This is Ted Health, a podcast from Ted, and I'm your host, Dr. Shoshana Ungerleiter.

Lately, I feel like I've just been tired.

And it's not just me.

I've been reflecting on how tired so many of us feel all the time,

even in those moments when we're technically resting.

We'll get through the workday, collapse on the couch, scroll for a while, and then go to bed.

But even if we sleep the recommended seven to nine hours, we still wake up feeling depleted.

For me, the best way to describe it is I feel like my body never fully powers down. And I didn't really

know why. So I went looking for answers. And that brings me to today's interview with Dr. Alexandra

Crosswell. Alexander is a psychologist and scientist who spent decades studying the mind-body connection.

She's trained at Duke, UCLA, and UCSF, and she was on faculty at the UCSF School of Medicine.

In 2022, she left academia to bring science-back tools into improving people's workplaces and daily

lives.

And what I wanted to really get into today is the concept of deep rest.

Deep rest is more than relaxation. It's a coordinated shift across the nervous system,

endocrine system, and the immune system toward an internal sense of safety and sufficiency.

And when we're having a hard time accessing that state,

it's often because our systems are stuck in stress.

Your body isn't getting a clear signal that, hey, you're okay, you're safe.

In our conversation, Dr. Crosswell and I dive deep into deep rest.

We talk about how chronic stress keeps us from truly relaxing

and how it's impacting our bodies over time.

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