The Snooze Button

• Why injury can become an identity crisis for an elite athlete
• Marcus Stroman’s 2015 ACL comeback — and what the original episode got slightly wrong about the timeline
• Why younger and older athletes may value recovery differently
• How modern sports performance moved from “more work” toward specialized recovery
• Why preparation improves the odds without guaranteeing performance
• The psychology behind searching for a competitive edge
• Why sleep complaints are so common in athletes
• Phones, social media, arousal and small behavioral sleep experiments
• Why sleep hygiene is not the same thing as treating chronic insomnia
• Why Game 7 sleep starts in the preseason
• Michael Grandner’s idea of sleep as an investment in tomorrow’s performance
• What the 2020 NBA bubble taught researchers about travel and home-court advantage
• NBA and WNBA evidence on travel, circadian disruption and performance
• What Neil got right — and wrong — about Ravi Allada’s MLB jet-lag study
• Why Neil’s historical Ambien and melatonin claims needed more nuance
• How sleep loss can show up in attention, decision-making and emotion regulation
• DeMar DeRozan, Kevin Love and the normalization of athlete mental-health conversations
• Why Auerbach believes everyone is a performer in their own domain

Alex Auerbach, PhD, MBA, is a performance psychologist and executive coach. At the time of this 2021 interview he was Director of Wellness and Development for the Toronto Raptors, responsible for mental health, mental performance and player development. He later served as Senior Director of Wellness and Development before leaving the organization. His work has included athletes in the NBA, NFL, WNBA and NCAA, elite military units and business leaders. In 2026 his work is focused on private performance and talent advisory for executives and high performers.

Alex Auerbach

Auerbach’s current performance psychology and executive advisory work.

Alex Auerbach — official site

Alex Auerbach and the Toronto Raptors

A 2021 Raptors feature from the period of this interview, discussing the organization’s mental-health work and Auerbach’s role.

Toronto Raptors: When it comes to mental health, we are all on the same team

Marcus Stroman’s 2015 return from ACL surgery

MLB’s report on Stroman returning in September after initially being ruled out for the season.

MLB: Stroman returns to the Blue Jays

Sleep and the athlete — 2021 expert consensus

Consensus recommendations emphasizing individualized athlete sleep needs, travel, training, stress and recovery.

Read the consensus statement

NBA COVID bubble, travel and circadian disruption

The natural experiment Auerbach remembers in the interview.

Read the study

Jonathan Charest — NBA back-to-back travel study

Travel distance, direction, recovery and outcomes across the 2013–2020 NBA seasons.

Read the study

Eastward jet lag and NBA performance

A later analysis finding worse home-team performance as eastward jet lag increased.

Read the study

WNBA travel, jet lag and home-court advantage — 2026

An 18-season analysis extending the travel/circadian-performance question to professional women’s basketball.

Read the study

Sleep extension and basketball performance

The 2011 Stanford study of sleep extension, sprint speed, shooting accuracy, reaction time and mood in collegiate basketball players.

Read the study

Sleep and basketball — systematic review

A review of 28 studies on sleep, basketball performance and recovery.

Read the review

Ravi Allada and MLB jet lag

The 20-season, 46,535-game study Neil discusses in the episode.

Read the study

AASM behavioral insomnia guideline

Current evidence hierarchy for CBT-I, sleep restriction, stimulus control, relaxation and sleep hygiene.

Read the guideline

Zolpidem, melatonin and chronic insomnia

The AASM pharmacologic guideline discussed in the 2026 archive clarification.

Read the guideline

FDA warning for Ambien and other Z-drugs

The boxed warning covering rare but serious complex sleep behaviors.

FDA safety communication

Melatonin for circadian rhythm sleep-wake disorders

The AASM guideline showing why the episode’s “melatonin does nothing” claim was too broad.

Read the guideline

Kevin Love — Everyone Is Going Through Something

The 2018 essay Auerbach references as part of the changing public conversation around athlete mental health.

The Players’ Tribune

Sleeping in space is, quite possibly, one of the least glamorous parts of the entire astronaut experience. It’s rarely shown in space movies, unless the sleep leads to some kind of attack from alien baddies. Except that how to allow astronauts to sleep in orbit is quite possibly one of the more difficult things to consider about space travel.

