2022-04-18
1 小时 3 分钟The autonomic nervous system is actually an integral part of us as human beings and us as self regulating, self control, self actualizing human beings.
And that's a very new way of thinking.
So when was the last time you felt truly at peace, relaxed physically and emotionally at ease?
How can you downregulate your mind and body and reclaim control over everything from your current state of mind, your sleep, your risk of illness, and even how fast or slow you age?
What if you had so much more control over all of these than you ever imagined, no matter what seemingly breathless circumstance swirls around you?
Well, it turns out we do.
And it's all about understanding our nervous system and how to actively bring ourselves into what my guest today, Professor Sarah Mednick, calls the down state.
Sarah is a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of California, Irvine, and the author of the powerful new book the hidden power of the down state.
She is passionate about understanding how the brain works through her research into sleep and the autonomic nervous system.
In fact, her seven bedroom sleep lab.
Yes, that's right, seven bedrooms works literally around the clock to discover methods for boosting cognition by napping, stimulating the brain with electricity, sound and light, and pharmacology.
And her research findings have been published in leading scientific, scientific journals like Nature, neuroscience, and the proceedings from the National Academy of Science and covered by major media outlets around the world, in no small part because of its importance and practical application in helping us feel better and live healthier, more vibrant lives.
So excited to share this conversation with you.
I'm Jonathan Fields, and this is good life project.
You invested a substantial amount of your time, of your life in the exploration of how the mind, how the body works, how especially the brain, works in the context of sleep and recovery and rest.
And I'm always curious if there was any particular reason that you're drawn to that particular pursuit to sort of like, the range of questions that you have been locked into for quite a substantial amount of time.
Yeah, I've thought about this a lot.
You know, there's this idea that in psychology, people are drawn to the question that they have kind of their own issue around, right?
So people who have anxiety study anxiety or eating disorders, you know, like those kind of things.
And I've been for the, you know, for my whole life as a scientist drawn to this question of, can we get smarter?