Resources:

Sleep OS Hormones → https://thelongevityvault.com/sleep-os/hormones/

Subscribe for more evidence-based guides on sleep in midlife and beyond → https://thelongevityvault.substack.com

How Do You Fall Back Asleep? — The Question That Reframed Everything I Knew About Sleep

Most adults think falling back asleep is something you do.This short episode explains why it’s actually something your body regains the capacity for—and what determines whether that happens automatically or not.

You’ll hear how parasympathetic recovery, baseline arousal, and inflammatory signaling interact to decide if you drift effortlessly back into sleep or stay mentally alert for hours.I’ll also break down why “trying” to fall asleep activates the very circuits that keep you awake, and how to rebuild the biological readiness that makes re-initiation effortless.

Key points:

Falling back asleep depends on your parasympathetic capacity, not bedtime technique.

Effort and frustration activate wake neurochemistry (glutamate and dopamine pathways).

Inflammatory and temperature shifts after 3 a.m. make the system especially fragile.

Daytime stress-recovery cycles and circadian alignment determine nighttime resilience.

Sleep re-entry is a physiological state you build ahead of time —not a skill you deploy at 3 a.m.

Listen for:

How baseline autonomic flexibility, inflammation, and thermal timing combine to govern whether you return to deep sleep or remain in cortical arousal —and why the solution lies in daytime state training rather than nighttime techniques.

Read the full article: How Do You Fall Back Asleep? The Question That Made Me Rethink Everything About Sleep