Dan Pardi, PhD – Sleep, Circadian Rhythms & the Importance of Light & Dark

Episode 38: Stanford University sleep researcher Dan Pardi talks about how sleep affects EVERYTHING, circadian biology and the importance of light and dark cycles.

Guest Bio

Dan Pardi

Dan is an entrepreneur and researcher whose life’s work is centered on how to facilitate health behaviors in others. He is the developer of Loop Model to Sustain Health Behaviors to help people live a healthy lifestyle in a modern world. He does research with the Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Department at Stanford, and the Departments of Neurology and Endocrinology at Leiden University in the Netherlands.

His current research looks at how sleep influences decision making (publications). Dan also works with Naval Special Warfare to help the most elite fighters in the world maintain vigilant performance in both combat and non-combat conditions.

In this episode we discuss:

• The difference between sleep restriction and sleep deprivation
• The price to our health of voluntary sleep curtailment
• Why we are cutting back on our sleep
• What is the optimal amount of time to sleep?
• The importance of timing, intensity and duration to create optimal sleep
• Polyphasic sleep
• Our master clock and clock genes
• Chronotypes: Early birds vs. night owls
• iPad insomnia – the effect of blue light entering the eye
• Why timing of blue light is very important for health
• Circadian rhythms and mismatches with our environment
• Sleep pressure vs. Wake Drive
• Effect of caffeine on sleep quality
• How’s Dan’s Plan can help you create healthful behaviours