The Snooze Button

• What scientists mean when they use the word “dream”
• Why dreaming is not limited to REM sleep
• Why vivid or emotionally intense dreams may be easier to remember
• Dream interpretation, Freud and Jung — and why there is no scientific codebook for dream symbols
• Why a dream can still be personally meaningful without predicting the future
• What separates a nightmare from an ordinary dream
• The familiar sensation of falling as you drift into sleep
• Why waking-life stress can find its way into dreams
• Dreams and anxiety during the opening weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic
• What lucid dreaming is
• Becoming aware that you are dreaming while the dream is still happening
• Dream diaries and improving dream recall
• Wake-back-to-bed as a lucid-dream induction technique
• Stephen LaBerge’s Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams, or MILD
• Reality checks, autosuggestion and other approaches to recognizing the dream state
• Why remembering a dream may depend partly on waking briefly enough to encode it
• A simple trick for recalling a dream by working backward from the ending
• False awakenings — dreaming that you have already woken up
• Neil’s childhood bedwetting story and why the dream felt completely real
• Sleep apnea, choking or suffocation dreams and repeated awakenings
• Sleepwalking, or somnambulism, and how complex nighttime behavior can become
• Why REM sleep behavior disorder is different from ordinary sleepwalking
• Making the environment safer when someone is prone to complex parasomnias

Dr. Célyne Bastien is a Full Professor in the School of Psychology at Université Laval and is affiliated with the CERVO Brain Research Centre in Quebec City. Her research includes insomnia, sleep physiology, dreams and nightmares, and the neurophysiology of sleep.

At the time of this conversation, she was President of the Canadian Sleep Society, a position she held from 2019 through 2023.

Sleep On It! — Canadian Public Health Campaign on Sleep

A Canadian public-health initiative created to make evidence-based sleep information easier to understand and use.

Sleep On It!

Dr. Célyne Bastien — Université Laval

Current faculty profile, research interests and publications.

Célyne Bastien at Université Laval

CERVO Brain Research Centre

The Quebec City neuroscience research centre with which Dr. Bastien is affiliated.

CERVO Brain Research Centre

The Nocturnal Brain — Dr. Guy Leschziner

Neil refers back to Guy Leschziner’s book while discussing people who perform remarkably complex behaviors while asleep.

The Nocturnal Brain

Lucid Dream Induction: Wake-Back-to-Bed + MILD

A 2020 sleep-laboratory study examining the combination of wake-back-to-bed and the Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams technique discussed in the episode.

PubMed

The President of the Canadian Sleep Society joins the show this week as part of a critical effort to get Canadians - and the rest of the world - to work on their sleep as a simple part of an effective defense against Coronavirus and COVID-19.

LINKAPALOOZA

Sleep On It! from the Canadian Sleep Society

Dr. Bastien's page at Laval University

The CERVO Brain Research Centre

• Why sleep should be treated as a pillar of health alongside nutrition and physical activity
• The relationship between sleep and immune function
• Why sleep researchers were talking about that relationship long before COVID-19
• The Canadian Sleep Society’s Sleep On It! public-health campaign
• Why the message that sleep matters can be surprisingly difficult to communicate
• Why people assume sleep should simply happen naturally
• Insomnia and the tendency to become increasingly isolated around sleep problems
• Why quick fixes are so attractive when sleep stops working
• Melatonin, timing and the dangers of assuming that more must be better
• Why a regular schedule helps support the body’s natural sleep timing
• Giving yourself enough time in bed to actually obtain adequate sleep
• Smartphones, tablets and the disappearance of the adult bedtime routine
• Why adults may benefit from the same kind of wind-down period we instinctively create for children
• What research can tell us about sleep, inflammation and immune regulation
• Why sleep loss affects much more than how tired you feel
• Memory, attention and decision-making after poor sleep
• Keeping a regular sleep and wake schedule while working from home
• Why daylight and outdoor exposure help keep circadian rhythms aligned
• Exercise and activity during periods of disrupted routine
• Anxiety during the early COVID-19 pandemic
• Creating a scheduled “worry time” during the day instead of bringing those worries to bed
• Why a basement home office may not be ideal for your body clock
• Using daylight strategically when working from home

Dr. Célyne Bastien is a Full Professor in the School of Psychology at Université Laval and a researcher affiliated with the CERVO Brain Research Centre in Quebec City. Her research includes insomnia, sleep physiology, sleep hygiene, dreams and nightmares, PTSD and the neurophysiology of sleep.