Think about it: How do you train for something like that? Sleeping in space is completely unlike sleeping in any other scenario known to humankind. In addition, you can’t re-create those conditions on Earth. After all, you have to put an airplane into free fall to duplicate a zero-gravity environment. Not exactly a calming vibe to let you drift off.

On the other hand, think about all the cool advantages. For example, you don’t sleep on a lumpy mattress – there is no mattress. Then again, there’s no cool side of the pillow; you don’t need a pillow when you’re sleeping in space. But consider this: On the International Space Station, there’s another sunrise every 90 minutes. Just imagine what that does to your circadian rhythms.

On this week’s episode of The Snooze Button podcast, we talk to Astronaut Nicole Stott. In particular, we’re fascinated by the answer to the question, “How did you possibly get any sleep the night before you became just the 10th woman in history to walk in space?!”

Once we get Nicole’s secret to space sleep, as we’ve done with our other celebrity guests, we pass the science of Nicole’s “sleep hack” through the scientific filter of Dr. Michael Grandner from the University of Arizona.

This interview was recorded just hours after the latest mission to Mars saw us flying a helicopter out there, and controlling it from here. And we get into far more about the final frontier than just a good night’s sleep.

Nicole Stott on Twitter

Nicole’s amazing book, Back to Earth: What Life in Space Taught Me About Our Home Planet―And Our Mission to Protect It (Affiliate link)

A look at Inspiration4, a groundbreaking program from NASA in support of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

The Space for Art Foundation homepage

• Why this interview was recorded on the day Ingenuity first flew on Mars
• Nicole Stott’s 104 days in space and becoming the 10th woman to perform a spacewalk
• What 16 daily sunrises and sunsets mean for circadian timing aboard the ISS
• How adjustable LED lighting helps create stronger day-and-night signals
• Why Earth-gazing can make an astronaut lose track of bedtime
• How sleeping bags and private crew quarters work in microgravity
• Why Stott’s spine elongated and made her first nights in space uncomfortable
• Why she later experienced some of the best sleep of her life in orbit
• Why Stott’s sleep experience was better than the average seen in astronaut sleep studies
• The 2009 airlock campout procedure before her spacewalk — and why NASA no longer uses it routinely
• Stott’s rule for the night before a high-stakes event: do not introduce a brand-new sleep routine
• Earplugs, regular bedtime and preparing the morning before going to sleep
• Michael Grandner on sleep performance anxiety
• Paradoxical intention and why trying to stay awake can sometimes help insomnia
• Sleep restriction therapy, stimulus control and the modern CBT-I evidence hierarchy
• Why Neil’s “melatonin only works for jet lag” claim needs narrowing
• Space for Art and Stott’s post-NASA mission

Nicole Stott is a veteran NASA astronaut, aquanaut, engineer, artist and author. She flew twice in space and logged 104 days in orbit, including service as a flight engineer on ISS Expeditions 20 and 21. She became the 10th woman to perform a spacewalk, was the first person to use the ISS robotic arm to capture a free-flying cargo vehicle, and painted the first watercolor in space. She is a founding director of the Space for Art Foundation and currently serves as an ISS Advisory Committee member.

Michael Grandner, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and behavioral sleep medicine specialist at the University of Arizona. He directs the Sleep and Health Research Program and the Behavioral Sleep Medicine Clinic, and his research focuses on sleep health, insomnia, circadian timing and the relationship between sleep and physical and mental health.

Nicole Stott — NASA

NASA’s current biography, including Stott’s 104 days in space and her place as the 10th woman to perform a spacewalk.

NASA biography

Nicole Stott’s September 1, 2009 spacewalk

NASA’s record of Stott and John Olivas’s six-hour, 35-minute EVA.

NASA spacewalk archive

Sleeping and circadian rhythms aboard the ISS

NASA’s overview of sleep environment, schedules, lighting and the 16 daily sunrises experienced in low-Earth orbit.

NASA: Seven Ways Astronauts Improve Sleep

NASA’s current inadequate-sleep risk page

Current agency framing of sleep loss, circadian desynchronization and work overload as human-spaceflight risks.

NASA Human Research Program

Sleep deficiency and hypnotic use in astronauts

The 2014 actigraphy study covering shuttle and ISS crews, including average inflight sleep and sleep-medication use.

