Your Sleep Questions Answered With an Army Neuroscientist (EP.019)
The CrossFit Podcast
CrossFit LLC
4.3 • 757 Ratings
🗓️ 17 June 2025
⏱️ 64 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Dr. Major Allison Brager is a neuroscientist, a two-time CrossFit Games athlete, and one of the military’s leading experts on sleep and circadian biology. In this episode, host Denise Thomas and co-host Jocelyn Rylee dig in to what happens in the body during sleep, how your chronotype affects your performance, and the importance of sleep for recovery.
They also unpack strategic caffeine dosing, sleep myths, and the direct impact sleep has on your hormones, recovery, mood, and even long-term health risks. Whether you’re training hard or just trying to function better day-to-day, this conversation will change how you think about rest.
Topics Included
- What actually happens when we sleep
- Chronotypes, circadian rhythms, and ideal training times
- Sleep banking, shift work, and real-world application
- How sleep affects hormones, mood, and injury risk
- The impact of caffeine, alcohol, and blue light
- Strategies for better sleep: environment, timing, and habits
Resources Mentioned
- Dr. Brager’s book: “Meathead: Unraveling the Athletic Brain”
- Power Monkey Camp
- CrossFit Open
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia
- Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire
- National Sleep Foundation
Community Highlight
Jeff Winchester is a middle school counselor just outside of San Diego, California. In 2024, he launched CrossFit La Presa — a nonprofit school affiliate created with full support from his district and school leadership.
La Presa Middle School serves a largely underserved community, where many students face challenges outside the classroom. For Jeff, this program isn’t just about fitness — it’s about offering strength, structure, and connection to kids who need it most.
The results are powerful: students are gaining confidence, teachers are rediscovering their health, and kids who once stayed on the sidelines are now trying out for sports. Jeff says launching CrossFit La Presa has been one of the most meaningful moments of his 15-year career in education.⠀
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Sleepiness makes you stupid. |
| 0:01.7 | What actually happens when we sleep? |
| 0:03.7 | And if you look at people who get less than six hours asleep |
| 0:06.9 | or people who get more than 10 hours of sleep, |
| 0:09.9 | those same comorbidities, physical and mental ailments, |
| 0:14.1 | still exist. |
| 0:15.5 | Too much sleep is just as bad as too little sleep. |
| 0:18.7 | For people that maybe have short sleep during the work week |
| 0:21.4 | and then try to catch up on the weekends, |
| 0:23.0 | is it possible to make up for lack of sleep prayer too? |
| 0:26.5 | No, that's a great question. |
| 0:27.6 | So, |
| 0:28.8 | Hello everybody. |
| 0:33.7 | Welcome back to the CrossFit podcast, |
| 0:35.6 | where we welcome guests who are dedicating the lives to making the world a fitter and healthier place. I'm your host, Denise Thomas, |
| 0:43.3 | and we're mixing things up today. Not only are we bringing on a co-host and a friend of the show, |
| 0:49.0 | you know it, the Jocelyn Riley, but we're hitting you with a bit of a different format. |
| 0:55.0 | I guest is a walking warehouse of knowledge on a topic everyone in CrossFit needs to hear |
| 1:01.3 | more about, sleep. So today, Jocelyn and I are going to get straight to it with questions |
| 1:06.7 | for Dr. Major Alison Breger. Dr. Breger is an active duty army neuroscientist |
| 1:13.2 | who specializes in sleep and circadian rhythms. |
| 1:17.1 | She holds a PhD in biological sciences, |
... |
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