NOVEMBER 17 @ 11 AM EST

Author: Sara Mednick

The Power of the Downstate: Recharge Your Life Using Your Body’s Own Restora­tive Systems

Moderator: Karen Dobkins

NONFICTION

If you’re like most peo­ple, chances are you’re feel­ing the dai­ly grind of go-go-go, do-do do. The good news is that you have an intrin­sic toolk­it you can apply to rest and reju­ve­nate all your key body sys­tems. It’s called the Down­state, and Dr. Sara Med­nick is here to tell you how to access it — and how it can tru­ly change your life. Dr. Med­nick intro­duces the ​“Down­state” — the key to rest and reju­ve­na­tion on a cel­lu­lar lev­el — and how we can all learn to max­i­mize it for ener­gy, bal­ance, and vital­i­ty. The Down­state is an inte­gral part of all the phys­i­o­log­i­cal, cog­ni­tive, and emo­tion­al process­es that allow us to stay as strong as pos­si­ble – yet it is open ignored by our stress­ful, non­stop lives. In her book, The Pow­er of the Down­state, Dr. Med­nick shares that we can han­dle any rea­son­able amount of stress, as long as we replen­ish our­selves on a dai­ly basis by engag­ing in activ­i­ties that make us feel rest­ed, full of ener­gy, and loved. That’s the Pow­er of the Down­state. And by work­ing your Down­state to its max­i­mum you can han­dle any­thing that comes your way.

Dr. Sara C. Med­nick is Pro­fes­sor of Psy­chol­o­gy at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­i­for­nia, Irvine, where she directs the Sleep and Cog­ni­tion (SaC) lab. Her first book, Take a Nap! Change Your Life put forth the sci­en­tif­ic basis for nap­ping to improve pro­duc­tiv­i­ty, cog­ni­tion, mood, and health. A world-renowned sci­en­tist, Dr. Mednick’s lab inves­ti­gates the mind and body mech­a­nisms that sup­port per­for­mance improve­ment. Her work has been con­tin­u­ous­ly fed­er­al­ly fund­ed with grants from the Nation­al Insti­tute of Health, Nation­al Sci­ence Foun­da­tion, Depart­ment of Defense Office of Naval Research, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), a Unit­ed States Depart­ment of Defense agency. She has been inter­viewed by every major mag­a­zine and news­pa­per, includ­ing the New York Times, New York­er, Los Ange­les Times, Wash­ing­ton Post, and BBC, and has been fea­tured on Good Morn­ing Amer­i­ca, among oth­ers. She resides in San Diego, and with her wife in the Hud­son Valley.