The Sleep Unplugged podcast is here to ease your holiday shopping stress with some of my favorite sleep product companies. In this episode, we will explore a host of sleep-themed gift ideas and product recommendations. many with unique discount codes for their purchases. In this episode, we will feature the following products:

• Ayo circadian lighting
• Beadgear pillows and linens
• Bearaby weighted blankets
• Eberjey pajamas 
• Hest travel pillow
• Lumi cold water recovery tank
• Manta sleep mask
• QuietOn sleeping earbuds
• SaunaBox home wet/steam sauna
• Sleepys pillows and pillow inserts
• Swanwick blue-blocking glasses and lighting solutions
• The Sleep Solution/The Rested Child books
• Withings ScanWatch Horizon sleep/fitness watch
• zDen personal/pet sleep environment

*I have no financial relationship with the companies listed above but may have received products to trial/demo. I am a paid consultant for Mattress Firm which owns Sleepys.

Produced by: Maeve Winter

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• The Sleep Solution and The Rested Child

Thanks for listening and sleep well!

It can be hard to wake up. For some people, it is almost impossible. Sleep inertia is the medical term of an inability to awaken in the morning. In this episode we will:

• Define sleep inertia
• Describe how sleep inertia interacts with our homeostatic and circadian drives
• Understand the occupational hazards of sleep inertia
• Postulate what function sleep inertia might serve
• Review the symptoms of sleep inertia
• List the causes of sleep inertia 
• Touch upon the Sleep Inertia Questionnaire
• Look at potential sleep inertia treatments

Produced by: Maeve Winter

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

Thanks for listening and sleep well!

A relatively new frontier of medicine is the exploration of the gut microbiome and its relationship to our body's functioning, health, and susceptibility to disease. The gut-brain axis represents a relatively strong relationship between the gut microbiome and our body's ability to function properly, and it has been proposed that this relationship influences sleep and risk for insomnia. In this episode we will:

• Define the gut microbiome
• Explore the beginnings of its suspected role in neurological functioning and sleep
• List the three proposed pathways by which the gut microbiome interacts with the nervous system
• Evaluate the role that the gut microbiome plays in terms of regulating our circadian rhythm via gene expression of the gut biome's own circadian patterns
• Discuss metabolic linkages between the gut microbiome and why disruption can increase the chances of metabolic syndrome
• Look ahead toward gut biome-based therapies for insomnia

Produced by: Maeve Winter

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

Thanks for listening and sleep well!

Saunas and cold-water tanks are everywhere in their personal fitness and recover space. These modalities have also been linked to improving sleep parameters, but is there any science behind the claims? In this episode, we will:

• Examine the use of sauna therapy and cold-water immersion (CWI) in elite athletics, and the relative adoption rate for both
• Discuss the literature linking sauna/heat therapy with improved health and longevity, particularly in the cardiovascular space, but also emerging in the cognitive health space
• Define hormesis and link it to these therapies
• Explore the role of sauna therapy as an exercise mimetic, and how that can act to explain the health benefits as well as the sleep benefits of sauna therapy
• Link sauna therapy to inflammatory and immune modulation
• Touch upon other potential pathways that sauna therapy could benefit sleep
• Clarify the confusion about cold water therapy timing and sleep
• Review evidence from research showing CWI therapy earlier in the day improving slow wave sleep and reducing sleep latency

Produced by: Maeve Winter

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

Thanks for listening and sleep well!

One of the most common questions I am asked about sleep is, "What are the adverse health consequences of inadequate sleep?"  While I am quick to answer something related to cardiovascular or cognitive health, physical injury is not one that comes to mind immediately, but new evidence suggests it should. In this episode, we will:

• Discuss sleep mechanisms that might relate to increased injury
• Investigate how inadequate sleep may influence the immune system and inflammatory processes of the body
• Focus on cognitive changes, particularly in the prefrontal cortex, that might lend to an increased risk of injury
• Touch upon concentration and focus impairments as supplemental aspects leading to increased injury risk
• Review data within athlete, adult, high school, and juvenile populations that show increased injury risk in sleep deprived individuals
• Outline steps that can be taken to address sleep and injury risk factors

Produced by: Maeve Winter

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

Thanks for listening and sleep well!

Perhaps the most common sleep disorder in the world is sleep talking. It most likely affects at least half of all individuals at some point in their life. With the condition being this common, there are still many misunderstandings about sleep talking. In this episode we will:

• Define sleep talking as a parasomnia
• Review the incidence of sleep talking, the hereditary nature, and how it changes over time
• Differentiate it from taking during REM sleep
• List the risk factors for somniloquy
• Categorize disorders that may lead to sleep talking
• Touch upon treatment for somniloquy

Produced by: Maeve Winter

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

Thanks for listening and sleep well!

The perinatal sleep experience is often talked about in less than glowing terms. It's often a situation that is cannot be helped, it simply must be endured.  In this episode, we will:

• Look at the common changes that occur during the pregnancy period, trimester by trimester
• Review the incidence of sleep disturbances in all pregnant individuals
• Contrast the incidence of sleep disturbances in women with psychiatric diagnoses versus women without psychiatric disorders
• Examine how increased sleep as well as decreased sleep during pregnancy can be predictive of depression and psychotic episodes respectively
• Evaluate some common perinatal sleep myths

Episode Written by Maeve Winter

Produced by: Maeve Winter

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

Thanks for listening and sleep well!

Insomnia is a common sleep disorder that we have discussed frequently on this podcast. It's also a disorder that can have its origins in other sleep and medical disorders.  Many disorders can masquerade as simple insomnia, and knowing the true underlying cause can be the difference between solving a medical mystery and suffering needlessly. In this episode, we will:

• Differentiate between primary and secondary insomnia
• Review the medications that often disrupt sleep
• Breakdown the reasons sleep apnea, restless legs syndrome, and narcolepsy can confound medical providers as it pertains to insomnia
• Touch on paroxysmal disorders like epilepsy/seizures and migraine and how they can be mistaken for insomnia
• Spotlight menopause and pregnancy as an insomnia pretender
• Look at the sleep consequences of neurocognitive disorders like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease
• Showcase pain and itching as unusual causes of insomnia-like behavior
• Talk about gastrointestinal disorders like gastroesophageal reflux disease and irritable bowl syndrome
• Sprinkle in several other medical problems that can behave like insomnia

Produced by: Maeve Winter

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

Thanks for listening and sleep well!

The promise of youth eternal is ubiquitous, and is often related to some new sleep intervention. When it comes to dialing back the years, what is fact and what is fiction? In this episode we will:

• List the sleep variables most commonly manipulated to improve health and longevity
• Understand the relationship between the sleep, testosterone, and cortisol and its impact on insulin and endocrinological health
• Revisit exercise and sleep as it pertains to longevity
• Touch upon lighting and how it relates to sleep and longevity
• Review digital technology's role in sleep and health
• Finish with the relationship between deep sleep/slow wave sleep and longevity

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!

We have touched upon REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD) in many episodes of the podcast, but it's never been the star. An individual acting out their dreams can be distressing, and understanding the disorder has many layers. In this episode we will:

• Describe the features of RBD and what it clinically looks like
• List the characteristics of the disorder and how it fits into the parasomnia family
• Review the incidence based upon age
• Differentiate primary (idiopathic) from secondary RBD
• Touch upon conditions that mimic RBD and why differentiating these is important
• Review treatment options
• Discuss the relationship between a diagnosis of idiopathic RBD and its predictive value related to neurodegenerative disorders
• Outline how clinicians should handle the sensitive nature of this condition when speaking to patients

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!