Instant Genius10 Juli 2019

Dr Guy Leschziner: What is your brain doing while you sleep?

For most of us, switching off the light and curling up in a warm, cosy bed is the welcome reward for a good day done (or much-needed respite from a bad one). But not everybody can soak up their allotted hours in joyful slumber before the alarm goes off. In fact, according to the Mental Health Foundation, it is estimated that 20 per cent of adults suffer from some form of insomnia, while many more of us experience issues like sleep walking, sleep apnoea and night terrors. Dr Guy Leschziner is a world-renowned neurologist and sleep physician, whose new book The Nocturnal Brain: Nightmares, Neuroscience and the Secret World of Sleep (£16.99, Simon & Schuster) attempts to unpick some of the mysteries around what is happening to your body whilst you doze off in the land of Nod. In this podcast, we find out what is happening in our brain while we dream, how to get a better night’s sleep, and whether sleep tech and apps are all they’re all cracked up to be. He speaks to BBC Science Focus Online Editor Alexander McNamara. Listen to more episodes of the Science Focus Podcast: How to get a good night's sleep – Alice Gregory Exploding Head Syndrome – Brian Sharpless The neuroscience of happiness – Dean Burnett Is religion compatible with science? – John Lennox What it’s really like to die – Dr Kathryn Mannix Follow Science Focus on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Flipboard Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Det här avsnittet är hämtat från ett öppet RSS-flöde och publiceras inte av Podme. Det kan innehålla reklam.

Avsnitt(669)

What we’re getting wrong about narcissists

Oftentimes in popular culture we’ll hear the term narcissist used to describe a person who has an inflated opinion of themselves, a big ego or someone who tends to overestimate their own abilities. Ho...

16 Aug 28min

The latest breakthroughs in Parkinson’s research

Parkinson’s disease currently affects more than 160,000 people in the UK. It’s a complex, progressive condition that typically develops slowly over many years and causes issues with movement, balance,...

13 Aug 29min

How to harness your brain’s underused superpowers

For a large proportion of our lives, our brains seemingly work on autopilot – the many processes the brain controls hum away behind the scenes, helping us to carry out our daily tasks. But in certain ...

9 Aug 35min

How we define intelligent life

What does it mean to be a living organism? What are the driving forces that motivate our thoughts and actions? Are we all simply acting the way we do thanks to the instructions built into our genes an...

6 Aug 28min

Exploring Darwin’s ideas through a queer lens

When Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species in the mid-nineteenth century, his theory of evolution by natural selection turned many of the scientific ideas of the day on their heads. The in...

2 Aug 35min

On the frontlines of our fight against dementia

Currently there are around one million people in the UK living with dementia. Despite significant advances in our understanding of the disease over the past several decades an effective cure is yet to...

30 Juli 29min

Why the search for life on Mars is far from over

Way back in 1976, NASA’s Viking landers touched down on Mars to search for potential signs of microbial life that could currently exist on the planet’s surface. Despite the mission making a number of ...

26 Juli 34min

Why rediscovering simple pleasures may be the key to happiness

Every single day of our lives, we’re exposed to a vast multitude of experiences and interactions with the various people, objects and technologies in the wider world that surrounds us. The chances are...

23 Juli 32min