Read the study

ISS airlock “campout” prebreathe protocol

NASA technical background on the overnight reduced-pressure procedure used during the era of Stott’s spacewalk.

NASA Technical Reports Server

Paradoxical intention for insomnia

A 2021 systematic review and meta-analysis of 10 trials.

Read the review

AASM behavioral insomnia guideline

The modern evidence hierarchy for CBT-I, sleep restriction, stimulus control and relaxation therapy.

Read the guideline

Melatonin and chronic insomnia

The AASM pharmacologic guideline, which suggests against melatonin as a treatment for chronic sleep-onset or sleep-maintenance insomnia in adults.

Read the guideline

Melatonin and circadian rhythm sleep-wake disorders

The guideline showing why “melatonin only works for jet lag” is too broad.

Read the guideline

Ingenuity’s first flight on Mars

The April 19, 2021 flight that had happened only hours before this interview was recorded.

NASA: Ingenuity’s first flight

Space for Art Foundation

The organization Stott discusses near the end of the interview.

Space for Art Foundation

Back to Earth

Nicole Stott’s 2021 book about what spaceflight taught her about Earth and our responsibility to it.

Book information

Michael Grandner — University of Arizona

Current university profile for Grandner and his behavioral sleep medicine work.

University of Arizona profile

The nap is a completely foreign concept to our host, Neil Hedley. Because Neil typically takes an hour or so to fall asleep, intentional short-duration sleep has normally been beyond his grasp.

Then, he met Dr. Sara Mednick.

Sara is Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of California, Irvine and author of the book, Take a Nap! Change your life (affiliate link). She looked at data from a study involving napping habits in nearly 4,000 elementary school children. Subsequently, she and her team found some fascinating patterns.

For example, it turns out that the nap is among the things credited for improvements in cognition, psychological wellness - including what Sara and her team referred to as "grit" - and reduced emotional and behavioral problems.

We've talked before about sleep duration, like in two episodes with Dr. Adrian Owen OBE, but we've never gotten into detail on a quick siesta.

As a result, that detail shows up here. We talk about everything from how sleep hygiene applies to a short snooze, to the idea of a coffee nap.

We're wired to nap, Sara says. Or at least some of us are. Daylight doesn't have the same impact on the crowd that's predisposed for grabbing some quick shut-eye, for example. Furthermore, some people actually get better sleep at night when their day includes a nap. Especially when it happens as far removed as possible from their nighttime sleep.

Sara told us, "a twenty-minute nap at any time of the day is really not going to interfere with your sleep." Moreover, she says if you do it earlier in the day, and for a little bit longer, even an hour and a half, "we haven't shown any differences in nighttime sleep."

You've got to see Sara's website. (Be sure to check out the Nap Wheel!)

• Why Sara Mednick rated her previous night’s sleep a six out of ten
• Alcohol, sleep onset, REM sleep and fragmented sleep
• The China Jintan study of 3,819 children and midday napping
• Academic performance, happiness, grit, behavior and IQ — and what the study can and cannot prove
• Why daytime naps may tolerate more light and stimulation than nighttime sleep
• Sleep pressure, slow-wave sleep and the difference between an early short nap and a late long nap
• Why insomnia treatment can be an exception to generic nap advice
• Habitual nappers, non-nappers and sleep inertia
• Why Mednick says you should stop trying if naps repeatedly make you feel terrible
• The 2003 “a nap is as good as a night” perceptual-learning experiment — and what that phrase actually means
• Why taking a break may matter even when sleeping does not work for you
• The coffee-nap argument and the evidence that complicates Mednick’s rejection of it
• Why a strategic nap and chronic long daytime sleeping are not the same research question
• Restless legs syndrome and its circadian pattern
• How guidance on pramipexole/Mirapex for RLS has changed since 2021
• Mednick’s then-upcoming book, The Power of the Downstate, published in 2022

Sara C. Mednick, PhD, is Professor of Cognitive Sciences at the University of California, Irvine. She directs the Sleep and Cognition Lab, where her work examines memory consolidation, sleep, aging, pharmacology and brain stimulation. She is the author of Take a Nap! Change Your Life and The Power of the Downstate: Recharge Your Life Using Your Body’s Own Restorative Systems.

Dr. Sara Mednick — University of California, Irvine

Current UCI profile for Mednick, her research areas and Sleep and Cognition Lab.

