Sleep Researcher Aric Prather’s Tips to Sleep Better and Longer
I found Dr. Aric Prather’s book The Sleep Prescription: 7 Days to Unlock Your Best Rest when I was re-learning how to sleep last fall after weaning off of a drug I’d been on for 10 years that helped me sleep. It was a rough time and the book really helped put things in perspective. There were so many practical, useful tips, and the sleep journal he created helped me immensely.
Sleep is everything. If we don’t sleep, we don’t feel good and we certainly don’t usually climb well. I know a lot of people have sleep issues, so I asked Aric if he’d be on the show to tell us climbers some of his wisdom about sleeping.
Aric Prather is a psychologist who treats insomnia with individual cognitive behavioral therapy… Prather’s research focuses on how poor sleep impacts physical health and emotional well-being. He measures sleep habits to determine which study participants are vulnerable to sleep-related health problems and which are resilient, with the goal of developing new treatments.
Prather earned his doctoral degree in clinical and biological health psychology from the University of Pittsburgh.
Prather is a member of the Sleep Research Society, American Psychological Association, American Psychosomatic Society and Society for Affective Science.
Sleep Interview Details
- Things people do to help them sleep that actually undermine sleep
- How to use cognitive behavioral therapy to sleep
- How to properly wind down before sleep
- Thoughts on drugs and supplements for sleep
- Using sleep diary
- Importance of standardized wake-up time
- Using sleep deprivation to increase “sleep drive” to eventually improve sleep
- How to deal with rumination that keeps you awake
- Bonus Content on Patreon
There’s some bonus content at the end of this episode on Patreon.
- what he thinks of the drug I was on (mirtazapine) for sleep and histamine use for sleep
- why my alphabet game puts me to sleep most of the time
- some thoughts on biomarker testing to figure out why you’re not sleeping
- why nightly wake-ups might not be so abnormal.
My Sleep Set-Up at Home
I also created a video on Patreon all about my sleep set-up that helps me sleep like a champion most nights now. You can watch the first couple minutes for free and then to watch the entire video (and the many other videos in that tier), you can start a 7-day free trial.
You can find all of that bonus content and the uncut, ad-free video episode without intro or outro on my Patreon page.
Get Interview Bonuses, Nutrition & Mindset Videos, and Group Coaching
You can find bonus content from this episode, as well as nutrition and mindset education on Patreon. Learn more about my guests, plus get practical video tips on how to feed yourself to climb your hardest, and how to make climbing as fulfilling and productive as possible with mindset shifts.
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