Live Well Be Well with Sarah Ann Macklin | Health, Lifestyle, Nutrition

Lucid dreaming teacher Charlie Morley joins me to talk about the roughly two hours a night, around a twelfth of our lives, that we spend dreaming.

Charlie has spent close to 20 years teaching people how to lucid dream, lived in a Buddhist temple for seven years, and received a Winston Churchill Fellowship to research PTSD treatment in military veterans. The turning point came at 17, when an overdose and a near-death experience left him with four months of nightmares that ended in a single lucid dream.

What we explore together:

•Why nightmares keep coming back, and why waking yourself up from one is "like a therapy session cut short"

•How to remember your dreams, even if you think you never dream

•What actually changes in the brain the moment you realise you're dreaming

•Charlie's own pilot study, where over 85% of people with PTSD no longer met the diagnostic threshold after a six-day lucid dreaming workshop, and why the lucid dream itself can't be isolated as the cause

•Is lucid dreaming safe, who shouldn't try it, and why you shouldn't face severe trauma alone

•The four foundations to start tonight: dream planning, dream recall, the dream diary and dream signs

•Slow breathing, yoga nidra, and why good sleep starts in the daytime

Love, Sarah Ann 💛

My book 'Healthy Shouldn't Be This Hard': https://www.amazon.co.uk/Healthy-Shouldnt-Be-This-Hard-ebook/dp/B0G1DHNRV5

Let's be friends!

📷 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarahannmacklin/

📹 Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@livewellbewellsarah

🐦 Twitter: https://x.com/SarahAnnMacklin

📱 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@livewellbewellpodcast

Charlie Morley:

🌐 Website and books: https://charliemorley.com

📷 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/charlie_morley_lucid_dreaming/

📹 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CharlieMorley

Chapters

00:00 Trailer
01:18 Introduction: we spend a twelfth of our lives dreaming
02:13 REM sleep isn't rest: you burn calories when you dream
03:53 What is lucid dreaming?
04:28 Why nightmares keep coming back: a therapy session cut short
05:40 "I never remember my dreams": how to start remembering
08:01 Vivid dreams, waking up anxious and why you should write nightmares down
10:19 What is a nightmare? Threat simulation and dreams as fire drills
13:05 The Sorbonne study: anxiety dreams before exams
14:37 Interpreting a dream from inside it: the black dog and the inner child
16:41 Inside the dreaming brain: what switches on when you become lucid
19:50 Practising skills in a lucid dream
20:54 Is lucid dreaming safe? Why you don't actually control the dream
23:16 The iceberg of the mind: how deep a lucid dream can go
27:22 Asking your dreams the big questions
28:21 "Is this woo woo?": spiritual traditions and the science
31:03 100K on YouTube and the APA special issue on lucid dreaming
32:03 Charlie's books and meeting your shadow
33:32 How it started: a dream mask advert before his 12th birthday
36:47 The overdose and near-death experience at 17
38:56 Agoraphobia, panic attacks and recurring nightmares
40:40 The lucid dream that ended four months of nightmares
43:17 Does it work for everyone? The PTSD study
49:30 85% below the PTSD threshold in the pilot, and the four-week follow-up
50:38 What the study can't prove
51:22 Why you shouldn't face severe trauma alone
53:21 Nightmares, sleep paralysis and jet lag can help you get lucid
54:41 Don't force it: be like a kid before Christmas
56:07 Technique 1: dream planning
57:05 Technique 2: dream recall
58:29 Why you forget your dream the moment you wake up
59:40 Technique 3: the dream diary
1:02:41 Technique 4: dream signs
1:04:45 Breathing and sleep: why slow breathing matters
1:07:12 Yoga nidra and charging your parasympathetic battery
1:09:15 Your dreams as a daily check-in on your mind
1:10:59 Lucid dreaming as a psychedelic experience you have in bed

This week’s Live Well Be Well Moment is with Jordan Haworth, registered dietitian and gut health specialist.

If you saw Jordan’s psyllium jelly go viral and wondered what the fuss was about, he explains exactly how it affects your cholesterol, blood sugar and digestion, and why most people aren’t taking enough.

My book, Healthy Shouldn’t Be This Hard: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Healthy-Shouldnt-Be-This-Hard-ebook/dp/B0G1DHNRV5

📖 If this resonates, you can join the thousands who read The Compassionate Cure each week:
https://sarahmacklin.substack.com/

Let’s be friends!
📷 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarahannmacklin/
📹 Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@livewellbewellsarah
🐦 Twitter: https://x.com/SarahAnnMacklin
📱 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@livewellbewellpodcast
💌 Newsletter: https://sarahmacklin.substack.com/

This week’s Live Well Be Well Moment is with Nir Eyal, million-copy bestselling author of Hooked, Indistractable and Beyond Belief.

