Wellness + Wisdom Podcast
Kirk Parsley MD | Sleep As Medicine: How To Sleep Like Royalty + Stop Being Sick
Podcast summary created with Snipd AI
Quick takeaways
- Dr. Kirk Parsley emphasizes that inadequate sleep accelerates aging and exacerbates neurological decline, thus impacting overall health significantly.
- The reliance on prescription sleep aids is criticized for failing to address fundamental sleep issues, promoting a shift towards natural solutions instead.
- Improving sleep quality hinges on environmental factors and bedtime routines, which are essential for regulating circadian rhythms and achieving restorative rest.
- For high-achievers, sleep is often sacrificed, yet prioritizing it is crucial for enhanced cognitive function and optimal performance in demanding roles.
Deep dives
The Impact of Sleep on Emotional Regulation
Poor sleep negatively affects emotional categorization, leading to impulsive behaviors such as infidelity and overeating. When individuals lack sufficient sleep, they struggle to manage their emotions effectively, resulting in an increased likelihood of significant life disruptions like financial issues or accidents. Dr. Kirk Parsley, a former Navy SEAL and medical doctor, emphasizes that adequate sleep is vital for emotional stability, resonating in the actions one takes during waking hours. The connection between sleep deprivation and emotional instability underscores the importance of prioritizing healthy sleep habits.
Pharmaceuticals and the Mismanagement of Sleep
The prevailing use of prescription sleep aids represents a widespread issue in how society addresses sleep deprivation. These medications, while potentially effective in the short term, fail to address the underlying causes of poor sleep and often exacerbate associated health problems. Dr. Parsley reveals that the pharmaceutical industry has made significant profits from sleep medications but questions their efficacy and long-term impacts. He advocates for prioritizing natural sleep solutions and lifestyle changes over medications to optimize health.
The Complex Biology of Sleep
A deeper understanding of sleep reveals that it significantly influences a range of biological functions, including hormone production and memory consolidation. Sleep quality affects neurotransmitter levels, particularly GABA, which plays a crucial role in regulating sleep. Dr. Parsley asserts that sleep's restorative benefits are critical for optimal cognitive function, and simply shutting down the brain with sleep drugs fails to provide these benefits. Instead, he emphasizes the importance of natural sleep processes in maintaining overall health and well-being.
The Role of Environment in Sleep Quality
Several environmental factors, such as light exposure, room temperature, and pre-sleep routines, play a critical role in enhancing sleep quality. Creating a relaxing bedtime routine that minimizes blue light exposure helps regulate the body's circadian rhythms, promoting better sleep. Dr. Parsley highlights the significance of a conducive sleep environment, pointing out that small adjustments can lead to substantial improvements in sleep quality. This holistic approach addresses the broader factors contributing to sleep disturbances.
Sleep and the Recovery of High-Performing Individuals
For high-achieving individuals, quality sleep is often overlooked despite being a cornerstone of optimal performance. The pressure to succeed frequently leads to sleep deprivation, which can impair cognitive function, decision-making, and emotional health. Dr. Parsley stresses that professionals in demanding roles, like SEALs and executives, need to prioritize recovery through adequate sleep to perform optimally. His work with elite athletes illustrates how improved sleep can significantly enhance performance levels.
The Risk of Long-Term Sleep Deprivation
Chronic sleep deprivation poses a substantial risk to mental and physical health, contributing to various health issues such as obesity, cardiovascular diseases, and neurodegeneration. Dr. Parsley discusses the potential long-term consequences of inadequate sleep, including heightened stress and inflammation. He notes that the persistent cycle of poor sleep leads individuals to make choices that exacerbate stress and suffering, creating a vicious cycle. Acknowledging and addressing these risks is essential for fostering resilience in both personal and professional spheres.
Gaining Insights Through Psychedelic Experiences
Dr. Parsley's exploration of psychedelics in a therapeutic context reveals their potential for fostering self-awareness and emotional healing. He shares his transformative experience with psilocybin, which prompted a shift in understanding fear and suffering. This journey helped him recognize the futility of fear and how it can cloud judgment and hinder personal growth. His insights highlight the value of alternative therapeutic avenues in enhancing emotional well-being and navigating life's challenges.
The Integral Connection Between Suffering and Love
A key theme in Dr. Parsley's narrative is the duality of suffering and love, portraying suffering as an intrinsic part of the human experience. He emphasizes that while fear often drives suffering, love serves as a powerful antidote and guiding force. Understanding this interplay enables individuals to process their experiences more constructively and fosters resilience in the face of adversity. Embracing love as a primary motivator can transform perspectives on suffering and facilitate personal growth.
