What hibernating animals can teach us about human sleep with Vladyslav Vyazovskiy

ReThinking

TED

Society & Culture, Organizational Psychology, Worklife Podcasts, Adam Grant, Rethinking Podcast, Ted Podcast Adam Grant, Ted Talks, Adam Grant Podcasts

4.7 • 626 Ratings

🗓️ 18 March 2025

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Do you ever wish you could hibernate like a bear during the winter? Vladyslav Vyazovskiy thinks it might be possible. As a sleep physiologist at Oxford, Vladyslav studies why humans sleep and the sleep patterns of other species. He and Adam discuss the possibility of unlocking a hibernation ability in humans and its potential benefits – from curing cancer to enabling interplanetary travel. They also debunk some popular sleep misconceptions, debate the value of napping, and uncover just how little we really know about the science of sleep.

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ReThinking is produced by Cosmic Standard. Our Senior Producer is Jessica Glazer, our Engineer is Aja Simpson, our Technical Director is Jacob Winik, and our Executive Producer is Eliza Smith.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Michael Lewis here. My best-selling book The Big Short tells the story of the build-up and burst of the U.S. housing market back in 2008. A decade ago, the Big Short was made into an Academy Award-winning movie, and now I'm bringing it to you for the first time as an audiobook narrated by yours truly. The Big Short's story, what it means to bet against the market, and who really pays for
0:24.3	an unchecked financial system, is as relevant today as it's ever been.
0:28.8	Get the big short now at Pushkin.fm. slash audiobooks or wherever audio books are sold.
0:38.6	So it's very likely that rather than animals evolved to hibernate.
0:44.4	Probably most of our ancestors actually hibernated some forms and some of them lost in the
0:49.5	course of evolution because it's such a clever strategy.
0:52.7	I actually think almost like a default state of being.
0:56.3	Maybe we forgot how to do it because we learn how to build houses, right, and have central heating.
1:05.8	Hey, everyone, it's Adam Grant.
1:07.9	Welcome back to Rethinking, my podcast on the Science of What Makes
1:11.2	Us Tick with the TED Audio Collective. I'm an organizational psychologist, and I'm taking you
1:16.1	inside the minds of fascinating people to explore new thoughts and new ways of thinking.
1:23.7	My guest today is Vladislav Vesovsky. He's a sleep physiologist at Oxford, where he studies why we sleep and how animals hibernate.
1:32.3	His work has made me question many of my basic assumptions about slumber,
1:36.3	and I bet it's going to have the same effect on you.
1:39.3	We love metaphors when we talk about sleep, and this is exactly because we don't understand it.
1:43.3	It's why we talk about this sleep depth, and nobody knows what deep sleep is.
1:48.2	Today, Vladislav and I are wide awake to discuss the science of sleep and an idea that I find
1:53.6	fascinating, human hibernation.
2:05.9	Vladislav and great to meet you.
2:08.5	Great to meet you. Thank you. Thank you for invite.
2:13.7	I've been wondering for longer than I can remember if humans could ever hibernate.
	...

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