Sleep Unplugged with Dr. Chris Winter

What if treating insomnia were less like fixing a medical problem and more like earning a black belt in karate? Welcome to the Insomnia Dojo, a six-belt journey from the frightened white belt who desperately wants to control sleep to the enlightened black belt who realizes that sleep never needed controlling in the first place. Along the way, we'll draw inspiration from Bruce Lee, Mr. Miyagi, Jean-Claude Van Damme, and even Pai Mei from Kill Bill. Wax on, wax off, Grasshopper. Your insomnia training begins now. In this episode we will:

• Explore the six belts of insomnia treatment, from white to black, and what each represents.
• Define the fundamental lessons of sleep science that every insomnia student must master.
• Examine how sleep hygiene, medications, audiobooks, and relaxation techniques can help patients while sometimes creating new dependencies.
• Discuss why confidence, flexibility, and resilience are more important than achieving perfect sleep.
• Review the role of CBT-I, acceptance, and cognitive strategies in progressing toward insomnia mastery.
• Reveal the ultimate secret of the insomnia black belt: sometimes the greatest mastery comes from letting go of control entirely.

To find out more about this week's podcast sponsor Sleep Reset, please use the following link: http://thesleepreset.com/podcast 

Original intro music Vigilanteology by Abhinav Singh (copyright 2026)

Original outro music Vigilanteology (reprise) by Abhinav Singh (copyright 2026)

Produced by: Maeve Winter

Music by: Dr. Abhinav Singh (@sleep_vigilante), all rights reserved

More

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

Thanks for listening and sleep well!

Dr. Saema Tahir (@thenycsleepdoctor) joins me for another countdown of the Top 10 Sleep Threats. From social media sleep hacks and nightly Benadryl to the dangers of relying on sleep trackers and chatbots for medical advice, Dr. Tahir takes aim at some of the most common misconceptions in sleep medicine. In this episode we will:

• Explore why AI and social media aren't substitutes for proper sleep evaluations.
• Discuss the risks of nightly Benadryl and the myth of the relaxing nightcap.
• Examine the consequences of weekend sleep-ins and irregular sleep schedules.
• Explain why sleep hygiene alone isn't an effective treatment for chronic insomnia.
• Investigate how insufficient sleep can mimic ADHD symptoms.

To find out more about this week's podcast sponsor Halo by Screen Zen, please use the following link: https://screenzen.co/products/halo

Use the discount code DRWINTER for 20% off

Original intro music Vigilanteology by Abhinav Singh (copyright 2026)

Original outro music Vigilanteology (reprise) by Abhinav Singh (copyright 2026)

Produced by: Maeve Winter

Music by: Dr. Abhinav Singh (@sleep_vigilante), all rights reserved

More

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

Thanks for listening and sleep well!

“What do you think about peptides?” is one of the most common questions in the sleep clinic right now, and it’s about as answerable as “What do you think about sandwiches?” Insulin, Zepbound and a gray-market vial of BPC-157 are all peptides, but the word tells you nothing about what a molecule does or how well it’s been tested. In this episode we put the most popular “sleep peptides” to the test, including the one named after deep sleep that an FDA advisory panel rejected this summer while backing nearly everything else. In this episode we will:

• Define what a peptide is, including the FDA’s somewhat arbitrary 40-amino-acid line, and why most have to be injected
• Sort out supplements, FDA-approved drugs, compounded drugs and “research use only” vials, and walk through 2026’s regulatory saga
• List the risks posed by unregulated peptides
• Rank the sleep evidence, from tirzepatide’s sleep apnea trials to the stories behind DSIP, epitalon and the growth-hormone peptides
• Leave you with five questions to ask anyone recommending “peptides"

Original intro music Vigilanteology by Abhinav Singh (copyright 2026)

Original outro music Vigilanteology (reprise) by Abhinav Singh (copyright 2026)

Produced by: Maeve Winter

Music by: Dr. Abhinav Singh (@sleep_vigilante), all rights reserved

More

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

Thanks for listening and sleep well!