UCI expert profile

Midday napping in children

The 2019 China Jintan Cohort Study of 3,819 elementary-school children discussed in the episode.

Read the study

Sleep-dependent learning: a nap is as good as a night

Mednick, Nakayama and Stickgold’s 2003 perceptual-learning study.

Read the study

Nap habit and four weeks of nap practice

Mednick-group research examining whether habitual and non-habitual nappers respond differently and whether nap practice changes that pattern.

Read the study

Memory in habitual and non-habitual nappers

A 2021 study finding long-term memory benefits from a 90-minute nap even in non-habitual nappers.

Read the study

Light during daytime sleep

The 2011 experiment exposing young adults to narrowband green light during afternoon naps.

Read the study

Caffeine plus a short nap

The controlled 1997 driving study that complicates the episode’s dismissal of the coffee nap.

Read the study

Afternoon naps and subsequent nighttime sleep

A 2025 randomized crossover study of 25- and 90-minute nap opportunities in student athletes.

Read the study

Daytime napping and health outcomes

A 2026 umbrella review separating the performance benefits of shorter naps from associations seen with longer habitual daytime sleep.

Read the umbrella review

Circadian rhythm in restless legs syndrome

A modern review of the evening/night pattern Mednick speculates about during the interview.

Read the review

Current AASM guideline for restless legs syndrome

The 2025 guideline explaining the changed recommendation on pramipexole and other dopamine agonists.

Read the guideline

The Power of the Downstate

The book Mednick previews in the episode, published April 19, 2022.

Book information

Dementia and Sleep: It’s Not Just Deep Sleep That Counts

The Snooze Button interview with Laura Bojarskaitė referenced during the discussion of sleep architecture.

Listen/read in the archive

• How Stacey Plaskett usually sleeps — and why she says she has never been a great sleeper
• The effect of the 2017 Virgin Islands hurricanes on her nighttime stress
• Teeth grinding, a custom mouth guard and repeated awakenings
• What Plaskett did the night before presenting in Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial
• Why cleaning and cooking function as therapy for her
• Warm showers, body temperature and sleep onset
• What newer evidence says about lavender and aromatherapy
• Why bourbon can feel sedating while still disrupting sleep architecture
• Dr. Dayna Johnson’s work on racial disparities in sleep
• Why the archive now treats the episode’s slavery-to-sleep claim with more nuance
• Later school start times and Plaskett’s idea for examining post-hurricane school shifts in the Virgin Islands
• The origin of the episode’s 16.5% teen-crash statistic
• Plaskett’s not-quite-spoken suggestion about sex and sleep
• Grandner’s scientific take on sexual activity as a possible sleep aid
• What 2023–2025 research added to that question
• How Season Two’s celebrity-tip → scientific-filter → Neil-tests-it format was supposed to work

Stacey E. Plaskett is the at-large Delegate representing the U.S. Virgin Islands in the U.S. House of Representatives. In 2021, Speaker Nancy Pelosi appointed her as one of nine House impeachment managers for the second impeachment trial of President Donald Trump. She continues to represent the Virgin Islands in the 119th Congress, serving on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Ways and Means Committee and Budget Committee.

Michael A. Grandner, PhD, is a behavioral sleep-medicine specialist at the University of Arizona. He directs the Sleep and Health Research Program and Behavioral Sleep Medicine Clinic, and his research examines sleep health, insufficient sleep, cardiometabolic and neurocognitive outcomes, sleep disparities and behavioral interventions.

Congresswoman Stacey E. Plaskett

Official House biography and current committee assignments.

Official biography

Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial

House history of the impeachment and the nine managers appointed to conduct the case in the Senate.

U.S. House History, Art & Archives

Dr. Michael Grandner — University of Arizona

Current profile for the director of the Sleep and Health Research Program and Behavioral Sleep Medicine Clinic.

Center for Sleep and Circadian Studies

Warm showers and baths before bedtime

2019 systematic review and meta-analysis of passive body heating and sleep.

Read the study

Lavender essential oil and sleep

2025 systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized trials.

Read the meta-analysis

Alcohol and subsequent sleep

2024 systematic review and meta-analysis showing REM disruption even at relatively low doses.

Read the meta-analysis

Alcohol, snoring and sleep apnea

Systematic review and meta-analysis examining apnea severity and oxygen saturation after alcohol.

