The Matt Walker Podcast

By Dr. Matt Walker

Social Sciences Medicine

What's The Matt Walker Podcast about?

The Matt Walker Podcast is all about sleep, the brain, and the body. Matt is a Professor of Neuroscience at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of the book, Why We Sleep and has given a few TED talks. Matt is an awkward British nerd who adores science and the communication of science to the public. 

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LAST EPISODE

#49 - Nightmares and Treatment

06.05.2023

Today, Matt explores the fascinating realm of nightmares and the cutting-edge treatment known as Image Rehearsal Therapy (IRT). Nightmares, often associated with rapid eye movement sleep (REM sleep), can disrupt sleep quality and emotional well-being. However, IRT offers a unique ...

The Matt Walker Podcast episodes:

06.05.2023 #49 - Nightmares and Treatment Today, Matt explores the fascinating realm of nightmares and the cutting-edge treatment known as Image Rehearsal Therapy (IRT). Nightmares, often associated with rapid eye movement sleep (REM sleep), can disrupt sleep quality and emotional well-being. However, IRT offers a unique ...
05.22.2023 #48 - What is Sleep Apnea? In today’s episode, Matt discusses the sleep disorder known as sleep apnea, focusing on its definition, prevalence, and the dangers it poses if left untreated. Sleep apnea is a breathing-related sleep disorder, with obstructive sleep apnea being the most common ...
05.08.2023 #47 - Too Much Sleep This week, Matt introduces a new segment called "Hot Off the Press," where he covers the latest and most exciting studies in sleep science. And the topic of discussion for this first installment is a great one: excessive slumber - ...
04.24.2023 #46 - Sleep and Teens Matt returns with Dr. Craig Kanapari to discuss sleep in teens and how biological and hormonal changes occur at a young age, usually around 11-13. The most clear determinant of sleep duration in a teen is wake time, and enforcing ...
04.10.2023 #45 - Sleep and Kids Pt.3 Today Matt’s discussion with Dr. Craig Canapari continues, delving into the major changes in sleep that a child will go through from the ages of one to ten. This includes how regularity and appropriate sleep opportunities are important for getting ...
03.27.2023 #44 - Sleep and Kids Pt.2 Today Matt’s discussion with Dr. Craig Canapari continues, as they delve into the science behind sleep training. Together they cover what it is and when it may be an appropriate technique. Dr. Craig Canipari provides an overview of the different ...
03.13.2023 #43 - Sleep and Kids Pt. 1 Today Matt begins a new series all about sleep in infants, in kids, in teenagers, and in parents. He is joined by Dr. Craig Canapari one of the world leaders in pediatric sleep medicine. Dr. Canapari has also written a ...
02.27.2023 #42 - Sleep and Exercise Pt. 4 On today’s episode, Matt goes beyond the if and the what type of exercise to discuss the when. Which is to say, does the timing of exercise matter when it comes to sleep improvements? Based on his experience working on ...
02.13.2023 # 41 - Sleep and Exercise Pt. 3 Today, Matt focuses on how the type, intensity, and duration of exercise affect its impact on sleep. A study of middle-aged adults split its active group into three subgroups: moderate-intensity aerobic exercise, high-intensity aerobic exercise, and moderate-to-intense weight/resistance training. The ...
01.30.2023 # 40 - Sleep and Exercise Pt. 2 This week, Matt goes deeper into the relationship between sleep and exercise. More specifically, does daytime exercise change the stages and types of sleep? Deep sleep is critical for various functions, so anything that can increase it is desirable. Older ...
01.16.2023 # 39 - Sleep and Exercise Pt. 1 Does exercise have an impact on the quantity and quality of your sleep? The National Sleep Foundation's annual poll found that individuals who exercised frequently (defined as three times or more a week) reported sleeping with a higher quality than ...
01.02.2023 #38: Sleep is Bloody Remarkable #3 Almost every species will suffer catastrophic impairment in the brain and body due to total or chronic partial long-term sleep loss—save for a small handful of befuddling cases where lack of sleep does not cause devastating impairment. While humans are ...
12.19.2022 #37: Sleep and Memory - Part 3 The final installment of this series focuses on what happens inside your brain during deep, non-REM sleep that allows you to fixate new memories. There are at least two mechanisms at work here. One is a process of shifting information ...
12.05.2022 #36: Sleep and Memory - Part 2 Previously, we learned sleep is necessary before learning to prepare the brain to learn effectively. But sleep is also needed after learning to cement new information in your brain. This discovery happened in 1924 when two German researchers pitted sleep ...