At the time of this conversation, she was President of the Canadian Sleep Society, a position she held from 2019 through 2023. 

Dr. Sara Nowakowski is perhaps the country's foremost expert on cognitive behavioral therapy for menopausal insomnia.

She joins Neil to talk about a variety of items related to that subject, and sleep issues in general.

PLUS: Do we need a sane, adult place to talk about sleep on the Internet?

LINKAPALOOZA:

Sara's page on the Baylor website

Sara on Twitter

• Why sleep problems become more common during the menopausal transition
• Why menopause and insomnia don’t have a simple cause-and-effect relationship
• Hot flashes, night sweats and disrupted sleep
• Why not every woman with hot flashes develops sleep problems
• How aging, health changes and other sleep disorders can complicate the picture
• Why sleep apnea deserves attention during and after menopause
• How midlife stress can compound sleep problems
• Why insomnia can continue after the menopausal transition itself has ended
• When occasional bad sleep becomes insomnia disorder
• Trouble falling asleep versus trouble staying asleep versus waking too early
• The daytime consequences of chronic insomnia
• Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia, or CBT-I
• How CBT-I uses sleep diaries, scheduling, behavior and changes in thinking about sleep
• Why getting out of bed can sometimes be more useful than lying there trying harder
• Building sleep pressure rather than trying to “catch up” after a bad night
• Why Sara describes CBT-I as a relatively short-term intervention
• How telehealth was beginning to change insomnia treatment in the opening weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic
• Why sleep medications may help in some situations without necessarily solving the underlying insomnia
• Melatonin, circadian rhythms and why more is not automatically better
• Why consumer sleep trackers should not be treated like laboratory sleep studies
• Orthosomnia and the danger of becoming anxious about your sleep data
• What deep N3 sleep does — and why one unusual night of tracker data should not send you into a panic

At the time of this conversation, Dr. Sara Nowakowski was an Associate Professor of Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and a research health scientist at the Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

Her work focuses heavily on insomnia, cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia and sleep across women’s lives, including the effects of reproductive and hormonal transitions on sleep.

Dr. Jenni Pottebaum's perspective on the relationship between sleep, exercise and the immune system is a result of her PhD in Neuroscience AND her certification as a personal trainer and Ironman-certified triathlon coaching.

As the world struggles to cope with COVID-19, Neil and Dr. Jenni explore simple things you can do to boost your defenses.

Plus, we take a listener call from Heidi in Toronto, share a review of the show, and share news about our sister podcast, The Snooze Button Express.

LINKAPALOOZA:

Dr. Jenni's website

Dr. Jenni on Facebook

Dr. Jenni on Instagram

• How the extraordinary stress of the early COVID-19 pandemic was affecting sleep
• The relationship between stress, sleep, exercise and immune function
• Why sleeping better can improve the quality and motivation behind a workout
• Why exercise can, in turn, support better sleep
• Starting with something as simple as walking
• How to begin exercising after a long period of being sedentary
• Why starting with ten minutes may be perfectly reasonable
• Gradually increasing activity instead of trying to transform yourself overnight
• The “talk test” and what it can tell you about exercise intensity
• Finding the best time of day to exercise for your own schedule and body
• Exercise close to bedtime
• Lower-intensity options such as stretching and yoga
• Why Neil’s handful-of-raisins sleep strategy was a spectacularly bad idea
• Alcohol, falling asleep and sleep quality later in the night
• Nutrition, exercise and recovery
• Using a disrupted routine as an opportunity to build healthier habits
• Why new habits work better when they can survive the eventual return to a normal schedule
• A listener question about menopause and sleep
• The story behind the return of The Snooze Button Express

Dr. Jenni Pottebaum earned her PhD in neuroscience from the University of Michigan and spent years working in neuroscience research before moving into fitness, endurance coaching and health coaching.

