The Science of Sleep | Dr. Sara Mednick
10% Happier with Dan Harris
10% Media, LLC
4.6 • 12.9K Ratings
🗓️ 4 May 2022
⏱️ 56 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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If you're trying to improve your sleep, thinking about doing so right before you get into bed might not be the best approach.
Dr. Sara Mednick, is a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of California, Irvine, and the author of the new book The Power of the Downstate. This episode is part of our month-long "Mental Health Reboot" series to mark Mental Health Awareness Month.
According to her research, Dr. Mednick says that we need to take a more holistic approach to getting better sleep, and that sleep is just one of the ways that our bodies rest and restore.
In this conversation, we talk about:
- The nuances of napping
- Dr. Mednick's definition of the "downstate"
- Whether there are practices that can compensate for poor sleep
- Why heart rate variability is an important measurement of health
- Why sex is so helpful for sleep
- And when to take melatonin to best effect
Full Shownotes: https://www.tenpercent.com/podcast-episode/sara-mednick-445
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is the 10% happier podcast. |
| 0:05.9 | I'm Dan Harris. |
| 0:09.1 | Hey, gang, if you're interested in getting more and better sleep, there may be a temptation |
| 0:17.8 | to think about this as a strictly nighttime endeavor. |
| 0:22.0 | But my guest today says you can't think about improving your sleep just in the minutes |
| 0:26.0 | before you go to bed. |
| 0:27.8 | Her neuroscientific research has led her to conclude that we need to think about sleep |
| 0:31.9 | more holistically as just one of the body's ways of resting and restoring. |
| 0:38.2 | Dr. Sarah Mednick is the author of the new book, The Hidden Power of the Downstate. |
| 0:42.7 | She's a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of California Irvine. |
| 0:47.1 | Her seven bedroom sleep lab works literally around the clock to discover methods for boosting |
| 0:52.8 | cognition, by napping, stimulating the brain with electricity, sound, and light. |
| 0:57.7 | And pharmacology. |
| 1:00.6 | In this conversation, we talk about the nuances of napping, what the science says about |
| 1:04.5 | who should and should not indulge. |
| 1:06.8 | Her definition of the downstate and why it includes more than just sleep, whether there |
| 1:11.8 | are practices we can do that would compensate for poor sleep, why heart rate variability |
| 1:18.0 | is an important measurement of health, why sex is so helpful for sleep, and when to take |
| 1:24.0 | melatonin for the best effects. |
| 1:27.0 | If you missed the first part of our sleep series, go back and check out Monday's episode |
| 1:30.2 | with my friend and former colleague, Diane Maseito, and ABC News journalist who wrote a rather |
| 1:35.6 | comprehensive book about what she learned on her own Odyssey in the land of insomnia and |
... |
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