Last November on Episode 178, we talked about three companies racing to bring orexin agonists to people with narcolepsy. In less than a year, one of those drugs has been approved, another company has been bought for billions, and the race now runs from the lab to the insurance company. In this episode we will:

• Break down the latest data from the SLEEP 2026 meeting in Baltimore, where each drug stands and when the rest might reach patients.
• Tackle the questions patients are already asking: will these be controlled substances, what will they cost, and will insurance cover them? 
• Highlight Orzeyful (oveporexton), its FDA approval, and what to expect from the DEA
• Revisit alixorexton and its phase 3 push into narcolepsy type 1, type 2 and idiopathic hypersomnia
• Touch on cleminorexton (formerly ORX750) and why Eli Lilly paid $6.3 billion for its developer Centessa
• Introduce the rest of the field: including products from Eisai and Harmony Bioscience

Original intro music Vigilanteology by Abhinav Singh (copyright 2026)

Original outro music Vigilanteology (reprise) by Abhinav Singh (copyright 2026)

Produced by: Maeve Winter

Music by: Dr. Abhinav Singh (@sleep_vigilante), all rights reserved

More

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

Thanks for listening and sleep well!

Imagine a sleep study where picturing yourself diving in a submarine boosted deep sleep by 81%, yet nobody slept a minute longer. It's a real result, and it points to an uncomfortable idea: with the right design, almost anything can be shown to "improve sleep." From free habits to FDA-approved pills to neurotech headbands, every claim has a study behind it, and how that study was built often matters more than the product being sold. In this episode we will

• Use that submarine study as a yardstick for judging every sleep claim that follows
• Trace the research behind Ambien's 1992 FDA approval, from its 4-5 week trials to the 2013 dose cut for women
• Look at suvorexant, where the doses that were tested and the doses that were approved weren't the same
• Break down eight ways a sleep study gets steered toward a positive headline, each with a real insomnia example
• Put devices and supplements like Somnee, Evolv28, Moonbird and magnesium through the same lens
• Leave you with a checklist for reading past the webpage and finding out who paid, who was tested, and for how long

To find out more about this week's podcast sponsor Sleep Reset, please use the following link: http://thesleepreset.com/podcast 

Original intro music Vigilanteology by Abhinav Singh (copyright 2026)

Original outro music Vigilanteology (reprise) by Abhinav Singh (copyright 2026)

Produced by: Maeve Winter

Music by: Dr. Abhinav Singh (@sleep_vigilante), all rights reserved

More

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

Thanks for listening and sleep well!

Dr. Valerie Cacho (@drvalsleepgal) joins me for another countdown of the Top 10 Sleep Threats, and her list asks a question we should all be asking more often: Have we actually figured out what is disrupting someone’s sleep? From peptides marketed as cures to the assumption that a woman’s fatigue is simply part of being a working mom, Valerie takes aim at the shortcuts that can delay an accurate diagnosis. In this episode we will:

• Examine what the research does—and does not—say about peptides for insomnia and hypersomnia
• Discuss why morning sunlight and sleep hygiene are not complete treatments for chronic insomnia
• Explore how BMI, menopause, and the absence of daytime sleepiness can lead clinicians to overlook sleep apnea
• Talk about why sleep health deserves attention now, rather than after retirement

Find out more about Dr. Val's free community for peri-menopause sleep education at http://www.skool.com/sleephoria

Original intro music Vigilanteology by Abhinav Singh (copyright 2026)

Original outro music Vigilanteology (reprise) by Abhinav Singh (copyright 2026)

Produced by: Maeve Winter

Music by: Dr. Abhinav Singh (@sleep_vigilante), all rights reserved

More

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

Thanks for listening and sleep well!

A courtroom, an insurance formula, and a supermarket receipt don't usually belong in the same sentence — but together they answer the question this episode is built around: what does a bad night's sleep actually cost, in dollars, tonight? Not the economy. You. We take the number everyone quotes and can't act on — sleep deprivation costs the U.S. $411 billion a year — and rebuild it from the ground up using the data that was actually measured on individuals, not GDP models. In this episode we will:

• Break down a landmark employer study of four U.S. companies that priced lost productivity per employee per year, showing the "insufficient sleep" bracket runs about $1,500 more than a well-rested peer, and the insomnia bracket nearly $1,900 more
• Walk through a controlled supermarket experiment where one night of total sleep deprivation alone drove men to buy 9% more calories and 18% more food by weight the next morning, and tie it to a listener's own "revenge bedtime procrastination"
• Lay out AAA's crash-risk data by hour of sleep lost, including the finding that a driver on under five hours of sleep carries a crash risk comparable to driving drunk, and drowsy driving factors into more than one in five fatal crashes nationally
• Reconcile two independent methods with one built bottom-up from workplace data, and one built top-down from RAND's national economic modeling, and see they converge at roughly $10 to $20 for one ordinary short night
• Get into the neuroscience of why the tired brain is the wrong tool to fight its own bad decisions, from impaired prefrontal-cortex judgment to a reward system that starts favoring one more episode over tomorrow's rested self

To find out more about this week's podcast sponsor NOCTEM Health, please use the following link: https://noctemhealth.com/

Original intro music Vigilanteology by Abhinav Singh (copyright 2026)

Original outro music Vigilanteology (reprise) by Abhinav Singh (copyright 2026)

Produced by: Maeve Winter

Music by: Dr. Abhinav Singh (@sleep_vigilante), all rights reserved

More

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

Thanks for listening and sleep well!

