Patrick Holford: Simple Wisdom for a Healthy Life The Science of Sleep and How to Optimise It
8 snips
Nov 7, 2025 Dr Greg Potter, a sleep coach and researcher at the London Psychiatry Clinic, focuses on sleep, circadian rhythms, nutrition and metabolism. He explains sleep’s housekeeping role and how REM supports emotional processing and creativity. Practical tips cover extending sleep opportunity, CBT techniques, breathing exercises for HRV, and sensible supplement and melatonin use.
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
Sleep Prepares You For Wakefulness
- Sleep optimises the body for wakefulness by performing housekeeping and restorative tasks across systems.
- It clears brain waste, repairs tissues, replenishes energy and integrates memories for creativity and emotion regulation.
Glymphatic Cleaning During Sleep
- The brain uses a glymphatic system to clear metabolic waste during sleep.
- Glial cells drive this cleaning which helps remove intercellular waste accumulated during wakefulness.
Sleep Is Use-Dependent And Local
- Sleep is use-dependent and local brain regions that are taxed show sleep-like behaviour.
- Heterogeneous sleep (different regions sleeping differently) explains why mental and physical work deepen sleep.
