Sleep Unplugged with Dr. Chris Winter

#214 - Top 10 Sleep Threat Power Rankings: They Couldn’t See It

Chris Winter, MD

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0:00 | 40:42

Most "top sleep threats" lists stick to one lane — pediatric or adult, clinical or cultural. Dr. Funke Afolabi-Brown's list refuses to. It jumps from kids' airways to menopause to AI chatbots, and by the end a pattern emerges: the same symptom, in different bodies, keeps getting waved off as normal. In this episode we will:

  • Work through pediatric snoring dismissed as harmless and untreated mouth breathing, and why both are often lead to the same airway problem 
  • Get into exhaustion worn as a badge of honor
  • Look closer at supplement use and the underappreciated risk of leaning on antihistamine sleep aids night after night
  • Sit with three women's-health items back to back: 3 a.m. wake-ups blamed on "just hormones," menopause-related insomnia going undiagnosed, and the mechanisms actually behind both
  • Think about why women's sleep apnea symptoms are getting written off as stress or anxiety

To find out more about this week's podcast sponsor Flexispot, please use the following link: Flexispot Hako G1 Bed and use the discount code FLEXISPOTG1 for an extra 5% off.

Original intro music Vigilanteology by Abhinav Singh (copyright 2026)

Original outro music Vigilanteology (reprise) by Abhinav Singh (copyright 2026)

Produced by: Maeve Winter

Music by: Dr. Abhinav Singh (@sleep_vigilante), all rights reserved


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Thanks for listening and sleep well!