Everyone tells you to get more sleep. Nobody tells you what to do when your nervous system treats sleep like a threat.
In this episode of More, Toby and Rudy get honest about something that touches almost every person living with trauma, CPTSD, addiction or neurodivergence. And something that almost never gets a proper conversation. Not the tired version of sleep advice you've heard a hundred times. The real version. What it actually feels like when rest itself becomes the thing you can't have.
They dig into the science of why trauma hijacks sleep, what years of sleep debt genuinely does to your brain and your mental state, drawing on the research of neuroscientist Matthew Walker PhD and his landmark work Why We Sleep. And they get into why standard sleep hygiene advice completely misses the point for nervous systems shaped by trauma.
This is a raw, unfiltered conversation from two men with lived experience of Big T trauma, complex PTSD, addiction recovery, ADHD and chronic pain. No performance. No polish. Just honest talk about the nights, the nightmares, and what has slowly started to help.
What we get into:
The reason up to 90% of people with CPTSD experience significant sleep problems, and why it's a core symptom not a side effect. What Matthew Walker's research shows about sleep debt and what chronic deprivation actually does to your brain, your emotions and your decision making. Why less than 1% of people can genuinely function on six hours. How trauma nightmares work, why they keep replaying, and what the brain is trying to do when it drags you back there night after night. The ADHD sleep crisis, racing minds, delayed body clocks and why 67% of people with ADHD struggle to sleep. The chronic pain and sleep loop, how each one makes the other worse, and how substances became the answer for years until they stopped working. And what actually helps, including EMDR, somatic work, Imagery Rehearsal Therapy, breathwork and an honest conversation about sleep medication in recovery.
If you've ever dreaded going to bed, woken up more exhausted than when you closed your eyes, or spent years running on empty, this one is for you.
More is hosted by Toby Lerone and Rudy Youngblood, two men with lived experience of addiction, trauma, mental health and neurodiversity. Recorded in a single take. Unedited. Unfiltered.
LINKS:-
https://youtu.be/30VMIEmA114 - 54321 technique
https://youtu.be/zq07gbFLCAs - box breathing in 5’s
https://youtu.be/k_2feptc-Bg - Matthew walker PHD on another podcast
source:%20The%20Mind%20Company https://share.google/QYY4TBrzhlnnSkjuA - Balance, guided meditation app
https://www.headspace.com/app - bedtime story’s for adults
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lord_of_the_Rings_(film_series) - lord of the rings-watch it Rudy you weirdo haha
Keywords and Tags:
CPTSD, Complex PTSD, Trauma and Sleep, Sleep Deprivation, Mental Health, PTSD Nightmares, Trauma Recovery, Matthew Walker, Why We Sleep, Sleep Debt, ADHD and Sleep, Neurodivergent, Insomnia, Chronic Pain, Addiction Recovery, Men's Mental Health, Nervous System Regulation, Hypervigilance, Somatic Healing, EMDR, Sleep Disorders, Trauma Podcast, Lived Experience, Recovery Podcast, Sleep and Anxiety, Sleep and Depression, REM Sleep, Polyvagal Theory, More Podcast
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1 hr and 19 mins