Body Clock Chronicles

The 90-Minute Lie: What Sleep Cycles Actually Look Like Inside Your Brain

Episode Summary

You've been told to sleep in 90-minute cycles, set smart alarms, and wake up between REM stages — but that advice is built on a surprisingly shaky foundation. This episode tears apart the pop-science version of sleep architecture and replaces it with what the polysomnography data actually shows, including why your cycles drift, compress, and reorganize across the night in ways no alarm app can predict. We also get into what genuinely moves the needle on sleep quality — and it's probably not what your wearable is telling you.