Her background also includes competitive swimming and running, professional triathlon, personal training and years of coaching athletes across a wide range of experience levels.

Today she is the creator of Total Wellness with Dr. Jenni and remains head coach with Total Intensity Sports, where she works with triathletes and other endurance athletes.

Total Wellness with Dr. Jenni

Total Intensity Sports

The relationship between sleep and immune function

Research has found meaningful connections between insufficient sleep, inflammation, immune response and susceptibility to infection.

Exercise and immune health

The relationship is more nuanced than simply saying exercise “boosts” immunity. Regular physical activity is associated with beneficial immune effects, while the physiological response depends on factors including intensity, duration, training load and recovery.

• Why changing the clock is essentially a form of self-imposed jet lag
• What happens when the external clock changes before the internal clock catches up
• Sleep loss, driving alertness and the spring Daylight Saving Time transition
• Why circadian disruption matters to cardiovascular health
• How gradually shifting sleep by 20–30 minutes can soften the springtime transition
• Why bright morning light and dimmer evening light can help the body clock adjust
• When melatonin may be useful for shifting circadian timing
• Why melatonin and insomnia are not the same conversation
• A survey claiming Americans average only five and a half hours of sleep
• Why Michael considers that number an outlier compared with broader population data
• The difference between self-reported sleep and sleep measured by trackers or in a laboratory
• How to read sleep research more critically instead of stopping at the headline
• Why small studies and commercially useful findings deserve extra scrutiny
• The American Heart Association’s cardiovascular-health checklist — and whether sleep belongs on it
• Looking beyond sleep duration to satisfaction, regularity and timing
• What happens when 30 minutes of sedentary time is replaced by exercise, sleep or light activity
• Why exercise and sleep can reinforce each other rather than compete
• A listener question from Keith at UNLV about recovering from an all-nighter
• Why “making up” lost sleep isn’t as simple as repaying a debt hour for hour
• Getting back to a regular schedule after one very bad night

Dr. Michael Grandner is a clinical psychologist and sleep researcher at the University of Arizona. He directs the Sleep and Health Research Program and Behavioral Sleep Medicine Clinic, with research focused on the connections between sleep, cardiovascular and metabolic health, daytime functioning and the social and behavioral factors that shape how people sleep.

Michael Grandner — University of Arizona

Society for Research on Biological Rhythms — “Why Should We Abolish Daylight Saving Time?”

The 2019 position paper discussed by Michael argues that permanent Standard Time is preferable to either continuing the twice-yearly clock changes or adopting permanent Daylight Saving Time.

SRBR Daylight Saving Time resources

American Heart Association — Life’s Essential 8

The episode discusses the AHA’s then-current “Life’s Simple 7” cardiovascular-health framework and the growing argument that sleep belonged alongside those seven factors.

Life’s Essential 8 — American Heart Association

He refers to it as "jet lagging ourselves on purpose." Dr. Michael Grandner is talking about the bizarre practice of Daylight Saving Time.

How do you navigate what it does to your sleep? Is there anything you can to in advance to mitigate the damage?

Also, Michael talks with Neil about a new survey suggesting that most people only get around 5 and a half hours of sleep, we hear a question for our panel of experts from Keith at UNLV, and a ton more.

Sharon Handy has been reading boring books to people for about a year and a half, and in that time has amassed more than half a million downloads of her weekly show, from people who love listening to her voice as they fall asleep.

Maybe it'll work for you, too!

Neil also addresses an interesting new entry into the "changing school start times" arena. It's quite a curve ball.

LINKAPALOOZA:

Click here on mobile to automatically open Sharon's podcast on your device.

The Boring Books for Bedtime website

Boring Books for Bedtime on Twitter