REM sleep: 1/6 of normal in patients
Many of Dr. Gominak's patients with sleep and neurological disorders had only 1/6 of the normal amount of REM sleep.
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Vitamin D Expert: The Supplement World Is Giving The WRONG Advice!
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Jul 27, 2026
Where this was said
How Your Brain Secretly Controls Every Stage Of Sleep
At 14:30 · chapter starts 7:55
Dr. Gominak's journey into sleep began with a single patient who refused to accept her drug prescription and demanded a sleep study. The patient, young and thin — nothing like the 'fat older male with a fat tongue' that the medical establishment associated with sleep apnea — was diagnosed, fitted with a CPAP device, and returned two months later with her five-year daily headache completely gone. Gominak was baffled: headaches are a brainstem chemistry problem, and CPAP is a breathing device. She began running sleep studies on every young woman with daily headaches she could find, encountering a consistent pattern: patients waking at 3am, lighter sleep in the second half of the night, and feelings of exhaustion despite a full night in bed. She introduces 'Madeline', a 32-year-old redhead 100 pounds overweight with daily headaches, endometriosis, PCOS, gestational diabetes, burning in her feet, weekly bowel movements, and nine medications — the worst-case extreme. At the other end sits 'Natalie', a triathlete who did everything right, then after her second pregnancy found she could no longer return to sleep, developed postpartum depression and daily headaches. These two women become the episode's running case study.
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