sierrasleepwell #sleepapnea #snoring #mouthbreathing #psoriasis #myofunctionaltherapy #autoimmune

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Have you ever tried to start working out again—only to find that your body feels like it’s fighting against you? You’re motivated, you’re showing up, but every step feels heavier than it should… and no matter how many hours you sleep, you wake up exhausted.

What if I told you that the problem isn’t your discipline, your diet, or your age—
 It’s your oxygen.

Today on Beyond Breathing, we’re unpacking a topic that hides in plain sight:
Exercise intolerance, chronic fatigue, and the silent role of untreated sleep apnea.

This one’s personal for so many of my patients—and for a lot of listeners who have said, “I’m doing everything right… so why do I still feel so tired?”

Let’s find out.

🌬️ Segment 1: Fatigue Isn’t Laziness—It’s a Signal

Fatigue isn’t just “feeling tired.” It’s your body’s biological SOS.
When you have untreated sleep apnea, your brain and muscles are literally operating on reduced oxygen night after night. Every time your airway collapses during sleep, your oxygen saturation drops—sometimes dozens or even hundreds of times per night.

That means:

• Your heart works harder to pump oxygen to tissues.
• Your muscles never fully recover from daily strain.
• Your hormones—like cortisol, testosterone, and growth hormone—become unbalanced.
• Your mitochondria, the powerhouses of your cells, start running out of fuel.

The result? You wake up feeling like you already ran a marathon—before your day even begins.

And when you try to exercise, your body’s already behind on energy and oxygen delivery. That’s why patients with untreated sleep apnea often describe workouts as “draining” or “futile.”

🏃‍♀️ Segment 2: What Exercise Intolerance Really Means

Exercise intolerance isn’t about motivation—it’s about physiology.

Your muscles rely on a steady supply of oxygen to convert glucose and fat into energy.
 But when your airway collapses at night, oxygen levels dip repeatedly, and your cardiovascular system compensates by releasing adrenaline to jolt you awake. Over time, this constant stress response creates:

• Elevated resting heart rate
• High blood pressure
• Reduced oxygen uptake (VO₂ max)
• And increased lactic acid buildup during activity

That’s why people with untreated sleep apnea often feel out of breath faster, take longer to recover, and experience muscle soreness that lingers.

Even elite athletes can struggle when sleep-disordered breathing goes undetected. Some professional teams now screen all players for airway and sleep disorders—because oxygen deprivation reduces endurance and coordination, and raises risk for injury.

🧠 Segment 3: The Fatigue Loop—Body, Brain, and Behavior

Chronic sleep deprivation and oxygen desaturation affect more than muscles.
 They reshape your brain chemistry and motivation centers.

Low oxygen (hypoxia) increases inflammation in the brain, reduces focus, and alters neurotransmitters like dopamine and serotonin. That’s why people with untreated sleep apnea often describe:

• “Brain fog”
• Low motivation
• Irritability
• Anxiety or depression
• Weight gain despite clean eating

It’s a vicious cycle: poor sleep lowers energy and motivation, which reduces exercise tolerance, which leads to more weight gain, which worsens sleep apnea.

Breaking that cycle starts with one thi

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