W. Christopher Winter

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W. Christopher Winter
Born (1972-12-27) December 27, 1972 (age 51)
Roanoke, Virginia, United States
Education University of Virginia
Emory University School of Medicine
University of North Carolina School of Medicine
Scientific career
InstitutionsCharlottesville Neurology and Sleep Medicine
University of Virginia Department of Neurology
Website www.wchriswinter.com

William Christopher Winter (born December 27, 1972) is an American sleep researcher, neurologist, author, and authority regarding sleep and athletic performance. [1] A 2010 article in Trail Runner magazine described Winter as "the leading expert in the field of sleep disruption, in athletes and issues related to travel." [2] He is credited with coining the term circadian advantage after studying the effects of travel on Major League Baseball teams. [3] He studied the effect of sleep timing preference on Major League Baseball pitcher performance, [4] and hitting performance. [5] In 2013, his research linked the sleepiness of Major League Baseball player to a reduced career longevity. [6] [7] This work led to research into sleepiness as a predictor of NFL Draft value in which the sleep of 560 Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) football players and their eventual draft success was studied. [8]

Contents

Career

To date, he has advised numerous professional athletic organizations, [9] most notably the San Francisco Giants who publicly commented on his role with their club in 2012 [10] and 2014. [11] It has been documented that he has also worked with the Cleveland Guardians, [12] Oklahoma City Thunder, New York Rangers [13] and the Los Angeles Dodgers [14] [15] with this latter reference referring to Winter's work with athletic sleep to be the "Best Secret Weapon [in Sports]." More recently, Winter's work was linked to the Philadelphia Phillies in the 2022 World Series. [16] [17] Winter, described as "sleep whisperer" [18] is referenced repeatedly by Arianna Huffington in her 2016 book The Sleep Revolution: Transforming Your Life, One Night at a Time. [19]

Winter's debut book, The Sleep Solution: Why Your Sleep is Broken and How to Fix It , was released by Penguin Random House on April 4, 2017. [20] Winter announced the upcoming publication of his second book, The Rested Child: Why Your Tired, Wired, or Irritable Child May Have a Sleep Disorder--and How to Help. The book was released by Penguin Random House August 17, 2021. Winter also hosts a podcast entitled Sleep Unplugged.

The Sleep Solution

The Sleep Solution: Why Your Sleep Is Broken and How To Fix It
AuthorW. Christopher Winter, MD
LanguageEnglish
Genre Science book
Published4 April 2017, Penguin Random House
Pages262
ISBN 978-0-399-58360-5

The Sleep Solution: Why Your Sleep Is Broken and How To Fix It is a science book about sleep by neurologist W. Christopher Winter, who specializes in sleep and performance.

The book was released on April 4, 2017, to favorable reviews. A review in Refinery 29 stated, "Dr. Winter's first book, The Sleep Solution: Why Your Sleep Is Broken And How To Fix It, is already being hailed as a "solution" to insomnia. It's a no-nonsense, colloquial approach to sleep difficulties that aims to change the narrative around sleep in order to make it more manageable." [21] Kirkus Reviews wrote, "The rare book that may help sufferers of poor sleep improve their quality of rest simply by elucidating the context of good sleep and offering the right techniques to achieve it." [22] Publishers Weekly wrote, "As a neurologist specializing in sleep issues, Winter certainly has good credentials to back up his promise to readers that they’ll finish his book with a newfound sense of what it means to have healthy sleep." [23] In November 2018, NY Magazine named the book one of the top 7 books for understanding sleep and the best book for insomnia. [24] The book received favorable international press both in Ireland [25] and the Netherlands [26]

Time published an excerpt from the book on April 26, 2017. [27]

Selected publications

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sleep</span> Naturally recurring resting state of mind and body

Sleep is a state of reduced mental and physical activity in which consciousness is altered and certain sensory activity is inhibited. During sleep, there is a marked decrease in muscle activity and interactions with the surrounding environment. While sleep differs from wakefulness in terms of the ability to react to stimuli, it still involves active brain patterns, making it more reactive than a coma or disorders of consciousness.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jet lag</span> Physiological condition caused by travel across time zones

