Sleep Unplugged with Dr. Chris Winter
No holds barred, unscripted discussion on a wide range of sleep topics - from sleep disorders to current research and controversies in the field. No topic is off limits! Dr. Chris Winter is a clinician, a board certified neurologist and double boarded sleep specialist with 30 years of clinical experience. He is the author of The Sleep Solution and The Rested Child, and is a popular consultant and speaker, working for many professional sports teams. He is well known for his unique perspective and ability to demystify sleep, all of which he brings to Sleep Unplugged.
Sleep Unplugged with Dr. Chris Winter
#159 - Extreme Insomnia: You're Killing Yourself If You Don't Believe It
The Atlantic recently published a feature article entitled "Why Americans Can't Sleep." The article was written by Jennifer Senior, and fantastically accomplished writer (2022 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing, the 2022 National Magazine Award for Feature Writing, and the 2024 National Magazine Award for Columns & Essays) and details not only her own personal struggles with insomnia, but also attempts to dive deeper into sleep science and what she describes as a "public health emergency." In this episode, we will:
- Look at this article in a list of similar articles and books over the decades that detail harrowing personal accounts of insomnia
- Understand why the hook of these articles seems to mirror that of other news/extreme weather, where the thrust of the piece is centered around the insomnia being "the worst" and "the most severe"
- Discuss how failure to differentiate sleep deprivation and insomnia can lead to erroneous conclusions
- Examine how these pieces almost uniformly fail to define insomnia, and in doing so fail to define what a successful outcome/solution would look like. In other words, what does "work" mean?
- Imagine what a truly revolutionary article about insomnia might look like
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!
