After her son died of SIDS, Dr Carmel Harrington left her job as a lawyer to devote her career to finding answers.

“You blame yourself. You must have missed something. How can such a catastrophic event occur without any sign or symptom?”

Her groundbreaking research into SIDS opened up another mission: to wake society up to the critical importance of sleep.

Carmel is the managing director of Sleep for Health. High-flying CEOs and even the Australian military are now turning to her expertise in a bid to master the art of sleep.

The stakes are high. In our wired world shut-eye often proves elusive – and that can have deadly consequences.

Sleep loss is linked to heart disease, cancer, dementia and depression, and it also affects your ability to think and learn.

Carmel explains how to sleep better, the incredible things that happen when you sleep (Brain washing! Memory encoding!), and what to do about technology in the bedroom.

She’ll also teach you how to spot subtle signs of sleep deprivation.

“One of the big things I like to talk about is, have you lost joy? So often with A-type personalities, we are very good at meeting the challenges of the day - but how good are you at enjoying the joy in your life?”

Carmel’s latest book is The complete guide to a good night's sleep.

For the transcript and notes for this episode, visit the website.

+++

The Solutionists is podcast from the University of Sydney, produced by Deadset Studios.

Keep up to date with The Solutionists by following @sydney_uni on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

This episode was produced by Monique Ross. Sound design by Jeremy Wilmot. The executive producer is Rachel Fountain. Executive editors are Jen Peterson-Ward, Kellie Riordan and Mark Scott.

This podcast was recorded on the land of the Gadigal people of the Eora nation. For thousands of years, across innumerable generations, knowledge has been taught, shared and exchanged here. We pay respect to elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.