The Autoimmune Wellness Podcast Episode #9: Step 4: In-Depth with Dan Pardi, MS

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Welcome to The Autoimmune Wellness Podcast Season 1! We’ve created this podcast as a free resource to accompany our upcoming book, The Autoimmune Wellness Handbook: A DIY Guide to Living Well with Chronic Illness.

Episode #9: Step 4: In-Depth with Dan Pardi, M.S. is an episode with some truly mind-blowing information about sleep from a well-known sleep researcher in the Ancestral Health community. We’ve been following Dan for a long time and were lucky enough to have him as a guest to chat all things sleep. Dan discusses how he found himself steeped in sleep research, his basic recommendations for good sleep, and then he gets into some fascinating detail on everything from our internal “master clocks” to how sleep hormones directly impact the bacteria in our gut. This episode is for those who want to learn new and very interesting things when it comes to sleep!

If you want to understand more of what Dan talks about in this episode, but in “non-scientist speak,” check out the “How Does Sleep Work?” section in Chapter 4. It offers a simple, but thorough explanation of cycles and biological processes that work to produce sleep.

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Show Notes:

• 0:00 Intro
• 1:53 Introducing Dan
  • Dan’s Bio
  • Dan’s Plan (soon-to-be Human OS)
• 2:45 Dan’s personal experience with sleep disturbance
  • Narcolepsy (an autoimmune disorder)
  • Circadian Rhythm 
• 6:15 Dan’s path into sleep research
  • Dan mentions the term “social jet lag,” which is a syndrome that occurs when our internal clocks and our sleep schedules are not aligned.
• 7:29 Dan describes how he recognized his research could help others
  • Dan uses the term “orphan disorder,” which is a term describing very rare diseases (and sometimes more common, but ignored diseases) that aren’t well researched due to lack of financial incentive for drug development.
• 10:57 The power of going from a bystander to a participant in your health
• 14:03 Why tracking helps improve health outcomes
• 16:15 Dan’s basic recommendations for good sleep
  • Start with an aspiration (“I want to wake refreshed.”)
  • Timing (this is about consistency)
  • Intensity
  • Duration
• 20:50 What is the maximum variation we can shift our sleep schedules with the minimal effects?
  • Dan’s Answer? Three hours.
• 24:51 Sleep consistency vs. other concerns with other areas of sleep and/or social concerns
  • There is a time to say “yes” to special occasions, despite the sleep schedule disruption.
• 27:50 Dan shares an interesting tidbit about the consequences to siesta cultures as they lose the daytime nap in the competitive modern economy, but continue the nighttime socializing.
• 28:35 Light and sleep
  • Dan uses the word, “suprachiasmatic nucleus,” which is our body’s master clock.
  • Loss of sleep eventually effects the immune system, leading to inflammation, and in time can lead to autoimmune disease.
  • We need light to act as an anchor to our circadian rhythm.
  • Melatonin directly impacts our gut health.
  • Blue light exposure 
  • Amber glasses 
• 38:47 Wrapping up with Dan (including some interesting research he shares on drinking champagne . . . we recommend going slow in the AIP community!)
• 40:26 Outro

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The Autoimmune Wellness Podcast is a complimentary resource to our forthcoming book, The Autoimmune Wellness Handbook: A DIY Guide to Living Well with Chronic Illness. Support us in our mission to revolutionize how autoimmune disease is viewed and treated by pre-ordering your copy today!

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Check out the previous episode, Episode #8: Step 4: Rest – Our Stories, and the next episode, Episode #10: Step 5: Breathe – Our Stories. For the full podcast archive, click here.