How is poor sleep quietly sabotaging your health, performance, and relationships?
Dr. Kirk Parsley, Performance Enhancement Physician + former SEAL, joins Josh Trent on the Wellness + Wisdom Podcast, episode 734, to uncover the shocking truth about mainstream sleep drugs and how they hijack natural processes like GABA without delivering true rest, how high-stress lifestyles demand recovery strategies, and why optimizing your sleep might just be the missing key to a better life, stronger communication, and lasting emotional resilience.
"When you don't sleep very well, you're choosing to age faster. If you stay up for 20 hours, you've added 4 hours of damage, which means your brain is aging 25% faster. If you do this regularly, you will get neurological decline." - Dr. Kirk Parsley
Get 20% Off Dr. Parsley's Sleep RemedySleep Remedy is designed to enhance the quality of your sleep, helping you fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer.
Sleep experts meticulously formulated this product to naturally align with your body's sleep mechanisms, providing a non-habit-forming solution to improve nightly rest.
Dr. Kirk Parsley's Sleep Remedy works by supplementing your body's own production of sleep-inducing molecules like melatonin, magnesium, and a special blend of amino acids.
In This Episode, Kirk Parsley MD Uncovers: [01:05] The Dangers of Sleep Drugs- Kirk Parsley MD
- 125 Dr. Kirk Parsley – Sleep To Win
- 256 Navigating Transitions In Relationships, Health, and Wealth: Dr. Kirk Parsley & Krisstina Wise
- How the pharmaceutical industry formulates sleep products.
- Why Benzodiazepines are 100X stronger than GABA.
- How sleep has nothing to do with GABA, but pharmaceuticals mainly focus on GABA.
- Why sleep drugs can cause anomalistic behavior.
- How alcohol decreases deep sleep and REM sleep.
- Why success can't be predicted but failure can.
- How millions are spent on Navy SEAL trainings.
- Why none of the SEALs complain about sleep, even though they barely get any during their training.
- How Kirk made the SEALs test 98 blood markers to find out why they were not performing to their full potential.
- How he discovered that Ambien was negatively impacting their sleep and performance.
- How he gave the SEALs sleep supplements to improve their sleep.
- Why sleep impacts all other aspects of well-being and performance.
- How Kirk's work translated from the Navy SEALs to all people.
- Why he became a private health consultant.
- How stress ages us.
- Why the Industrial Age affected our sleep quality.
- Why wearable data is not actionable.
- How we can't change what we don't measure.
- Why our genes define whether or not we suffer when we get less than 8 hours of sleep.
- How to treat insomnia using non-sleep deep rest.
- Why we need to mimic what our ancestors did to sleep well.
- The importance of creating a list of our worries.
- 591 Dr. John Lieurance | Biohacking Big Souls: How UFC Fighters + Big Wave Surfers Holistically Heal
- Why parents lose 6 months of sleep during the first 2 years of their baby's life.
- How we can recover from long-term lack of sleep.
- Why it takes 8 hours to recover from being awake for 16 hours.
- How we clean the waste inside of our body through sleep.
- What happens in the body when we go to sleep.
- Why our body creates inflammation when we don't manage to get rid of the waste product.
- How calcified plaque is created in the body.
- How psychiatric illnesses are highly impacted by sleep.
- What chronobiology has discovered about psychiatric patients and their mental health in relation to circadian rhythm.
- Why being awake is catabolic and being asleep is anabolic.
- How we repair our stress levels while we sleep.
- Why immediately after working out we are weaker and we need to repair during our sleep.
- How aging affects our capacity to repair our body.
- Why long-term lack of sleep makes us age faster.
- How releasing stress hormones can help us repair if we don't get enough sleep.
- Why we're the only stress-deprived species on Earth.
- Why co-sleeping with our children is not essential.
- How each child has different sleep needs.
- Why Kirk repressed a lot of his childhood anger and trauma.
- How he used to pull all-nighters when he was studying, working, and raising his children.
- Why sleeping 4 to 5 hours a day for several years caused Kirk's health to decline.
- How he was helping the SEALs with their health issues but wasn't helping himself.
- The role that sleep played in the issues in Kirk's first marriage.
- William Dement
- How research proved that couples who don't get enough sleep perceive each other more negatively.
