Professor Adrian Williams on Everything You Wanted to Know About Sleep

Dr. Adrian Williams is the UK's first Professor of Sleep Medicine. Adrian graduated from University College, London, UK, and after a lectureship at The Cardiothoracic Institute, Brompton Hospital in 1975 took up an appointment at Harvard, Boston, USA, followed by an invitation to University of California (UCLA) in 1977. In 1985 Professor Williams became tenured Professor of Medicine at UCLA and co-Director of the UCLA Sleep Laboratory. In 1994 he returned to London where he developed the Sleep Centre at Guy’s and St. Thomas’ now the most active in the UK, and continues in the full-time practice of Sleep Medicine. In addition, Professor Williams holds the UK’s first Chair in Sleep Medicine at Kings College, London, UK. In the podcast, we talk about:

1. Why we sleep
2. Impact of lack of sleep on decision-making
3. Types of sleep non-REM and REM
4. How much should we sleep?
5. Does catch-up sleep on the weekend help?
6. What triggers sleep
7. Sleep apnea and snoring
8. Sleep and temperature
9. Managing jet lag
10. Melatonin, sleeping pills, caffeine and alcohol
11. Tips for better sleep
12. Books that influenced Adrian: Sleep and Wakefulness (Kleitman, 1939), The Promise Of Sleep (Dement), Genius: Richard Feynman and Modern Physics (Gleick), Surely You're Joking Mr Feynman (Feynman), The Code Breaker (Isaacson), The Double Helix (Watson)