Dr. Amy Bender is a sleep researcher and Director of Clinical Sleep Science at Cerebra Medical at Calgary, Canada. Her current research focus is to help people sleep better by improving sleep disorder treatments with more precise digital sleep metrics.
In this episode, we discuss about the various stages of sleep and their role, how to know if you’re deficient in sleep and reliable strategies to sleep and recover better.
Episode Summary:
00:00- Introduction
04:12- What does a sleep researcher do?
05:53- Sleep deprivation and its impact on cognition
07:40- What happens when we sleep- Sleep physiology
09:43- REM and Non REM sleep stages- sleep spindles, and memory benefits
12:26- Impact of pink noise frequency timed with deep sleep for memory improvement
15:24- Impact of age on sleep- Age and Sleep Graph
16:40- Sleep deprivation, impact on performance, social jetlag
22:12 Importance of consistent wake time
27:50- Circadian Rhythm
30:41- The napping strategy and the role in productivity, power nap
34:22- How is sleep important for athletes
38:35- Importance of sleep environment
41:30- Breathing techniques to help activate the parasympathetic nervous system
52:21- Cognitive behavioral therapy for Insomnia
Guest Profile:
In addition to being Director of Clinical Sleep Science at Cerebra Medical, Dr. Bender is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Kinesiology at the University of Calgary. She received her Ph.D. and Master of Science degrees in Experimental Psychology from Washington State University specializing in sleep EEG. She has helped develop the only validated sleep screening tool for athletes and has implemented sleep optimization strategies for numerous Canadian Olympic and professional teams. Her current interests focus on how to help people sleep better by improving sleep disorder treatments with more precise digital sleep metrics. She was a former college basketball athlete, did an Ironman in 2009, and currently chases her 3 young kids around.
For more information on Dr. Bender, you can reach out to her via the below channels:
Instagram: @sleep4sport
Twitter: @sleep4sport
Host Profile:
Vikas Singh, an MBA from Chicago Booth, worked at Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, APGlobale and Reliance before coming up with an idea of democratizing fitness knowledge and help beginners get on a fitness journey. An avid long-distance runner himself, Vikas is building fitpage to help people learn, train, and move better.
For more information on Vikas, you can reach out to him via the channels below:
Instagram: @vikas_singhh
LinkedIn: Vikas Singh
About the Podcast: Run with Fitpage
This podcast series is built with a focus on bringing science and research from the endurance sports industry. These may help you learn and implement these in your training, recovery, and nutrition journey. We invite coaches, exercise scientists, researchers, nutritionists, doctors, and inspiring athletes to come and share their knowledge and stories with us. So, whether you’re just getting started with running or want to get better at it, this podcast is for you!
Learn more about fitness and nutrition on our website www.fitpage.in
This podcast has been recorded via Zoom Conferencing.