You might just be a night owl and not a lazy person. You might be waking up at 3am because of what you drank or ate, not because anything is wrong with you.

Knowing the difference changes everything.

Sleep chronotype is real, it's neurological, and most people have been fighting theirs their whole lives without knowing it. Night owls get a bad reputation for something that's written into their nervous systems. Morning larks get praised for the same reason. Neither one chose it, and understanding which one you are, and how that shifts across your lifetime, is some of the most useful self-knowledge you can have.

Caffeine, alcohol, and THC all interfere with sleep in ways most people don't fully understand. Caffeine doesn't make you less tired. It makes you unable to tell how tired you are. Alcohol helps you fall asleep and then reliably wakes you up in the early morning hours once your liver has finished metabolizing it. THC is its own complicated story, and it's not the unqualified good a lot of people want it to be.

The episode also covers snoring, nightmares, shift work, the real story on sleep medications, and why the thing people call a sleep divorce might actually be one of the better decisions a couple can make for their relationship.

Send your questions to richthoughtspoorjokes@gmail.com and subscribe for the final episode of the sleep series next week.

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