- The Upside of Stress by Kelly McGonigal MD
- Why stress causes impulsive behavior and lack of emotional control.
- How sleep deprivation is used as a torture technique in interrogation.
- Why brain function is essential for communication.
- How the brain holds on to arguments even after it has ended.
- The role of emotional categorization.
- How good quality sleep rebalances our hormone levels.
- Why hormones impact how we show up.
- What makes some people exceptionally good at suffering.
- Why our genetics influence our ability to endure suffering.
- What led Kirk to believe that suffering is a choice.
- Why he doesn't suffer even though he's suffering.
- Why Kirk grew up fearful because he lived in a dangerous environment.
- What made him decide that being fearful is weak.
- Why he's happy with everything that's happened in his life.
- How fear only takes us out of enjoyment.
- Why everything that matters to Kirk is driven by love.
- How Kirk defines his faith in God.
- Why we only have control of how we react to what's happening around us.
- How he asks God to show him the path every morning.
- Why psilocybin made him face darkness.
- How the psilocybin experience changed how he perceives fear.
- Why love and fear are the only emotions, but only love is real.
- Why Kirk used to believe that we need to choose to suffer for a reason.
- 692 Paul Chek | Spirit Gym: How To Find The Truth of Your Soul + Live Your Dream
- How he always wanted to raise his children to be able to handle as much as him.
- Why the consequence of suffering was that he got tired of suffering.
Leave Wellness + Wisdom a Review on Apple Podcasts
Power Quotes From The Show Lack of Sleep = Threat?"The only animal on this planet that sleep deprives itself on purpose is us. It makes evolutionary sense that our brains perceive lack of sleep as famine or threat because there's some kind of stressor going on. That is why people who don't sleep well or don't sleep enough have higher amygdala tone and higher stress hormones." - Dr. Kirk Parsley
Benefits of Sleep"It takes 8 hours to recover from being awake for 16 hours. The benefit of sleep is the hormone production, the repair, the acceleration of your immune system, the consolidation of memories, the categorization of emotional events." - Dr. Kirk Parsley
Your Brain Creates Waste Products"When you go to sleep, the neurons that hold the structure of the brain contract about 30% and they create little channels for the cerebral spinal fluid to flow through. There are ways for it to clear and get outside of the blood brain barrier and get rid of your waste products. If you don't clear that, it's toxic. It's a waste product. It'd be like if you leave feces in your living room, you don't get rid of it, it's toxic. And what happens is that your brain or your body attacks it. It's like a foreign object. So it's an inflammatory response." - Dr. Kirk Parsley
Links From Today's Show- Kirk Parsley MD
- 125 Dr. Kirk Parsley – Sleep To Win
- 256 Navigating Transitions In Relationships, Health, and Wealth: Dr. Kirk Parsley & Krisstina Wise
- 591 Dr. John Lieurance | Biohacking Big Souls: How UFC Fighters + Big Wave Surfers Holistically Heal
- William Dement
- The Upside of Stress by Kelly McGonigal MD
- 692 Paul Chek | Spirit Gym: How To Find The Truth of Your Soul + Live Your Dream
- MANNA Vitality - Save 20% with code JOSH20
- HigherDOSE - 15% off with the code JOSH15
- PLUNGE - $150 off with discount code WELLNESSFORCE
- Pulsetto - Save 20% with code "JOSH"
- SaunaSpace - 10% off with discount code JOSH10
- Ultrahuman Ring Air - 10% off with code JOSH
- Choose Joi - Save 50% on all Lab Tests with JOSH
- Blokes - Save 50% on all Lab Tests with JOSH
- FertilityWize Test by Clockwize - Save 10% with code JOSH
- Tiny Health Gut Tests - $20 off with discount code JOSH20
- VIVOO Health Tests - Save 30% off with code JOSH
- SiPhox Health Blood Test - Save 15% off with code JOSH
- Organifi - 20% off with discount code WELLNESSFORCE
- SEED Synbiotic - 25% off with the code 25JOSHTRENT
- Paleovalley - Save 15% off here!
- EQUIP Foods - 20% off with the code WELLNESS20
- DRY FARM WINES - Get an extra bottle of Pure Natural Wine with your order for just 1¢
- Just Thrive - 20% off with the code JOSH
- Legacy Cacao - Save 10% with JOSH when you order by the pound!