Jet lag is a temporary physiological condition that occurs when a person's circadian rhythm is out of sync with the time zone they are in, and is a typical result from travelling rapidly across multiple time zones. For example, someone travelling from New York to London, i.e. from west to east, feels as if the time were five hours earlier than local time, and someone travelling from London to New York, i.e. from east to west, feels as if the time were five hours later than local time. The phase shift when travelling from east to west is referred to as phase-delay of the circadian cycle, whereas going west to east is phase-advance of the cycle. Most travellers find that it is harder to adjust time zones when travelling east. Jet lag was previously classified as a circadian rhythm sleep disorder.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Circadian rhythm</span> Natural internal process that regulates the sleep-wake cycle

A circadian rhythm, or circadian cycle, is a natural oscillation that repeats roughly every 24 hours. Circadian rhythms can refer to any process that originates within an organism and responds to the environment. Circadian rhythms are regulated by a circadian clock whose primary function is to rhythmically co-ordinate biological processes so they occur at the correct time to maximize the fitness of an individual. Circadian rhythms have been widely observed in animals, plants, fungi and cyanobacteria and there is evidence that they evolved independently in each of these kingdoms of life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arianna Huffington</span> Greek-American author and columnist (born 1950)

Arianna Stassinopoulos Huffington is a Greek American author, syndicated columnist and businesswoman. She is a co-founder of The Huffington Post, the founder and CEO of Thrive Global, and the author of fifteen books. She has been named to Time magazine's list of the world's 100 most influential people and the Forbes Most Powerful Women list.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Suprachiasmatic nucleus</span> Part of the brains hypothalamus

The suprachiasmatic nucleus or nuclei (SCN) is a small region of the brain in the hypothalamus, situated directly above the optic chiasm. It is responsible for regulating sleep cycles in animals. Reception of light inputs from photosensitive retinal ganglion cells allow it to coordinate the subordinate cellular clocks of the body and entrain to the environment. The neuronal and hormonal activities it generates regulate many different body functions in an approximately 24-hour cycle.

Somnolence is a state of strong desire for sleep, or sleeping for unusually long periods. It has distinct meanings and causes. It can refer to the usual state preceding falling asleep, the condition of being in a drowsy state due to circadian rhythm disorders, or a symptom of other health problems. It can be accompanied by lethargy, weakness and lack of mental agility.

Shift work is an employment practice designed to keep a service or production line operational at all times. The practice typically sees the day divided into shifts, set periods of time during which different groups of workers perform their duties. The term "shift work" includes both long-term night shifts and work schedules in which employees change or rotate shifts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Biological effects of high-energy visible light</span> Blue-light toxicity

High-energy visible light is short-wave light in the violet/blue band from 400 to 450 nm in the visible spectrum, which has a number of purported negative biological effects, namely on circadian rhythm and retinal health, which can lead to age-related macular degeneration. Increasingly, blue blocking filters are being designed into glasses to avoid blue light's purported negative effects. However, there is no good evidence that filtering blue light with spectacles has any effect on eye health, eye strain, sleep quality or vision quality.

Shift work sleep disorder (SWSD) is a circadian rhythm sleep disorder characterized by insomnia, excessive sleepiness, or both affecting people whose work hours overlap with the typical sleep period. Insomnia can be the difficulty to fall asleep or to wake up before the individual has slept enough. About 20% of the working population participates in shift work. SWSD commonly goes undiagnosed, and it is estimated that 10–40% of shift workers have SWSD. The excessive sleepiness appears when the individual has to be productive, awake and alert. Both symptoms are predominant in SWSD. There are numerous shift work schedules, and they may be permanent, intermittent, or rotating; consequently, the manifestations of SWSD are quite variable. Most people with different schedules than the ordinary one might have these symptoms but the difference is that SWSD is continual, long-term, and starts to interfere with the individual's life.

In the study of chronobiology, entrainment refers to the synchronization of a biological clock to an environmental cycle. An example is the interaction between circadian rhythms and environmental cues, such as light and temperature. Entrainment helps organisms adapt their bodily processes with the timing of a changing environment. For example, entrainment is manifested during travel between time zones, hence why humans experience jet lag.