Read the meta-analysis

Sleep inequality — Dr. Dayna Johnson

Emory overview of Johnson’s work on racial disparities, neighborhoods and sleep.

Read the Emory feature

Black–White differences in sleep

Review of established racial differences in sleep quantity, quality and sleep-disorder risk.

Read the review

Discrimination and sleep

Systematic review finding consistent associations between discrimination and poorer sleep outcomes.

Read the systematic review

Later school start times — 2024 evidence

Meta-analysis of 37 studies linking later starts with longer weekday sleep and less social jet lag.

Read the meta-analysis

The 16.5% teen-crash study

The county study behind the specific crash statistic mentioned in the episode.

Read the study

Sex and sleep — 2019 survey

The study already available when this episode aired, examining perceived sleep effects of sexual activity and orgasm.

Read the study

Sex and sleep — 2023 diary study

Partnered sex with orgasm was associated with shorter perceived sleep latency and better sleep quality.

Read the study

Sex and sleep — 2025 pilot experiment

A small cohabiting-couple study examining objective and subjective sleep after sexual activity.

Read the pilot study

How Your Race Impacts Your Sleep with Dr. Dayna Johnson

The Snooze Button episode referenced during the Plaskett interview.

Listen/read in the archive

Chilina Kennedy and the Science of Comfort

The earlier Season Two episode referenced in the conversation.

Listen/read in the archive

"High performance" is something that most of us share as a common goal, whether by design or by default. After all, no one thinks to themselves, "I really want to be mediocre today." Elite athletes are learning that the key to high performance is in the things they do when they're not playing. Sure, traditionally that has included things like nutrition and training, but tons of research has shown that an hour in the sheets might be better than an hour in the weight room.

Dr. Chris Winter is known in the sports world for his work with elite athletes - not only one-on-one, but with entire teams. He's also recognized as a high performance specialist in his own right - a fully board certified neurologist and double board certified sleep specialist, he's been improving sleep at his private clinic and in group consultations with a presence in sleep medicine for more than twenty-five years.

His first book, The Sleep Solution: Why Your Sleep Is Broken and How To Fix It (affiliate link), just marked its 4th birthday on shelves; now, it's being followed by The Rested Child: Why Your Tired, Wired, or Irritable Child May Have a Sleep Disorder--and How to Help (affiliate link), which is now available for pre-order. It lays out the path for high performance children by first cutting through common misdiagnoses of things like diabetes, learning disorders, chronic pain or others, which actually are just sleep disorders that aren't so carefully disguised.

Dr. Winter joins the show and along with host Neil Hedley, has almost a little too much fun, if there is such a thing. They discuss everything from high performance athletes to high performance kids and everything between.

Charlottesville Neurology and Sleep Medicine - Dr. Winter's private clinic.

Here's a link to Dr. Winter on Twitter.

• Why falling asleep instantly everywhere may indicate sleepiness rather than “great sleep”
• The middle ground between medical sleep disorders and self-inflicted sleep problems
• How expectations, culture and education shape insomnia
• Why subjective sleep and objective sleep do not always tell the same story
• Rare genetic natural short sleepers — and why most short sleepers are not one of them
• Why athletes make unusually measurable subjects for sleep-performance work
• The corrected timeline and scale of Ravi Allada’s Major League Baseball jet-lag study
• Why sleep should be trained before the playoffs, not treated as a playoff emergency
• Sleep extension, naps and the performance cost of sleep deprivation
• Why wakeful rest is useful without being a replacement for sleep
• Tiger Woods, Kevin Ollie and the relationship between recovery and athletic longevity
• Why The Rested Child looks beyond infant sleep
• The case for later school start times
• What later evidence says about Winter’s prediction of long-lasting pandemic effects on children

W. Chris Winter, MD, is a neurologist and sleep-medicine physician in Charlottesville, Virginia. He has spent decades treating adults and children with sleep disorders and consulting with professional athletes and teams. He is the author of The Sleep Solution: Why Your Sleep Is Broken and How to Fix It and The Rested Child: Why Your Tired, Wired, or Irritable Child May Have a Sleep Disorder — and How to Help. Since 2022, he has also hosted the weekly Sleep Unplugged podcast.