- Kreatures of Habit - Save 20% with WISDOM20
- Force of Nature Meats - Save 10% with JOSH
- MANNA GOLD - $20 off with code JOSHGOLD
- Adapt Naturals - 20% off with discount code WELLNESSFORCE
- MitoZen - 10% off with code WELLNESSFORCE
- Activation Products - 20% off with code JOSH20
- BiOptimizers - 10% off with discount code JOSH10
- Fatty15 Essential Fatty Acids Supplement - Get 15% off with code JOSH15
- BiOptimizers Sleep Breakthrough - 10% off with JOSH10
- Zyppah Anti-Snoring Mouthpiece - 20% off with the code JOSH
- MitoZen Super SandMan Ultra™ (Melatonin Liposomal)+ 10% off with WELLNESSFORCE
- Luminette Light Therapy Glasses - 15% off with JOSH
- Cured Nutrition CBN Night Oil - 20% off with JOSH
- MTE - Save 20% with JOSH
- TruKava - Save 20% with code JOSH20
- Drink Update - Save 25% with discount code JOSH25
- Lifeboost Coffee - Save 10% with JOSH10
- EONS Mushroom Coffee - 20% off with the discount code JOSH20
- EnergyBITS - 20% off with the code WELLNESSFORCE
- BUBS Naturals - Save 20% with JOSH20
- Detox Dudes Online Courses - Up to $500 off with discount code JOSH
- Kineon - 10% off with discount code JOSH10
- Create Wellness Creatine Gummies - 20% off with discount code JOSH20
- BioPro+ by BioProtein Technology - Save $30 OFF WITH CODE JOSH
- Drink LMNT - Zero Sugar Hydration: Get your free LMNT Sample Pack, with any purchase
- Myoxcience - 20% off with the code JOSH20
- SunHome Saunas - Save $200 with JOSH200
- JASPR Air Purifier - Save 10% with code WELLNESS
- QI-Shield EMF Device by NOA AON - 20% off with the code JOSH
- Holy Hydrogen - $100 off with discount code JOSH
- SimplyO3 - 10% off with discount code JOSH10
- LEELA Quantum Upgrade + Frequency Bundles - Get 15 days free with code JOSH15
- TrulyFree Toxic- Free Cleaning Products - Get 40% off + Freebies with code WELLNESSFORCE
- Mendi.io - 20% off with the code JOSH20
- Cured Nutrition CBD - 20% off with the discount code JOSH
- NOOTOPIA - 10% off with the discount code JOSH10
- CalmiGo - $30 off the device with discount code JOSH30
- QUALIA - 15% off with WELLNESSFORCE
- LiftMode - 10% off with JOSH10
- The Wellness Company's Emergency Health Kits + More - Save 10% with code JOSH
- Canopy Filtered Showerhead + Essential Oils - Save 15% with JOSH15
- Farrow Life - Save 20% with JOSH
- Timeline Nutrition - 10% off with JOSH
- Intelligence of Nature - 15% off Skin Support with the code JOSH15
- Young Goose - Save 10% with code JOSH10
- BREATHE - 33% off with the code PODCAST33
- Neuvana - 15% off with the code WELLNESSFORCE
- Essential Oil Wizardry - 10% off with the code WELLNESSFORCE
- Four Visions - Save 15% with code JOSH15
- Lotuswei - 10% off with JOSH
- NativeToWear - Save 20% with code JOSH20
- Rhizal Grounded Barefoot Shoes - Save 10% with code WELLNESS
- Earth Runners Shoes - 10% off with the code JOSHT10
- MYNDOVR - 20% off with JOSH
- M21 Wellness Guide - Free 3-Week Breathwork Program with Josh Trent
- Join Wellness + Wisdom Community
Kirk Parsley, MD is certified in Hyperbaric Medicine, Anti-Aging Medicine, and Hormone Replacement Therapy, and is currently pursuing national certification in Psychedelic Medicine Therapies.
He dedicates a significant portion of his time to advising non-profit organizations that support the SEAL community and providing healthcare guidance and treatment to veterans.
Operating his practice and supplement business from Austin, Texas, Kirk is an avid outdoorsman and fitness enthusiast.
His philosophy is straightforward: our bodies are built on a 100,000+ year-old model, and we perform best by emulating the lifestyle we evolved to live, as closely as possible, striving to approximate the health metrics of our 25-30-year-old selves (the physiologic peak of most humans).
Kirk firmly believes that 80% of health is derived from focusing on Sleep, Nutrition, Exercise, and Stress mitigation, with a strong emphasis on Sleep.
Remember Everything You Learn from Podcasts
