88: Sleep Science Today with Andrew Colsky and guest Kristin Windsor

88: Sleep Science Today with Andrew Colsky and guest Kristin Windsor

Experience the emotional and inspiring tales of recovery as UK Health Radio’s Sleep Science Today highlights the link between trauma, mental health, and sleepless nights. Host Andrew Kolsky chats with mentor, author and speaker Kristin Windsor, who shares how childhood trauma and years of misdiagnosis fuelled chronic insomnia, bipolar symptoms and severe nervous system dysregulation.

From waking up at age ten with unnamed anxiety to spending fifteen years in and out of therapy, psychiatrists and over forty medications, Kristin explains how traditional approaches focused on symptoms instead of root causes. She breaks down the difference between conscious memories and the "body memories" stored unconsciously, arguing that it’s these hidden imprints that keep the nervous system on high alert at night.

As she puts it, "Sleep is so important… but you have all the power." For anyone who’s been told to just drink warm milk and relax, her story will feel uncomfortably familiar. Kristin talks through how she taught herself neuroscience, used thousands of hours of self-hypnosis, and eventually created her own self-healing practices after finding conventional care "very outdated" and, at times, harmful.

You’ll hear practical strategies: moving your body in the day to burn off stored energy, gentle yoga and breathwork to calm brainwaves, guided meditations, and a mirror-based eye-gazing practice designed to reconnect mind and body. A key theme is emotional needs. Kristin explains how unprocessed feelings of not being safe, seen or loved can surface just as you lie down, making the mind race.

By tending to those needs through daily morning and bedtime rituals, she says the body can finally "breathe deep" and rest. If you’ve ever felt that insomnia, trauma or mental health labels have stolen your sense of control, this conversation asks a simple question: what might change if you believed that you, not your diagnosis, hold the power?