Sleep Junkies

With new scientific discoveries being reported in the news and media on almost a daily basis, it's often hard to keep up with all the latest findings, so join us as we select just 4  recent publications from the world of sleep science, exploring the studies themselves, but also the wider context that new sleep research is reported in the media.

Prefer to read? Download the full episode transcript here

The four news stories we look at are:

[7:20] "Not just blue light, study says prolonged screen time alone disrupts sleep"

alone-disrupts-sleep/13080/

Study link: https://www.cell.com/cell-reports/fulltext/S2211-1247(18)31754-6

[13:15] "Light pollution may cause insomnia in older adults"

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/11/181130120446.htm

Study link: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30373695

[22:25] "Too Much Sleep Can Kill You, Scientists Say"

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/324475

Study link: https://academic.oup.com/eurheartj/advance-article/doi/10.1093/eurheartj/ehy695/5229545#126392935

[35:42] "Starting School Later Really Does Help Teens Get Sleep"

www.nytimes.com/2018/12/12/well/mind/starting-school-later-really-does-help-teens-get-sleep.html

Study link: http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/4/12/eaau6200

This episode’s guest:

Dr Neil Stanley

Dr Neil Stanley has been been involved in sleep research for over 30 years, and describes himself plain and simply as a ‘sleep expert’.

Dr Stanley’s website – www.sleepconsultancy.com 

How To Sleep Well book – https://amzn.to/2PjTZfl

Resources:

Articles about blue light and sleep - http://sleepjunkies.com/tag/blue-light/

Start School Later interview - http://sleepjunkies.com/kids-and-family/start-school-later-interview/

Article about light pollution - http://sleepjunkies.com/blog/sleep-deprived-or-darkness-deprived/

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Full Transcript

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Jeff Mann: Well, this morning we're with Neil Stanley. Good Morning Neil.

Good morning.

Neil Stanley: Thanks so much for joining us this morning Neil. Can I, can I just ask you before we get into the nitty gritty, in your view, have you seen the amount of research and sleep science increase over the years?

00:44 Neil Stanley: No, absolutely. I mean I've been in this game for 37 years now and when I started one journal published papers about sleep, which was called Sleep, and there was sort of pretty much one textbook which was The Principles and Practice of Sleep Medicine.

And now there's an absolute deluge of sleep information. I mean, there's tens of sleep journals, but the other thing that perhaps has changed is that papers pertaining to sleep aer published pretty much across the board.

Bed industry veteran Jerry cuts through the hype and gives us the low down on what's really important about choosing the right mattress, and offers advice you won't commonly find on the internet.

Skip to highlights

* 03:14 Introducing Jerry Cheshire the Beducator

* 05:48 The mattress industry from the 1990's to 'the disruptors'

* 08:25 Mattress types explained

* 10:19 The dominance of foam mattresses

* 12:19 Mistake #1: You don't try before you buy

* 18:22 Mistake #2: Assuming a firm mattress is best

* 24:07 Mistake #3: Choosing a mattress based on the number of springs

* 26:28 Mistake #4: Not checking the quality of the memory foam

* 32:53 Mistake #5: Not spending enough money

We spend a third of our lives in bed so choosing the right mattress is vital to  ensuring your get the best quality sleep. We chat with Jerry Cheshire - aka the Beducator -  about 5 common mistakes people make when shopping for a new mattress.

The mattress industry was revolutionised when Casper introduced the 'bed in a box' business model in 2014, offering competitive pricing and doorstep mattress delivery, all at the click of a button. But the convenience of buying online comes with a hidden cost.

Instead of selecting a mattress on how good it feels, we base our decisions on marketing and the word of mattress review sites. Bed industry veteran Jerry cuts through the hype and gives us the low down on what's really important about choosing the right mattress, and offers advice you won't commonly find on the internet.

Prefer to read? Download the full episode transcript here

This Episode's Guest:

Jerry Chesire aka the 'Beducator'

Jerry Chesire is the Owner/Director of Surrey Beds, an award winning entrepreneur and author and bed & mattress expert and sleep specialist. Known as 'The Beducator', Jerry specialises in transforming sleep deprived sub-somniacs into blissful sleepers using his 'Blissful S.L.E.E.P Method'.

Resources:

Surrey Beds - https://www.surreybeds.co.uk/

The Beducator - http://www.beducator.co.uk/

Sleeping Blissfully Book - https://amzn.to/2QQ7kAB

Jerry Cheshire on Twitter - https://twitter.com/thebeducator

Episode homepage - http://sleepjunkies.com/mattress-buying-mistakes/

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Full transcript

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[00:46] Jeff Mann (JM) : So today we're going to talk about a topic is very important to the subject of sleep. We're going to talk about mattresses and we're going to talk about the buying decisions behind choosing a mattress and the different types of mattresses and to give a bit of context to the discussion, we have to look at what's happened in the mattress industry in the last five years.

