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
#215 - Seqoquel and Insomnia: Same Thing From The Same Old Cause
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Ten million prescriptions a year, and most of them aren't for what the drug was built to treat. Seroquel started life as an antipsychotic — engineered to quiet psychosis, not close your eyes. Somewhere along the way it became one of the most common "off the record" sleep aids in America, riding on a side effect nobody set out to sell. The evidence behind that shift is thinner than most people assume — and Seroquel isn't the only drug doing this. In this episode we will:
- Trace quetiapine from its 1997 approval for schizophrenia through its quiet migration onto millions of nightstands, and unpack the receptor science that explains why a psychosis drug puts you to sleep at all
- Spotlight the actual clinical trials behind quetiapine-for-insomnia — including the 13-patient study nearly the entire off-label practice rests on — and the newer data linking it to cardiovascular events, dementia, and falls
- Break down what the American Academy of Sleep Medicine's guideline really says about quetiapine (it's not what most people assume), and why that gap in the data is its own kind of red flag
- Draw the parallel to trazodone — a different drug, a different original disease, and somehow the exact same story
To find out more about this week's podcast sponsor Sleep Reset, please use the following link: http://thesleepreset.com/podcast
Audio Engineer: Bradley Bransly Barker
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
More
- Twitter: @drchriswinter
- IG: @drchriwinter
- Threads: @drchriswinter
- Bluesky: @drchriswinter
- The Sleep Solution and The Rested Child
Thanks for listening and sleep well!