Charlottesville Neurology and Sleep Medicine

Dr. Chris Winter’s current clinical practice.

Visit the clinic

Sleep Unplugged

Winter’s weekly sleep-science podcast, launched in 2022.

Visit Sleep Unplugged

The Sleep Solution

Winter’s first book on sleep, insomnia and sleep myths.

Penguin Random House

The Rested Child

Winter’s guide to sleep problems and sleep disorders from infancy through adolescence.

Penguin Random House

How Jet Lag Impairs Major League Baseball Performance

The Ravi Allada study discussed in the episode: 20 MLB seasons, 1992–2011.

Read the study

The Impact of Sleep Interventions on Athletic Performance

A 2023 systematic review of sleep extension, naps and other athlete sleep interventions.

Read the systematic review

Effects of Sleep Deprivation on Sports Performance

A 2025 systematic review and meta-analysis examining endurance, power, speed, skill and perceived exertion.

Read the meta-analysis

Natural Short Sleeper Genetics

A review of rare genetic variants associated with familial natural short sleep.

Read the review

Wakeful Rest and Memory Consolidation

A 2025 meta-analysis showing real cognitive benefits from quiet wakeful rest — without making rest equivalent to sleep.

Read the meta-analysis

Later School Start Times and Adolescent Sleep

A 2024 meta-analysis of 37 studies examining later school starts, sleep duration, chronotype and social jet lag.

Read the meta-analysis

Delayed School Start Times — 2026 Meta-analysis

A newer synthesis finding an average increase of about 69 minutes of sleep after delayed school starts, with substantial heterogeneity.

Read the meta-analysis

• Why sleep headlines and affiliate-driven product claims deserve more scrutiny
• What the evidence did — and did not — say about white noise in 2021
• Why a 5:30 a.m. productivity routine tells you almost nothing without bedtime and total sleep duration
• The corrected eight-year comparison from Adrian Owen’s sleep-and-cognition study
• How the pandemic interrupted Chilina Kennedy’s theatre work
• Why portraying Carole King felt different from playing a fictional character
• The difference between Kennedy’s Broadway debut and the later night Carole King secretly attended
• Why Kennedy specifically did not want to know when famous people were in the audience
• “Tomorrow doesn’t happen until tomorrow” as a way of reducing performance anxiety
• How Kennedy responds when she cannot sleep without turning wakefulness into an emergency
• Reading, guided imagery, body scanning and calm bedtime routines
• How she uses the same principles with her son
• Grandner’s distinction between relaxation and actually inducing sleep
• Why one bad night does not have to become two
• Where Kennedy’s routine overlaps with behavioral insomnia treatment
• What Nightfood meant by “sleep-friendly ice cream” — and what happened to the company afterward
• How Kennedy’s musical Call It Love evolved into Wild About You

Chilina Kennedy is a Canadian actor, singer, songwriter and musical-theatre creator. She is best known for playing Carole King in Beautiful: The Carole King Musical on Broadway for more than 1,200 performances, with additional Broadway and Off-Broadway credits including Paradise Square and The Great Gatsby. She is an Artistic Producer Emeritus of Toronto’s Eclipse Theatre Company. Her musical project discussed in this episode as Call It Love later evolved into Wild About You, with music and lyrics by Kennedy.

Michael Grandner, PhD, MTR, CBSM, FAASM, is Director of the Sleep and Health Research Program and Director of the Behavioral Sleep Medicine Clinic at the University of Arizona. His work examines how sleep and circadian health affect cardiovascular disease, mental health, performance and public health, with particular attention to the real-world social and behavioral forces that shape sleep.

Chilina Kennedy

Kennedy’s official site and current work.

Visit Chilina Kennedy’s site

Wild About You

The musical discussed in this episode as Call It Love continued development under a new title.

Official Wild About You site

Eclipse Theatre Company

The Toronto theatre company Kennedy helped build and where she is now Artistic Producer Emeritus.

Visit Eclipse Theatre

Dr. Michael Grandner — University of Arizona

Grandner’s current faculty profile and research roles.

University of Arizona profile

Behavioral and Psychological Treatments for Chronic Insomnia Disorder in Adults

The 2021 American Academy of Sleep Medicine clinical practice guideline covering CBT-I, stimulus control, relaxation therapy and related treatments.

