Episode 30: Dr. Amy Bender | The Fundamentals of Sleep
1 hour 12 minutes
It turns out we need to sleep and more hours a night than you probably think. And that wine you had before bed? It made you sleepy, but it didn’t help you sleep.
Dr. Amy Bender, our guest for episode 30, is the Director of Clinical Sleep Science at Cerebra Medical and 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. In addition, she was a college basketball athlete, did an Ironman in 2009, has climbed volcanoes, and currently chases her three young kids around.
These are Amy’s take on the top three functions carried out by our bodies while we sleep:
1. Neurons shrink to allow cerebrospinal fluid to flush out toxins like a dishwasher
2. Tissues and muscles are being repaired
3. Memories are being consolidated AND pruned (you don't need to know what you ate for lunch five days ago).
The takeaway? Sleep detoxifies us, repairs our injuries, and makes room in our brain for essential information while wiping away inconsequential things (like lunch five days ago).
If you have questions about sleep, Amy has the answers for you. We could have talked to Amy for hours and grilled her about all things sleep and recovery-related, but we restrained ourselves and just kept the conversation to around an hour! We cover several topics in our discussion - why we sleep, how much sleep is needed across the lifespan (use this link, or see the summary below), how to sleep better, how to go back to sleep if you are awakened in the night, kids and sleep, and of course, what caffeine and alcohol do to our sleep (spoiler alert, neither are good for us). Amy is passionate about helping people sleep better and a leading expert in this area.
This podcast is packed with helpful information and insight, as are Amy’s website and Instagram page. We recommend checking out all of them. Please enjoy this informative conversation with Dr. Amy Bender. The discussion will keep you intrigued; the information will make you want to sleep (in the best way!)
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or your favourite podcast platform.