11.21.2022 # 35: Sleep and Memory - Part 1 It is a fundamental truth that sleep is far more than the absence of wakefulness. It is an incredibly active state, demonstrated by the fact that numerous functions of the brain and body are restored by and depend on sufficient ...
11.07.2022 # 34: Sleep and Sex – Part 2 It’s been said that sleep is the new sex, and rightly so—a good night of sleep is going to do many things for the vibrancy, intimacy, and vitality of your relationship. We know that when couples are not getting sufficient ...
10.24.2022 #33: Sleep and Sex – Part 1 A few years ago, a survey by the Sleep Council in England found that 1 in 4 people in a couple would get up during the night and go to another room to get a good night’s sleep. Following that, ...
10.10.2022 # 32: Insomnia - Part 7 Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBTI) can be split into at least five core components: 1) sleep restriction therapy, 2) sleep hygiene, 3) stimulus control, 4) cognitive restructuring, and 5) relaxation therapies. Sleep restriction therapy has been shown to be ...
09.26.2022 # 31: Insomnia - Part 6 Very understandably, many insomnia patients try to self-medicate their condition with varied “sleep aids”. The tragedy us that most of them not only fail to help but actually make insomnia worse. Most common among these is alcohol, which hurts your ...
09.12.2022 # 30: Insomnia - Part 5 Some of the first neurological-related discoveries about insomnia were made by placing healthy sleepers or patients with insomnia inside brain scanners, and measuring changes in the activity in different parts of the brain as they tried to fall asleep. In ...
08.29.2022 #29: Insomnia - Part 4 Today’s episode focuses on changes within the bodies of people suffering from insomnia. Almost all forms of chronic insomnia come with a significant psychological component, namely emotional distress and anxiety. This starts a Rolodex of anxiety spinning once you turn ...
08.15.2022 #28: Insomnia - Part 3 Today’s episode takes two questions as its subject: first, why does someone develop insomnia, and second, what adds gasoline to the sleep-disorder fire of insomnia and only makes it rage more powerfully? These are two very complex questions, but through ...
08.01.2022 #27: Insomnia - Part 2 There is no quick test that can determine insomnia. Instead, the diagnosis of clinical insomnia disorder is based on a set of clinical assessment and interviews. These center on three core features: 1) difficulties falling asleep, 2) difficulty staying asleep, ...
07.18.2022 #26: Insomnia - Part 1 Today’s episode is the first in a 7-part series on insomnia. Matt starts with a calming reality—insomnia isn’t a single bad night or a string of bad nights of sleep. In the US, epidemiological studies have suggested that insomnia disorder ...
07.04.2022 #25: Optimising Your Sleep Today’s episode focuses on optimising your sleep. It’s designed for people who don’t have clinical insomnia but would like to fine-tune their sleep. Matt goes over five conventional tips, and five unconventional tips that may be new to you. The ...
06.20.2022 #24: Sleep is Bloody Remarkable #2 Matt is back this week with his recurring series, ‘Sleep is Bloody Remarkable’. Today’s episode is all about why we are unique when it comes to sleep. When we compare our sleep to that of all other primates, humans stand ...
06.06.2022 #23: Dreams – Part 6 In this episode, Matt goes deeper into his exploration of lucid dreaming. He tells us all about studies demonstrating that lucid dreamers can wake from dream sleep on command, demonstrating control over intention in their dreams, and even bring themselves ...
05.23.2022 #22: Dreams - Part 5 In part five of his series on dreams, Matt discusses what lucid dreaming is and how it was scientifically proven to be real. We define lucid dreaming as the moment when an individual becomes aware they are dreaming. Historically, the ...
05.09.2022 #21: Dreams - Part 4 Today’s episode focuses on a second but very different function of dreaming: the ingenious processing and interconnection of memories that inspires creativity and even problem-solving ability. Matt describes how we can think of REM sleep dreaming as a form of ...
04.25.2022 #20: Dreams - Part 3 Matt’s back with part three of his series on the science of dreaming! In this episode, he discusses how he and other scientists have discovered that dreams are not simply an unintended by-product of REM sleep. Instead, dreams provide at ...
04.11.2022 #19: Dreams - Part 2 In the second episode of this series about REM sleep dreaming, Matt explores what the science has to say not only about how we dream at the brain level, but what it is that we dream about. Traditionally, civilizations such ...
03.28.2022 #18: Dreams - Part 1 This week’s episode is the first in a new multi-part series all about dreams! Today, Matt focuses on the question of how your brain generates these things called dreams. Matt starts with an unexpected statement: last night, when you were ...
