Thank you for joining us for episode 368 of Live Happy Now.

You wouldn't dream of driving your car without any gas, but many of us think nothing of operating

our lives on an empty tank. I'm your host, Paula Phelps, and this week I'm talking with

cognitive neuroscientist Sarah Mednick, author of the new book,

The Hidden Power of the Downstate.

Sarah's pioneering research on sleep led her to also study our body's natural rhythms and look at

how spending too much time in our upstate is leaving us unhappy, exhausted, and unhealthy.

She explores the need to discover our downstate so we can refill

that tank and enjoy a healthier, happier life. Join me today as she talks about how these two states

work together for better physical and emotional health and explains some of the simple changes

you can make to make a big difference. Sarah, welcome to live happy now. Hey, thank you so much for having me. It's great to be here. You know, you changed our life with your book on napping. I was telling you that I have referenced it so much. That's been, gosh, almost seven years since that came out, isn't it? The end of 2006. Oh, oh, wow. Long time. Yeah. It's been much longer. Yeah.

Wow. Yeah. It's like it's so relevant still and I've been using that. And then when I found out you had

another book coming out, I was super excited. And I got to say, it does not disappoint. Oh, thank you. Just like you led us into new

territory with napping, you are now taking us into learning about the downstate. In this book,

The Power of the Downstate is absolutely incredible. And I guess before we dive into talking about it,

would you explain what the difference is between our upstate and our downstate?

That's a great question. And really just like the principle of the book is the idea that we

are rhythmic animals, like every animal, every creature on the planet, plants, bacteria,

humans, primates, non-primates, we're all rhythmic, meaning that we have optimal times for activity

and going and being and doing and pushing ourselves and optimal times. And that's the upstate.

And then that's followed, that half of that rhythm is followed by the other half of the rhythm,

which is the downstate, which is all the opportunities that we have to replenish ourselves, recharge the

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