Your Brain On... Insomnia

About this episode

This episode explores chronic insomnia, its impact on brain health, and effective treatments including CBT-I.

It's 3 AM and your brain won't shut off. About 1 in 10 adults meets the clinical definition of chronic insomnia, and most never get treated. Instead, they scroll through an endless aisle of magnesium gummies, melatonin, and $300 trackers that don't address the real problem. We brought in a neurologist and a psychologist who never spoke to each other and landed on almost the exact same conclusions. In this episode, you'll learn: How the brain's glymphatic cleaning system works during sleep and why chronic insomnia is a brain health problem Why melatonin is a darkness signal, not a sleeping pill, and how nocturnal animals prove the point A sleep neurologist's honest 1-to-10 ratings of every sleep aid you've heard of: magnesium (2/10), CBT-I (10/10), alcohol (-10/10), and 12 more What orthosomnia is and why your sleep tracker might be making your insomnia worse Why perimenopause and menopause create what one expert calls "a perfect storm" for sleep disruption, and why doctors keep missing sleep apnea in women How CBT-I works: sleep restriction, stimulus control, and why your therapist will tell you to spend less time in bed, not more The data showing CBT-I may outperform hormone…

People in this episode

Hosts: Dr. Ayesha Sherzai, Dr. Dean Sherzai

Guest: Dr. Sujay Kansagra

Topics covered

• insomnia
• brain health
• sleep aids
• CBT-I
• menopause
• sleep disruption

Keywords

• insomnia
• sleep aids
• CBT-I
• melatonin
• perimenopause
• menopause
• sleep disruption
• sleep tracker
• brain health

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: CBT-I, ACT therapy

Products: magnesium, melatonin, sleep tracker

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