How Casper disrupted the mattress industry

Now, just as companies like Uber, companies like Airbnb and Amazon has revolutionized taxis, hotels and retail shopping. Well the mattress industry which is worth tens of billions of dollars, has undergone his own technological revolution. This started in 2014 with a company called Casper, who invented what's now called the bed in a box model.

Instead of having to go to a physical retail store and lying down on a mattress and trying it out, you can now go online and choose what you want, click a button and then your mattress will turn up on the doorstep vacuum packed and nicely packaged, which is,

We talk to Curzio Vasapollo about the practicalities and challenges of measuring the sleeping brain using EEG (electroencephalography). We also discuss what happens in a sleep lab vs tracking your sleep at home, AI, biotech and loads more.

Prefer to read? Download the full episode transcript here

Episode Highlights:

* 03:52 Description of ZMax platform

* 04:13 Zmax applications - research, lucid dreaming, neuro-feedback

* 07:47 What is EEG?

* 12:01 Misconceptions of 'brain-waves'

* 15:24 What is a hypnogram?

* 16:58 What is light sleep (N1 sleep)?

* 19:46 N2 sleep, K-complexes and sleep spindles

* 22:28 Slow wave (deep) sleep or N3 sleep

* 26:28 REM detection and lucid dreaming

* 31:15 Why a sleep cycles is not 90 minutes

* 32:33 Contrasting EEG sleep recording at home and in the sleep lab

* 32:33 The limitations of FitBits and movement based sleep trackers

* 35:04 Challenges of building an accurate EEG wearable

* 56:14 Turning raw EEG data into a usable hypnogram with AI

* 65:01 Lucid dreaming research using ZMax

* 69:05 Detecting sleep apnea with a wearable

* 73:05 the future of sleep technology is in biotech, not hardware

Episode Homepage: http://sleepjunkies.com/podcast/measuring-the-sleeping-brain/

This episode's guest:

Curzio Vasapollo, developer of Zmax

Curzio (Kurt) Vasapollo is the inventor of Zmax, an EEG-based sleep acquisition tool for monitoring sleep accurately outside of the sleep lab with applications for sleep research, lucid dreaming and bio/neuro-feedback

Links:

Zmax website - http://hypnodynecorp.com/

ResearchGate - https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Curzio_Vasapollo

Overview of EEG and sleep (Medscape) - https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/1140322-overview

Sleep tracking guide - http://sleepjunkies.com/features/the-ultimate-guide-to-sleep-tracking/

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Full Transcript:

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Jeff: Hi Kurt how you doing?

Kurt: I'm doing fine thank you.

Jeff: I'm going to really try and pick your brains today. Before we get into the question and answer, I like to give guests the opportunity to what I call an elevator pitch and now I just mentioned you've created this platform called ZMax. Now, in a succinct way, because it's a very sophisticated platform that you've created, can you just give us a very brief overview what your platform does?

Description of ZMax platform

Kurt: So, ZMax is a sleep acquisition and analysis system. It consists of both hardware and software. The hardware is a comfortable headband that you put on your head before you go to sleep and the software is a toolset for displaying data, that is acquired and for analyzing features of sleep.

Some of the applications of ZMax for exemplar in sleep research, sleep researchers across Europe use ZMax to capture data from their participants in their sleep studies.

For example; the Stockholm University and Karolinska Institute, Radboud University, Netherlands Harrison Institute, in Amsterdam with Dr Van Someron. Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry,

Inspired by a bizarre sleep study involving the Australian digeridoo, Dr Brian Krohn has developed Soundly, an app that turns a proven clinical therapy for snoring into a fun, retro video game.

Prefer to read? Download the full episode transcript here

Episode Highlights

* 1:47 Introducing Dr Brian Krohn 

* 2:41 What is the Soundly app? 

* 4:16 Dr Brian Krohn explains his eclectic career

* 6:46 Academia and business. Oil and water? 

* 8:50 Creating a research-led product

* 10:06 From climate change research to sleep science

* 14:46 A brief overview of snoring

* 18:06 Sleep apnea, snoring and digeridoos – the research

* 19:53 A ‘push-up’ for your breathing airway muscles

* 23:05 Space invaders: how to gamify a clinical therapy

* 25:37 Soundly: the clinical study

* 28:04 How long does it take to work?

* 31:02 Thoughts on the future of sleep medicine

* 34:34 Where to get the Soundly app

Jeff Mann talks with Soundly CEO Dr Brian Krohn about snoring, innovation, digeridoos and space invaders.. amongst other other stuff

Way back in 2013, I wrote about a fascinating but bizarre sleep study which proved that playing the digeridoo was an effective alternative therapy for treating patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA).