03.14.2022 #17: Sleep is Bloody Remarkable #1 Matt has a special announcement this week: a new recurring type of episode called, ‘Sleep is Bloody Remarkable’. This series of episodes will share fascinating facts about sleep that will blow your mind! In the premier episode, Matt focuses on ...
02.28.2022 #16: Sleep & Weight Gain – Part 2 Matt returns with Part 2 of his series on sleep and weight gain. This time around, he teaches us how a lack of sleep not only makes you eat more food, but changes what types of food you want to ...
02.14.2022 #15: Sleep & Weight Gain – Part 1 Matt kicks off a two-part series all about sleep, eating, and weight gain. He starts by introducing two appetite-regulating hormones: leptin and ghrelin. Matt explains how leptin sends a signal of fullness, to your brain. When leptin levels are high, ...
01.31.2022 #14: Temperature – Part 2 In the previous episode, Matt described the role of temperature in helping us fall asleep. In this episode, Matt teaches us all about the role of temperature in helping us stay asleep across the night, and then more effectively wake ...
01.17.2022 #13: Temperature - Part 1 In today's episode, Matt reveals how 1) your own temperature and, even more precisely, 2) the temperature of different parts of you, as well as 3) the temperature of your bedroom, can change how well or how poorly you sleep ...
01.03.2022 #12: Melatonin In today's episode, Matt takes us on a deep dive into melatonin. He covers four main topics: 1) what is melatonin? 2) how does melatonin work? 3) what does melatonin do, and not do, for sleep? 4) how can we ...
12.20.2021 #11: Sleep & Caffeine – Part 2 In this week’s episode, Matt continues his discussion of sleep and caffeine. Here, we learn about the paradox of coffee, one in which coffee provides health benefits, despite its negative impact on sleep. Before addressing that, however, Matt speaks about ...
12.06.2021 #10: Sleep & Caffeine – Part 1 In today's episode, Matt unpacks the world of coffee, and caffeine in the first of a two-part series on caffeine. Matt describes the numerous health benefits associated with coffee, the fact that Matt has even changed his tune a little ...
11.22.2021 #09: Sleep & Alcohol - Part 2 On last week’s episode, we learned about the three main ways alcohol can harm our sleep: 1) alcohol results in sedation rather than naturalistic sleep, 2) alcohol causes sleep fragmentation, and 3) alcohol impairs REM sleep. Today, Matt dives into ...
11.08.2021 #08: Sleep & Alcohol - Part 1 Although some people may believe that a drink or two in the evening will help them sleep better, today’s episode shows us that alcohol harms our sleep in several different ways. In the first of two episodes on sleep and ...
10.25.2021 #07: Naps As the great Roman poet, Ovid, once said, “There is more refreshment and stimulation in a nap, even of the briefest, than all the alcohol ever distilled.” But are naps always a good thing? Are we even designed to nap? ...
10.11.2021 #06: Chronotype: Part 3 In the final episode of our three-part series about chronotypes, Matt examines the question of whether your chronotype is truly fixed, or if you can change an evening type to a morning type (though you will hear that Matt’s preference ...
09.27.2021 #05: Chronotype: Part 2 In the second episode of our three-part series on chronotypes, Matt speaks about what happens when you do not sleep in harmony with your natural chronotype. Unlike morning larks, night owls simply cannot fall asleep easily early at night, which ...
09.13.2021 #04: Chronotype: Part 1 Episode 04: Chronotype: Part 1 Summary Are you a morning type? Or are you an evening type? Perhaps you are neither of the two? Today’s episode is the first in a three-part series all about your chronotype, or your body’s ...
08.26.2021 #03: Circadian Rhythms #03 Circadian Rhythms Continuing on from last week’s episode about sleep pressure, today, Matt Walker dives into the second half of the sleep-wake story, circadian rhythm. Matt explains that your circadian rhythm, or your 24-hour internal clock, begins drumming out ...
08.16.2021 #02 Sleep Pressure Episode 02: Sleep Pressure Welcome back to the Matt Walker podcast. Today’s episode looks at the story of sleep pressure - how it works, how you can try to block it or fool it, and why you feel so good ...
08.02.2021 #01 What is Sleep? Episode 01: HighlightsHuman sleep has been separated into two main types: Non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep and rapid eye movement (REM) sleepNREM sleep is further divided into four stages, with each stage increasing in their depth of sleepREM sleep is ...
07.26.2021 Trailer & Welcome! The Matt Walker Podcast is all about sleep, the brain, and the body · Matt is Professor of Neuroscience at the University of California, Berkeley · He is the author of the book, Why We Sleep, and has given a ...