Hi there, it's Matt here and welcome back to the show. Today I am honored to have Dr. Sherry Mar with us.

Dr. Ma is one of the most remarkable, not to mention renowned sleep scientists and she is a true pioneer in the field of sleep,

sports and athletic performance. It is, trust me, no exaggeration that Dr. Mars research at

Stanford University on sleep, sleep extension, sleep restriction, sleep deprivation, circadian alignment. It has

transformed our understanding of how sleep can enhance or impair athletic ability. She's a highly

sought-after advisor to some of the world's most remarkable sporting superstars and professional teams.

I could go on and on. It is my absolute privilege to welcome her onto the show today.

Dr. Marr, thank you for doing this. And hello and welcome to the show.

Great to be here. I'm so thrilled to get to have this conversation with you.

It's going to be fantastic, folks. Strap yourselves in. We are going to dive straight in. But before we get into some of the details of all of the science, perhaps tell me a little bit about your background and for the listeners.

Tell us what exactly inspired you firstly to become a sleep researcher and clinician.

And also then, how did you start to focus on sleep and athletic performance?

Sure. So my story, I will say, dates back over

20 years when I first got into the sleep field. I am from the Bay Area originally and I went to

Stanford for undergraduate. And I had the unique privilege to meet Dr. Dement, considered the father of modern sleep medicine. And I had the unique privilege to meet Dr. DeMint, considered the father of modern

sleep medicine. And he was a fascinating professor who really intrigued me in the field of sleep science.

He started the field, as we know, in his early work in the 1950s, 1960s, and the field has

grown out of that early work. And as a 17-year-old, I was able to be a part of what would then be

my very first sleep study. And we were looking at how to pay back accumulated sleep debt in Stanford undergraduate

students, looking at the impact on mood and reaction time, and really looking at not just over the

course of one night, two nights of extended sleep opportunities, but over multiple weeks. And what happened

was there was a couple of Stanford varsity swimmers in that study. They came into the lab one

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