Sleep — we all need it, but most people aren’t getting enough of it. Ideally, we spend about a third of our lives asleep. When we’re well rested, we feel like we can take on the world. But when we’re not, we find ourselves exhausted, cranky, moody, forgetful … and our overall health takes a hit.

Clearly, sleep is important. The question is — why? What happens when we sleep? What makes it such an important part of our survival? And what’s stopping us from getting our best rest?

On this episode, we look at the anatomy of sleep — why it matters, how we get our best sleep, and what happens when we don’t.

We hear stories about what happened to one physician when long COVID brought her sleeplessness to a crisis level, why one physical therapist says we’re all sleeping wrong, and a look inside our sleeping brains.

Also heard on this week’s episode:

• We talk with Mark Wu, a professor of neurology at Johns Hopkins and sleep physician, who explains the latest science on what happens in our brains when we sleep, and what happens when we don’t.
• We also put together a mixtape with some of our favorite songs about sleep and dreams. You can find it below or listen on Spotify.