Ep. 127 Sleep Hygiene: What Happens to Your Body While You Sleep, with Doc Parsley

We have Doc Parsley (Dr. Kirk Parsley) joining us as our guest for today. He served as the Undersea Medical Officer at Naval Special Warfare Group One from 2009 to 2013. There, he led the development and supervised the group’s first Sports Medicine Rehab center. He is a former SEAL, and he received his medical training in Bethesda, at the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences. He interned in OBGYN at Balboa Naval Hospital and subsequently completed a Navy residency in Hyperbarics and Diving Medicine in 2006. Doctor Parsley is a member of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and served as Naval Special Warfare’s expert on Sleep Medicine. 

His philosophy for wellness is simple: to optimize our health and get the most out of our bodies and minds, we must live more closely to the way we evolved as a species. He believes that many diseases and disorders that we accept as “inevitable” in modern society are unnecessary complications of poor sleeping habits, living in a toxic environment, eating foods we were not designed to digest, and allowing stress to overwhelm us. His passion is to help his patients and clients achieve the highest quality of life possible, and realize their health, performance, and longevity goals.

Sleep is a pain point for so many of us. Doc Parsley is the sleep guru, and in this episode, he talks about his journey from being a Navy SEAL to becoming the sleep guru, the purpose of sleep, sleep hygiene, what happens to you when you sleep, and how sleep impacts your cognitive function. Be sure to stay tuned to find out why a good night’s sleep is foundational to your good health.

IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN:

• How Doc Parsley went from being a Navy SEAL to be the sleep guru.
• The purpose of sleep.
• What happens to your body when you are asleep.
• Why deep sleep is the exact opposite of fight or flight.
• How dreams are a rehearsal mechanism that is fundamental to learning.
• How a lack of sleep affects PTSD.
• What aligning your body’s normal rhythm with the circadian rhythm means.
• The function of cortisol.
• What happens to your brain and the quality of your sleep when you take certain types of sleep medications. 
• The purpose of melatonin.
• How changing your behavior impacts your sleep.
• What sleep hygiene is.
• Doc Parsley’s thoughts on EMF radiation.
• Sleep deprivation and ADD.
• The sleep products that Doc Parsley developed.

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