A chronotype is the behavioral manifestation of underlying circadian rhythm's myriad of physical processes. A person's chronotype is the propensity for the individual to sleep at a particular time during a 24-hour period. Eveningness and morningness are the two extremes with most individuals having some flexibility in the timing of their sleep period. However, across development there are changes in the propensity of the sleep period with pre-pubescent children preferring an advanced sleep period, adolescents preferring a delayed sleep period and many elderly preferring an advanced sleep period.

A circadian advantage is an advantage gained when an organism's biological cycles are in tune with its surroundings. It is not a well studied phenomenon, but it is known to occur in certain types of cyanobacteria, whose endogenous cycles, or circadian rhythm, "resonates" or aligns with their environment. It is known to occur in plants also, suggesting that any organism which is able to attune its natural growth cycles with its environment will have a competitive advantage over those that do not. Circadian advantage may also refer to sporting teams gaining an advantage by acclimatizing to the time zone where a match is played.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sleep deprivation</span> Condition of not having enough sleep

Sleep deprivation, also known as sleep insufficiency or sleeplessness, is the condition of not having adequate duration and/or quality of sleep to support decent alertness, performance, and health. It can be either chronic or acute and may vary widely in severity. All known animals sleep or exhibit some form of sleep behavior, and the importance of sleep is self-evident for humans, as nearly a third of a person's life is spent sleeping. Sleep deprivation is common as it affects about 1/3 of the population.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Russell Foster</span>

Russell Grant Foster, CBE, FRS FMedSci is a British professor of circadian neuroscience, the Director of the Nuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology and the Head of the Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute (SCNi). He is also a Nicholas Kurti Senior Fellow at Brasenose College at the University of Oxford. Foster and his group are credited with key contributions to the discovery of the non-rod, non-cone, photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (pRGCs) in the mammalian retina which provide input to the circadian rhythm system. He has written and co-authored over a hundred scientific publications.

Derk-Jan Dijk is a researcher of sleep and circadian rhythms. As at 2024 he is a Distinguished Professor at the University of Surrey and the director of its Sleep Research Centre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sleep in space</span> Sleep in an unusual place

Sleeping in space is part of space medicine and mission planning, with impacts on the health, capabilities and morale of astronauts.

Night Shift is a built in software feature of iOS and macOS. It was introduced in 2016-2017 into iOS in iOS 9.3 and into macOS in macOS Sierra 10.12.4. The feature changes the color temperature of the display towards the warmer part of the color spectrum that reduces some of the blue light from the screen. Apple claims that the feature may help users have a better night's sleep by filtering blue wavelengths from the display, which suppress melatonin biosynthesis. The feature is similar to the functionality f.lux provides.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sleep deprivation in higher education</span> Health issue in students

Sleep deprivation – the condition of not having enough sleep – is a common health issue for students in higher education. This issue has several underlying and negative consequences, but there are a few helpful improvements that students can make to reduce its frequency and severity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charmane Eastman</span> American academic research scientist in chronobiology

Charmane Eastman is an American academic research scientist whose career has focused on studying circadian rhythms and their relationships to sleep, jet lag, and shift work. She has also studied winter depression, more properly known as seasonal affective disorder (SAD). Of special focus are the effects of bright light and melatonin on circadian rhythms.

In chronobiology, photoentrainment refers to the process by which an organism's biological clock, or circadian rhythm, synchronizes to daily cycles of light and dark in the environment. The mechanisms of photoentrainment differ from organism to organism. Photoentrainment plays a major role in maintaining proper timing of physiological processes and coordinating behavior within the natural environment. Studying organisms’ different photoentrainment mechanisms sheds light on how organisms may adapt to anthropogenic changes to the environment.