Read the AASM guideline

Noise as a Sleep Aid: A Systematic Review

The 2020 review behind the episode’s skepticism about universal white-noise claims.

Read the systematic review

White Noise and Sleep — 2025 Meta-analysis

A later randomized-trial meta-analysis finding benefits in some populations while substantial heterogeneity remained.

Read the meta-analysis

Dissociable Effects of Self-Reported Daily Sleep Duration on High-Level Cognitive Abilities

The Adrian Owen study referenced in the Beditorial, including the published eight-year cognitive-performance comparison.

Read the study

• Why Season Two shifts from learning about sleep to testing sleep interventions
• The role cognition was intended to play in judging whether a sleep experiment worked
• Why adolescent biology clashes with very early school start times
• Where the 16.5% teen-car-crash figure actually came from
• What later meta-analyses found about delayed school starts and sleep duration
• How sleep labs adapted to COVID with PAP precautions, ventilation, screening and telemedicine
• Pandemic stress, insomnia and disrupted schedules
• Early questions about COVID’s effects on the brain and what later long-COVID research found
• The association between obstructive sleep apnea and worse COVID outcomes
• Why a possible PAP benefit should not be confused with proof of protection
• Sleep duration and vaccine antibody response
• Adrian Owen’s large study of habitual sleep duration and cognition
• Why the published “brain aging” comparison was eight years, not ten
• Reasoning and verbal performance versus short-term memory
• Why self-reported, observational sleep data cannot establish causation
• How repeated cognitive testing can reduce — but not eliminate — practice effects
• Baselines, changing one variable at a time and washout periods
• Why an N-of-1 experiment can be useful personally without becoming clinical evidence
• How Cambridge Brain Sciences became Creyos

Seema Khosla, MD, FCCP, FAASM, is board certified in internal medicine, pulmonary disease, critical care medicine and sleep medicine. She is Medical Director of the North Dakota Center for Sleep in Fargo and the longtime host of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine podcast Talking Sleep, where she discusses research, technology and clinical practice across sleep medicine.

Adrian Owen, PhD, OBE, is Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience and Imaging in the Departments of Psychology and Physiology & Pharmacology at Western University in London, Ontario. He leads the Owen Lab, where his research combines neuroimaging with cognitive studies in healthy participants and people with brain injuries and neurological disease. He is also Chief Scientific Officer and co-founder of Creyos, formerly Cambridge Brain Sciences.

School Start Times, Sleep, Behavioral, Health, and Academic Outcomes

The 2016 review of 38 reports discussed on the original episode page.

Read the review

Adolescent Sleep, School Start Times, and Teen Motor Vehicle Crashes

The Kentucky study behind the 16.5% reduction in teen crash rates quoted in the episode.

Read the study

School Start Times, Sleep, and Youth Outcomes

A 2022 meta-analysis of 28 studies and more than 1.7 million participants.

Read the meta-analysis

2026 Delayed School Start-Time Meta-analysis

A newer analysis finding an average increase of about 69 minutes of sleep, with high heterogeneity between studies.

Read the 2026 study

Talking Sleep

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine podcast hosted by Seema Khosla.

Talking Sleep

Obstructive Sleep Apnea and COVID-19 Outcomes

A 2021 systematic review and meta-analysis of 21 studies and 54,276 COVID patients.

Read the meta-analysis

OSA, PAP Therapy and COVID-19 Outcomes

A 2026 retrospective cohort study examining whether PAP adherence modified COVID outcomes.

Read the study

Sleep Duration and Vaccine Response

A 2023 meta-analysis linking objectively measured short sleep around vaccination with reduced antibody response.

Read the meta-analysis

Long-Term Neurological and Cognitive Effects of COVID-19

A large systematic review and meta-analysis examining persistent cognitive, memory, concentration and sleep symptoms after COVID.

Read the meta-analysis

Dissociable Effects of Self-Reported Daily Sleep Duration on High-Level Cognitive Abilities

The 2018 sleep-and-cognition study by Conor Wild, Adrian Owen and colleagues discussed throughout the interview.

Read the study

Creyos — formerly Cambridge Brain Sciences

The cognitive-assessment platform discussed in the episode was renamed Creyos in November 2022.

About the rebrand

Adrian Owen at Western University

Owen’s current Western University faculty profile and research roles.

Western University profile