018: The Nocturnal Brain – Dr Guy Leschziner

We talk with Guy Leschziner, world-renowned neurologist, sleep physician and the author of a new book, The Nocturnal Brain: Tales of Nightmares and Neuroscience, a fascinating journey interweaving real life stories with cutting edge sleep science. This episode’s guest:   Dr Guy Leschziner is a consultant neurologist at London Bridge Hospital, the Cromwell Hospital and within the Department of Neurology and Sleep Disorders Centre at Guy's and St Thomas' Hospitals. He is the clinical lead for the Sleep Disorders Centre, Guy's Hospital, one of Europe's largest sleep units and is a Reader in Neurology at the Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London. He recently presented a three part series on BBC Radio 4 and BBC World Service on the brain and sleep - "Mysteries of Sleep" and has also recently filmed "The Secrets of Sleep" for Channel 4 Television. Prefer to read? Download the full episode transcript here Resources: Website: http://www.guyleschziner.com/ Twitter @guy_lesch : https://twitter.com/guy_lesch Book, The Nocturnal Brain: https://amzn.to/2IjtiZ6 BBC Radio 4 Series, Mysteries of Sleep: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09jj9zw Channel 4 TV Series, Secrets of Sleep: https://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-secrets-of-sleep Sleep Disorders Clinic, Guys & St Thomas: https://bit.ly/2KEkCi3 More Episodes: Full Transcript Jeff Mann: 01:36 Good morning. I'm sitting here today with Dr. Guy Leschziner and he's very kindly invited me down to Nuffield House, which is the location of the Sleep Disorders Centre at Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital in London. Thanks very much. And good morning Guy. Guy Leschziner: 01:53 Morning. Jeff Mann: 01:54 Let me give you a brief introduction. Guy is a consultant neurologist at the Sleep Disorders Centre at Guy's and St Thomas'. You're the clinical lead, is that right? So you head up the clinical team here. He's also a reader in neurology at Kings College and you do clinics here in neurology and sleep disorders and epilepsy. You also lecture and you've got lots and lots of research interests in various sleep disorders. If that's not enough, also in the last couple of years, Guy has also been heavily involved in some public education projects. One of them we're here to talk about specifically, which is a new book. It's a great book, called The Nocturnal Brain. We'll talk a little bit more about that later. And also you've recently done a three part series on BBC Radio Four and a TV series, the Secrets of Sleep. Now, how do you manage to fit all that in? Guy Leschziner: 02:49 The answer to that is with great difficulty. I think it's always a bit of a juggling act and certainly it's a case of prioritizing certain projects at any one time. So I think probably everything suffers including personal life, but it's just a case of trying to achieve that right balance. Jeff Mann: 03:09 So it's probably an impossible question, what's a typical day for the clinical lead at Guys? Guy Leschziner: 03:15 The typical day is much like any other consultant really. I do clinics and I do ward rounds on the neurology side. Some management issues, particularly in terms of dealing with a very big service like the Sleep Disorder service here. We've got,