References

  1. ↑ Matt McCarthy (13 April 2015). "Science of nap time: Seeking an edge in the most basic of all human needs". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved 7 May 2016.
  2. ↑ Mackenzie Lobby (1 August 2010). "Get In Rhythm". Trail Runner. Retrieved 9 May 2016.
  3. ↑ "Major League Baseball Teams With Greater Circadian Advantage Are More Likely To Succeed". Science Daily. 10 June 2008. Retrieved 6 May 2016.
  4. ↑ "Sleep preference can predict performance of Major League Baseball pitchers". Science Daily. 11 June 2010. Retrieved 7 May 2016.
  5. ↑ Erik Malinowski (13 June 2011). "Do Athletes Play Better at Night? Better Sleep on It". Details. Retrieved 7 May 2016.
  6. ↑ "Fatigue and sleep linked to Major League Baseball performance and career longevity". Science Daily. 31 May 2013. Retrieved 9 May 2016.
  7. ↑ "Sleep Linked With MLB Career Longevity". Huffington Post. 4 June 2013. Retrieved 9 May 2016.
  8. ↑ Colby Stong (November 2012). "Can Quality of Sleep Help Predict Productivity of NFL Draft Picks?". Neurology Reviews. Retrieved 9 May 2016.
  9. ↑ Joseph Hooper (1 May 2016). "The Man Who Helps Pro Athletes Fall Asleep". Men's Journal. Retrieved 6 May 2016.
  10. ↑ Jason Koebler (15 June 2012). "The New Moneyball? It's Major League Sleep". U.S. News & World Report. Retrieved 6 May 2016.
  11. ↑ "Sweet Dreams: Sleep Expert Helps Giants in October". Associated Press. 25 October 2014. Retrieved 6 May 2016.
  12. ↑ Zack Meisel (12 March 2018). "No sleep till Cleveland: Indians stressing shut-eye strategies". The Athletic. Retrieved 16 March 2024.
  13. ↑ Jamie Lisanti (22 October 2014). "How doctors and dietitians help NBA players fight jet lag with nutrition". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved 17 December 2017.
  14. ↑ Stephanie Apstein (15 March 2024). "Shohei Ohtani Strives to Be the Absolute Best … Even at Getting Some Shuteye". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved 16 March 2024.
  15. ↑ Jamie Lisanti (20 November 2017). "Best Secret Weapon: Sweet Dreams". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved 7 May 2016.
  16. ↑ Wendy Ruderman (28 October 2022). "Will the Phillies win the World Series? Depends, in part, on whether players get good sleep". Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved 16 November 2022.
  17. ↑ Scott Miller (22 October 2022). "Sleep Is a Science, but the Phillies Went With Their Gut". New York Times. Retrieved 16 March 2024.
  18. ↑ Arianna Huffington (26 February 2015). "My Q and A With W. Chris Winter, Sleep Whisperer to Some of the World's Top Athletes". Huffington Post. Retrieved 9 May 2016.
  19. ↑ Arianna Huffington (17 March 2016). "How to Fight Jet Lag: Exclusive Excerpt From Arianna Huffington's 'The Sleep Revolution'". Marriott Traveler. Retrieved 7 May 2016.
  20. ↑ W. Christopher Winter (4 April 2017). "The Sleep Solution". Penguin Random House Group. Retrieved 19 September 2016.
  21. ↑ Commons, Jess (2017-07-13). "Meet The Man Who Reckons He Can Fix Your Sleep Forever" . Retrieved 2017-12-18.
  22. ↑ "The Sleep Solution: Why Your Sleep Is Broken and How To Fix It by W. Christopher Winter, MD review". Kirkus Reviews. 2017-02-13. Retrieved 2017-12-18.
  23. ↑ "The Sleep Solution: Why Your Sleep Is Broken and How To Fix It by W. Christopher Winter, MD review". Publishers Weekly. 2017-03-01. Retrieved 2017-12-18.
  24. ↑ Schneider, Katy (2018-11-17). "The 7 Best Books To Understand Sleep". New York Magazine. Retrieved 2018-11-27.
  25. ↑ Thompson, Sylvia (2017-07-18). "Trouble sleeping? You need to read this before bed". The Irish Times. Retrieved 2017-12-18.
  26. ↑ Waterval, Dirk (2017-04-08). "Een slechte nacht is heus geen ramp". Trouw. Retrieved 2017-12-18.
  27. ↑ "The Number-One Thing You Can Do for Better Sleep". Time . 2017-04-26. Retrieved 2017-12-18.


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