I forget about this diverting piece of research until I met Brian Krohn at the Somnex Sleep Show in London last month. He was there to talk about his new app Soundly, a natural way to treat snoring which gamifies some of the therapeutic principles behind the digeridoo study.

Still in his early thirties, Dr Brian Krohn's career has criss-crossed the fields of academia, innovation and entrepreneurship in an impressive array of projects both serious..... and not so serious.

These include pioneering a new method of manufacturing clean biodiesel, co-founding one of the largest hop-farms in the Midwest, developing diagnostic tools for neurosurgery, and oh, yeah, a Kickstarter that makes 'magic wizard staffs'

But now Brian's mission is sleep, so we caught up after the show to talk more about his work as a scientist and entrepreneur, and how he's created a natural method of reducing snoring by playing a retro video game. Enjoy!

This episode's guest:

Dr Brian Krohn

Still in his early thirties, Dr Brian Krohn's career has traversed the fields of academia, innovation and entrepreneurship. We catch up with Dr Krohn to hear more about his eclectic career, his journey into sleep medicine and his revolutionary snoring app, Soundly.

Links:

Soundly App - http://sleepsound.ly/

Can a Digeridoo Cure Sleep Apnea -  http://sleepjunkies.com/sleep-apnea/digeridoo-treatment-for-os/

Magic Wizard Stuff - https://magicwizardstaff.com/

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAHJRV7rXtk

 

Full Transcription

[toc]

Introducing Dr Brian Krohn

Jeff Mann: So I'm here with Brian Krohn today, now I bumped into Brian down at the Somme next show a couple of w...

We take a deep dive to bust 7 of the most common and pervasive sleep myths with Dr Neil Stanley. Having spent the last 36 involved in sleep research and education, Dr Stanley is well qualified to join us on our myth-busting journey today.

Prefer to read? Download the full episode transcript here

Episode Highlights

* 01:53 Introducing Dr Neil Stanley

* 03:22 What is a sleep expert?

* 11:00 Myth 1: Sleep is a passive activity

* 18:59 Myth 2: The older you get the less sleep you need

* 25:10 Myth 3: You can catch up with sleep at the weekends

* 31:16 Myth 4: You can learn to be a morning person

* 36:08 Myth 5: Teenagers are lazy and like to lie in bed in the mornings

* 40:53 Myth 6: Snoring is harmless

* 50:37 Myth 7: Alcohol is an effective sleep aid

Join us on our inaugural podcast as we sift fact from the fiction and look at some of the most common myths and misconceptions about sleep and sleep health. Joining us is Dr Neil Stanley, who has spent over 30 years involved in sleep research. Here's a run down of what you can expect to hear:

This episode's guest:

Dr Neil Stanley

Dr Neil Stanley has been been involved in sleep research for over 30 years, and describes himself plain and simply as a 'sleep expert'.

Resources:

Dr Stanley's website - www.sleepconsultancy.com

How To Sleep Well book - https://amzn.to/2PjTZfl

More sleep myths - http://sleepjunkies.com/features/the-33-biggest-myths-about-sleep-and-insomnia-de-bunked/

More Episodes:

Full transcript

[toc]

Jeff Mann: This morning, I'm joined with Dr. Neil Stanley and I'm really pleased to have him on the end of the line. And Neil has got a long-standing history as a researcher and a scientist and I’ll let him talk a little bit more about that. So. Hi, Neil. How you doing?

Dr Neil Stanley: Good morning. Yeah, I mean, it's great to be here.

Jeff Mann: I often ask guests to give me an elevator pitch for their product or their service but you're not promoting anything except yourself. So, can you give our listeners just a very brief overview of who you are? Actually, before we do that there's a brilliant bit on your website, I just like to read out just as a preface to your introduction so on your website sleepconsultancy.com on the About page it made me laugh so I'm just going to read it out.

It says “Dr. Neil Stanley, what I am not, I’m not and these are all in inverted commas here. I'm not asleep advocate sleep diplomat, sleep practitioner, sleep educator, sleep evangelist, sleep therapist. Sleep physiologist, sleep environmental analyst, sleep fairy, sleep guru, sleep geek sleep solution expert sleep Ambassador sleep Health Navigator sleep solution expert international sleep speaker and educator or any other fancy title I am a sleep expert plain and simple." I love that.

Introducing Dr Neil Stanley, Sleep Expert

Dr Neil Stanley: Yeah I mean this is it, I mean I am asleep expert but I mean I've been involved in sleep research for the last 36 years initially worked alongside the world Air Force at the Institute of Aviation Medicine looking at things like workload, jet lag, shift work & medicines you can take and safely fly. In the early 90s I moved to the University of Surrey. I created and ran the world's largest clinical trial sleep laboratory, a 24 bed unit and as part of that I designed constructed the 12 finest bedrooms built anywhere...