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

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

Breathwork Is Excellent — Just Not for 3 A.M. Wake-Ups

When breathwork and stress-management techniques stop working after midlife, the issue isn’t your practice—it’s how your biology sustains calm through the night. This episode explains why signaling calm and sustaining calm are two different processes, and what happens when hormonal and metabolic support for that signal weakens with age or stress.

Key points:

* After 40, stress-buffering hormones like estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone decline, reducing resilience to late-night cortisol spikes.

* Breathwork activates the vagus nerve, but the strength of that response depends on hormonal balance and metabolic stability.

* Temperature and glucose fluctuations in the second half of the night often trigger wake-ups that relaxation alone can’t resolve.

Listen for:

How hormonal decline, vagal signaling, and metabolic shifts intersect to create the classic 3 A.M. wake-up—and what helps restore continuous sleep.

Read the full article:

The CEO’s Nighttime Peeing Problem — Why “No Water After 7 PM” Fails

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 people optimize sleep onset—earlier bedtime, caffeine changes, darker rooms—yet still wake around 2–3 a.m. and drift until morning.

This short episode explains why the issue isn’t getting to sleep; it’s what happens to your sleep architecture in the second half of the night.

Key points:

Cholinergic–GABAergic imbalance can push premature REM and fragment continuity.

Inadequate daytime adenosine buildup shortens the second half of the night.

Misaligned melatonin offset (often from evening light) destabilizes early-morning sleep.

Listen for:How the first half of the night carries more deep sleep, the second half becomes more REM, and how fragmentation in that progression impairs glymphatic clearing, memory, and cognitive resilience.

Read the full article:

“Why Can’t I Stay Asleep Longer Than 5-6 Hours?”