168. Dr. Shelby Harris, Clinical Psychologist & Sleep Expert
Ali on the Run Show
Ali Feller
4.9 • 4.2K Ratings
🗓️ 5 September 2019
⏱️ 70 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
"When I started running, people laughed at me. But it was a challenge I needed to do for myself."
Dr. Shelby Harris is a clinical psychologist and clinical associate professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the neurology and psychiatry departments. She specializes in anxiety, depression, and treating sleep disorders, and is the author of The Women's Guide to Overcoming Insomnia. What does that have to do with running? On this episode, Dr. Harris shares how treating her insomnia-and-sleep-apnea-riddled patients led her to marathon running. She's now a 13-time marathoner who has taken her time from 5:19 to 3:45, and she's currently training for the 2019 Chicago Marathon, where she hopes to run a Boston Qualifying time. Dr. Harris shares her story of being seconds away from crossing the Boston Marathon finish line in 2013 when the second bomb went off, and talks about losing hearing in her left ear as a result of the blast. She also talks about using exposure therapy as a way to get back to running and racing. Plus, she answers your sleep questions! We received more than 200 questions from listeners (wow!), and Dr. Harris dishes out loads of advice, from how to deal with insomnia to how sleep impacts running and so much more.
Thank you to AfterShokz for sponsoring this episode of the Ali on the Run Show! CLICK HERE for $50 off your Aeropex wireless headphone endurance bundle!
What you'll get on this episode:
- How Shelby got into the sleep field — and found running along the way (5:10)
- How much sleep should we all be getting, realistically? (8:50)
- On having phones in the bedroom (14:00)
- How sleep impacts running (19:35)
- How Shelby shaved nearly 90 minutes off her marathon time (21:50)
- Shelby's 2013 Boston Marathon story (24:10)
- Shelby answers listener questions about sleep (34:00)
What we mention on this episode:
Montefiore Sleep Disorders Center
Jen Bigham on Episode 151 of the Ali on the Run Show
Jack Daniels Run S.M.A.R.T. Program
Follow Shelby:
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This episode of The Alley on the Run Show is brought to you by Aftershocks. |
| 0:08.3 | Welcome to The Alley on the Run Show. I'm your host Allie Feler. I'm a writer and editor, |
| 0:13.3 | a runner and a new mom, and every week on this show I talk with inspiring people who lead |
| 0:18.3 | interesting lives on the run and beyond. Running is what brings us all together, but any runner |
| 0:23.2 | knows there is so much more to those daily runs than splits, paces, and sports fraught headlines. |
| 0:28.8 | We're here to talk about the other stuff. The decisions people have made to get where they are |
| 0:33.1 | today and how getting sweaty has factored in along the way. So question, are you a good sleeper? |
| 0:39.3 | No, I really want to know. I wish you could all respond to me right here right now. |
| 0:43.4 | I was always a good sleeper. I fell asleep relatively easily. I slept through the night. I |
| 0:48.0 | woke up feeling fairly rested and joyful in the morning. But then I had a baby. And no, |
| 0:53.7 | haha, haha. Yeah, Annie, my daughter is a great sleeper, but I am not. So will I ever sleep |
| 1:01.1 | suddenly again without the help of my dear friend, Ambien? Well, according to Dr. Shelby Harris, |
| 1:07.1 | there is hope for me and there's hope for you. There's even hope for my insomniotic snoring |
| 1:12.1 | husband. Alright, today's episode is really fun. I had no idea sleep was such a fascinating |
| 1:18.2 | topic until I interviewed Dr. Shelby Harris for a story I was writing for Welling Good. |
| 1:22.8 | We got to talking beyond the topic at hand and turns out Shelby isn't just a clinical psychologist, |
| 1:28.0 | a clinical associate professor in the departments of neurology and psychiatry at the Albert |
| 1:32.4 | Einstein College of Medicine. Whoo! And the author of the Women's Guide to Overcoming Insomnia. Wow. |
| 1:39.0 | Shelby's also a runner. And she's a runner who has run a whole bunch of marathons, a runner who |
| 1:44.0 | has taken her personal marathon record from five hours to three hours and 45 minutes. So, |
| 1:50.8 | clearly we had a lot to talk about. Here's what you're about to get. In the first half of this |
| 1:55.0 | episode, Shelby talks about how she got into her professional field and how because of her work, |
... |
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