My book, Healthy Shouldn’t Be This Hard:https://www.amazon.co.uk/Healthy-Shouldnt-Be-This-Hard-ebook/dp/B0G1DHNRV5

📖 If this resonates, join the thousands of readers who receive The Compassionate Cure each week:
https://sarahmacklin.substack.com/

Let’s be friends!
📷 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarahannmacklin/
📹 Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@livewellbewellsarah
🐦 Twitter: https://x.com/SarahAnnMacklin
📱 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@livewellbewellpodcast
💌 Newsletter: https://sarahmacklin.substack.com/

Louise O'Neill, award-winning author, joins me to talk about A Bigger Life, her memoir of the devastating breakup she went through, and the year that followed: a dating odyssey from Dublin to Paris, London, New York and Rome, with a different date almost every night.

What we explore together:

•Why rejection cuts so deep, and the belief so many of us carry: "I need to improve myself because I'm not lovable enough"

•The myth that there are no good men left, and how the algorithm feeds scarcity after a breakup

•Her worst dates, from a catfish in France to a frightening walk in Central Park

•Why "do I like them?" is a better question than "do they like me?"

•Falling back in love, and how a relationship can show you where you still need to heal

Love, Sarah Ann 💛

My book 'Healthy Shouldn't Be This Hard': https://www.amazon.co.uk/Healthy-Shouldnt-Be-This-Hard-ebook/dp/B0G1DHNRV5

This episode is sponsored by:
POLSEN HEALTH: The compassionate health tracker. Connecting body and mind with unique stress recovery insights so you can live fully today.
👉 15% off with code LWBW15 at https://polsen.health/

Let's be friends!
📷 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarahannmacklin/
📹 Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@livewellbewellsarah
🐦 Twitter: https://x.com/SarahAnnMacklin
📱 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@livewellbewellpodcast

Louise O'Neill:
📚 A Bigger Life: https://lnk.to/ABiggerLife
📷 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oneilllou/

Chapters
00:00 Trailer
01:20 Introduction: A Bigger Life, Eat Pray Love for the Hinge era
01:46 The breakup that came just before 38
03:00 A year of intensive healing: ayahuasca, a shaman and a Catholic priest
03:57 "I need to improve myself because I'm not lovable enough"
05:12 Why rejection brings up feelings of worthlessness
08:06 "If you want a bigger life, you have to take bigger risks"
08:56 Rejection exposure therapy: the more dates, the braver she felt
11:48 What a bigger life means to her now
12:36 "I was sorry that I hadn't left earlier"
14:05 Sponsor break: Polsen Health
15:52 Walking down the aisle without enough self-trust
16:40 The greatest betrayal: not trusting yourself
18:02 "There are no good men left": the dating cesspit myth
19:02 How the algorithm feeds scarcity after a breakup
20:42 The worst date: catfished in France
22:48 The Central Park date that turned frightening
24:02 Seeing someone again, and how to follow up
25:12 Getting ghosted
29:58 Why modern dating feels so hard: we've all been hurt
32:43 "Do I like them?" instead of "Do they like me?"
35:20 "Do not rush": eggs, engagement and the 39th birthday deadline
38:35 Why the date she was least excited about was the best
40:46 Hinge height filters and the six-foot problem
42:13 Casting the net wider: Sarah's house search
45:25 Uncertainty, ambiguity and why risk is liberating
46:42 Staying curious and the fear of ageing
49:04 "Not just a memoir, a manifesto"
51:06 A kiss under the Eiffel Tower and the parallel life
55:46 Turning 41 and the pressure of a new decade
57:46 Tools for constant worry: presence, nature and her dad
59:34 Panic attacks, beta blockers and a cracked tooth
1:02:41 Throwing away the script
1:04:32 Freedom and feeling alive
1:05:34 Falling back in love: the LA fires and meeting on Hinge
1:07:29 "I'm a really good first date": what love showed her still needed healing
1:11:26 Hyper-independence and losing her uncle at 14
1:12:54 "When I was supposed to have lost the love of my life, I had never felt so loved"
1:13:58 What's next: a new novel, West Cork, London and New York
1:16:25 Aliveness, women's health and ageing
1:19:03 The myth that women become less valuable as they age
1:20:06 Male fertility and the clock men don't talk about
1:21:22 Egg freezing and choosing motherhood on your own terms
1:23:04 The child-free friend who shaped her childhood
1:24:16 Choosing to adopt at 38
1:26:45 What does Live Well Be Well mean to you?
1:27:38 Holding on to hope

This week’s Live Well Be Well Moment is with Matt Haig, bestselling author and mental health advocate.

Matt opens up about his shoplifting addiction as a teenager, explaining how it was never about the things he stole, but the dopamine hit, and how getting arrested at 16 was what finally stopped him.

My book ‘Healthy Shouldn’t Be This Hard’:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Healthy-Shouldnt-Be-This-Hard-ebook/dp/B0G1DHNRV5

📖 If this resonates, you can join the thousands who read The Compassionate Cure each week.
https://sarahmacklin.substack.com/

Let’s be friends!

📷 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarahannmacklin/
📹 Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@livewellbewellsarah
🐦 Twitter: https://x.com/SarahAnnMacklin
📱 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@livewellbewellpodcast
💌 Newsletter: https://sarahmacklin.substack.com/