Why do we assume we need eight hours of sleep? Armand DiMele challenges conventional wisdom on insomnia, walking through sleep cycles, the autonomic nervous system, cortisol, and how much rest we actually need. A vivid prose passage capturing the misery of sleeplessness at 3 a.m. anchors the whole conversation.
Every person’s inner life is radically different, and sleep is where that strangeness shows most clearly. Armand DiMele moves from the diversity of human experience into the territory of sexomnia, narcoleptic false memories of childhood assault, and Ambien’s surprising links to hypersexuality and compulsive night eating.
Sleep is rarely discussed in therapy, but your bedtime rituals reveal more about you than almost anything else. Armand DiMele walks through the psychology of sleep habits, shared beds, and disorders from insomnia and hypersomnia to sleepwalking and night terrors, then takes callers through their own sleep secrets.
Surging sleeping pill prescriptions since 2000 point to a population kept chronically anxious by threat messaging and media fear cycles. Armand and co-host Roberta Maria Atti trace how an overstimulated amygdala eventually crashes into depression, why sleep is biologically active rather than passive rest, and what simple remedies can replace Ambien.
