At every medical appointment, certain rituals unfold: height, weight, blood pressure, and—almost reflexively—temperature. But in asymptomatic patients, how often does that temperature reading actually matter? In this episode, we will:

• Examine the origins of routine temperature checks and their current clinical value
• Explore data showing how infrequently temperature readings in well visits lead to meaningful outcomes
• Introduce the idea of sleep as a more relevant and revealing “vital sign”
• Highlight how simple questions—like “Do you snore?” or “Are you sleepy during the day?”—can uncover high-impact sleep disorders
• Contrast the diagnostic yield of temperature checks vs. sleep screening
• Consider why sleep is still overlooked in routine care, despite its massive public health implications
• Reimagine a future where sleep quality is as routinely measured—and meaningfully addressed—as blood pressure

Produced by: Maeve Winter

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• Bluesky: @drchriswinter
• The Sleep Solution and The Rested Child

Thanks for listening and sleep well!

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

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• Bluesky: @drchriswinter
• The Sleep Solution and The Rested Child

Thanks for listening and sleep well!

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

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• The Sleep Solution and The Rested Child

Thanks for listening and sleep well!

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

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• Bluesky: @drchriswinter
• The Sleep Solution and The Rested Child

Thanks for listening and sleep well!

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

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• The Sleep Solution and The Rested Child

Thanks for listening and sleep well!

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

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• Bluesky: @drchriswinter
• The Sleep Solution and The Rested Child

Thanks for listening and sleep well!

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

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• The Sleep Solution and The Rested Child

Thanks for listening and sleep well!

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

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• The Sleep Solution and The Rested Child

Thanks for listening and sleep well!

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

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• The Sleep Solution and The Rested Child

Thanks for listening and sleep well!

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

More

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

Thanks for listening and sleep well!