The Snooze Button

We're joined by a trio of giants when it comes to the state of wearable sleep trackers and the data they offer. How accurate is it? What number should we be watching? And how much of this information do we actually need ? This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy

After she had her baby, Dr. Jade Wu from Duke University School of Medicine basically went through every sleep issue in the known universe. We talk about how the script gets flipped when the doctor becomes the patient. This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy

Dr. Michael Grandner from the University of Arizona returns to the show with a look at one of the problems facing the scientific community. Everything from sleep to Covid to REM sleep vs Deep sleep, the 'truthiness' of science claims - all of it is on our exam table. This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy

One is an actual rock star - Lawrence Gowan from Styx talks about health, fitness and sleeping on the tour bus for rock stars who are, like fine wine, getting better with age. (He also weighs in on Styx not being members yet of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.) The other is a rock star in the sleep world - Dr. Mark Boulos from Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto is Neil's sleep specialis...

Screw your opinion, what does the science say? The Snooze Button is back after an eighteen-month hiatus with an all-star panel of experts to tackle this (t)horny question: Does sex improve your sleep? This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy

Hey, Bedheads! We're back! This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy

Diane Macedo's first book, The Sleep Fix , officially came out today, and we were fortunate to grab some time. (You can win a copy of The Sleep Fix by clicking here .) Diane points out that she and Neil are kind of kindred sleep spirits. They both figured that their sleep challenges were linked to their careers in the media. In Diane's case, Ambien stopped working. Her health was declining. She tr...

Sleep trackers and tracking technology are among the many obsessive interests of one Jesse Cook, PhD student and perhaps Twitter's most prolific sleep nerd. He's written a ton of papers about trackers and sleep tech. He geeks out with Neil this week on wearables, "nearables" and where the gear is heading. The two also cover Restless Legs Syndrome, and how trackers can serve as beacons for RLS. Thi...

This week, Erin Davis and Drift take over The Snooze Button podcast, with Erin fresh from last year's induction into the Broadcasters Hall of Fame. She spent decades waking people up with a smile on one of North America's largest radio morning shows. But now, she focuses on the other end of the sleep experience. Erin's new podcast, Drift , features peaceful bedtime stories to help soothe you towar...

We kick off our third season of The Snooze Button with the return of Dr. Chris Winter, sleep specialist and author of  The Rested Child. Chris and Neil get into everything from setting a specific bedtime for kids, to school start times, to smart cribs. They even get into the "cry it out" episode of  Mad About You , Simone Biles, and 102 mph fastballs. This podcast uses the following third-party se...

We're back on October 11 with a new season, new experts, new celebrity guests and a brand new website! See you then! This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy

Dr. Alex Auerbach is the Director of Wellness and Development for the Toronto Raptors. He joins Neil to talk about all things "north of the neck" for elite athletes. They cover sleep, self-care, the drive that can lead athletes to incredible injury recoveries, and even  the psychology behind performance-enhancing drugs. This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Chartable -...

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 tha...

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 da...

When we say that Congresswoman Stacey Plaskett from The US Virgin Islands has a surprising sleep routine, we don't mean that she does anything strange or unusual. It's simply that like so many of us, sleep is something that shows up for Rep. Plaskett when she's run out of things to do. And like our friend Chilina Kennedy from a couple of episodes ago , she's stumbled upon a sleep solution that, ac...

"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...

Actress Chilina Kennedy had a night that most of us can only imagine: Portraying one of her heroes, on Broadway, while that hero sat in the audience watching. As the star of Beautiful: The Carole King Story , Chilina did hundreds of shows as the legendary singer/songwriter. However, our guess is that if you look up the word "pressure", there's probably a picture of Chilina the night before. (Turns...

Cognition – specifically, cognitive decline – are at the heart of why  The Snooze Button  began in the first place. And it’s front and center as we officially kick off Season Two of the show, with not only a continuation, but an evolution as well. Our Guests We’re excited to welcome Dr. Adrian Owen, OBE back to the show – he was our first guest ever, and we talk not only about his massive study of...

COVIDsomnia is its own special brand of sleep disorder, brought on in one way or another by COVID-19. Sleep experts say it’s not only the physical toll the virus is taking on the people who’ve been infected. It’s also keeping people awake at night with worry about whether they or their loved ones will get sick, too. We cover COVIDsomnia this week with a couple of experts dealing with very differen...

Okay, we all know that REM sleep is important, so maybe the headline is a little sensationalized; but the data don't lie. Dr. Eileen Leary joins the show this week to talk about a fascinating look at nearly ten thousand people, that points to a reduction in REM sleep as a risk factor for mortality. One of the things that's fascinating about this data is that Eileen tried - repeatedly - to come up...

The sleep tracker has become the latest must-have tech gadget. I’ve gone through at least half a dozen myself as my efforts in tracking my sleep have gone through a number of iterations. The obsession with the data sleep trackers spit out can cause its own special brand of insomnia –  orthosomnia , the sleep nerds call it. (We discussed orthosomnia a couple of times on the show before. We’ve talke...

You probably know her as “Sleep Coach Beth”, from either her  Calm And Cozy Book of Sleep , the  Calm And Cozy Podcast , or her career as a sleep coach. Beth Wyatt has  a Facebook group , too, where people with sleep challenges look to their coach and to each other. This week’s episode of  The Snooze Button  podcast is a long one – and it has to be! The Coach – Sleep Coach Beth Wyatt We talk with...

Deep sleep has traditionally been the focus of any conversation about dementia and sleep. But that's about to change, if Laura Bojarskaite has anything to say about it. Laura is working on her PhD in Oslo, Norway, with a focus on "brainwashing", or the removal of harmful waste products that accumulate in the brain. (Maybe "brain washing" is a more accurate way to write it.) Dementia is at the hear...

According to the My Podcast Reviews service, by Daniel J. Lewis , there are as of this writing 1,429,590 valid podcasts in Apple Podcasts. Evo Terra had podcast #40. The 40th podcast ever produced belonged to Evo Terra. And Evo has been battling insomnia for something like fifteen years, often with help from a certain herbal remedy that has been discussed by other guests on the show, particularly...

Dr. Mark Boulos from Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center in Toronto has just won the 2020 Wayne A Hening Sleep Medicine Investigator Award from the American Academy of Neurology (and he's Neil's sleep doctor). Mark joins the show to talk sleep apnea, where we are with diagnosis and treatment, and new ways of treating sleep apnea that go beyond CPAP. Dr. Michael Grandner from the University of Arizon...