Recent headlines and viral clips have reignited conversation about Donald Trump appearing to fall asleep during public events. What’s actually going on? Trump has repeatedly said, in his own words and in interviews, that he doesn’t sleep much and doesn’t believe he needs much sleep. In this podcast we will:

• Provide a brief tour of presidential and political history that shows short sleep has been common among leaders, from Thomas Jefferson to Bill Clinton
• Talk about why sleep loss matters via a clear, science-based explanation of how chronic short sleep affects attention, decision-making, emotional regulation, and cognitive performance
• Differentiate between “functioning” and functioning well, and discuss why people often overestimate how well they perform when sleep deprived
• Pull in the cultural mythology of leaders who “never sleep” and why we tend to confuse exhaustion with strength, productivity, or toughness
• Take a look at how sleep has become politicized, including nicknames, optics, and the public’s fixation on who looks tired and who doesn’t

Produced by: Maeve Winter

Music by: Dr. Abhinav Singh (@sleep_vigilante), all rights reserved

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• Bluesky: @drchriswinter
• The Sleep Solution and The Rested Child

Thanks for listening and sleep well!