Everyone's chasing 8 hours and a high sleep score — but the research suggests we've been optimizing for the wrong metric entirely. This episode dismantles the oversimplified sleep cycle narrative, digs into what slow-wave and REM sleep actually do at a cellular and neurological level, and explains why two people can log identical hours and wake up worlds apart. No sleep hygiene checklists — just the science of what restoration actually looks like, and the surprisingly mundane levers that move it.