A few days ago, we did an experiment to see how well AI could interview me about sleep. In this bonus episode, I reveal the original attempt which was a bit all over the place. The interview was much more personal and strange which we corrected by adjusting the prompt in the "official" episode, but I thought it might be funny to share the trial run. In this episode we will:

-Debate how much of my career success can reasonably be attributed to my looks
-Discuss my questionable resemblance to Tom Hiddleston
-Ask which voices in the sleep world I occasionally wish were a little quieter
-Revisit the strangest place I have ever slept
-Explore the difference between believing something works and believing it works very much
-Talk about the irrational fear that someday the phone simply stops ringing
-Consider who I am when sleep medicine, sports, speaking, and podcasting are stripped away
-Get unexpectedly personal about work, family, friendship, and the things we sacrifice while building a career
-Ask what I hope my children do—and don't—inherit from me

Original intro music Vigilanteology by Abhinav Singh (copyright 2026)

Original outro music Vigilanteology (reprise) by Abhinav Singh (copyright 2026)

Produced by: Maeve Winter

Music by: Dr. Abhinav Singh (@sleep_vigilante), all rights reserved

More

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

Thanks for listening and sleep well!

What happens when the interviewer knows nearly everything you have said publicly and has zero fear of challenging or offending you? In this unusual episode of Sleep Unplugged, I turn over all control of the podcast to AI and let it ask the questions and dictate the program. The result is a surprisingly candid conversation about certainty, contradiction, expertise, and what an algorithm might see when it examines a career devoted to sleep. In this episode I (or we?) will:

• Turn the microphone around and let artificial intelligence interview the interviewer
• Examine the tension between scientific authority and intellectual humility
• Discuss why sleep medicine sometimes rewards certainty when the evidence demands nuance
• Revisit ideas and opinions I have expressed publicly—and allow the AI to challenge them
• Consider what patients, athletes, and listeners actually need from a sleep expert
• Ask whether an algorithm can recognize contradictions, vulnerabilities, and blind spots

Original intro music Vigilanteology by Abhinav Singh (copyright 2026)

Original outro music Vigilanteology (reprise) by Abhinav Singh (copyright 2026)

Produced by: Maeve Winter

Music by: Dr. Abhinav Singh (@sleep_vigilante), all rights reserved

More

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

Thanks for listening and sleep well!

A Massachusetts courtroom just produced something that almost never survives into public record: a near-complete paper trail of one woman's psychiatric care in the three months before catastrophe. Her diary, her phone notes, and the testimony of every provider who tried to help her sleep all lead to a central question: what actually happens when insomnia and psychiatric illness feed each other, and how thin is the system supposed to catch it before it breaks? In this episode we will:

• Walk through the documented timeline od initial depression, an SSRI, a reported 48 hours without sleep, and a rapid cascade through a benzodiazepine, an antihistamine, and eventually an antipsychotic, across three different providers in three months
• Break down SSRI-induced activation syndrome and why it can look clinically identical to an antidepressant unmasking bipolar disorder
• Bring in the hard data on sleep loss as a trigger, not just a symptom, including a study of 870 women with bipolar disorder showing one lost night of sleep around delivery raised postpartum psychosis odds roughly fivefold
• Draw the same throughline through Michael Jackson, Heath Ledger, and Brittany Murphy, three deaths where a real, unresolved insomnia complaint met multiple prescribers without a shared picture
• Evaluate national data putting mental-health ED visits at over 35,000 a day, and a 2013 survey showing a third of psychiatry residencies don't even offer an elective in sleep medicine

To find out more about this week's podcast sponsor Sleep Reset, please use the following link: http://thesleepreset.com/podcast 

Original intro music Vigilanteology by Abhinav Singh (copyright 2026)

Original outro music Vigilanteology (reprise) by Abhinav Singh (copyright 2026)

Produced by: Maeve Winter

Music by: Dr. Abhinav Singh (@sleep_vigilante), all rights reserved

More

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

Thanks for listening and sleep well!