Leonidas, I listened to his talk, and he suggests that he can help sleep deprivation, but does not seem to give any ideas how in a way that might help those who can have trouble getting full nights of sleep even though they have time to do so.
What does he suggest for those who have chronic or intermittent trouble sleeping?
I've listened to Parsley talk half a dozen times or more, and he makes it clear there is no simple answer. He never prescribes, but is very informative so I pieced it together for myself. Unfortunately, I don't have my notes so I'm doing this by memory. I will include links to a couple of his talks where he discusses the process in detail.
Rather than try to explain Parsley, I'll tell you what I did and am doing now.
I started with trying to fix hormonal issues. There is a diabetes - low testosterone link, and a sleep - testosterone link. While I had fixed my blood sugar, I found that my testosterone was well below normal (187 total free). I worked on that naturally for several months (good sleep hygiene, heavy weights, meditation, and eating the right kind of foods). I managed to get it up to 297 which is still low and definitely sub-optimal. I started testosterone replacement therapy and am currently above 800 free.
I will say that making sleep a priority did have a benefit. I went to sleep the same time every night and got up 8 hours later, and I removed any distractions (lights, noise, etc.).
Parsley also talks about the need to stop taking sleep aids like Ambien (the SEALs "candy"), especially if combined with alcohol, and not do extreme exercise to an excess (we're talking what a SEAL would think extreme).
Parsley breaks down the hormonal issues and tried different supplementation strategies. While it sounds like he will have patients use melatonin, or 5HTP, he really thinks it's important to provide the substrate for all that with vitamin D3 supplementation. If I recall correctly, he says D3 is the raw material for 5HTP, which is converted to serotonin, which is converted to melatonin. There is a danger in supplementing too much or too long in the midstream (especially melatonin) because you overload the receptors and can shut down the creation of natural melatonin). He isn't too concerned about short term use because 5htp and melatonin are water soluble, and D3, while fat soluble is something almost everyone is deficient in.
Cortisol disregulation is also an issue, but I didn't delve into that in my case. I need to check my levels, but I was working on the theory that I had enough other things to deal with and hoped that fixing all of them would fix cortisol issues.
So I took a small amount of melatonin for a while (1mg or less for a week), and 5htp for a month, coupled with the strict sleep hygiene I was already doing, sensible exercise, good nutrition (low carb and lots of veggies), little to no alcohol use, I've never taken sleep drugs or anti-depressants, and I was on TRT. I also began to meditate regularly to reduce stress.
Now, I just do my best to maintain good sleep discipline most nights. I live downtown now and ambient noise was an issue for a while, but I've adjusted and it doesn't seem to be a problem. I sleep 7-8 hours most nights and rarely feel tired during the day. Occasionally, on weekends when I go out, I'll stay up late and usually drink some alcohol, and I'll feel the effects the next day or two. I.e., sometimes I'll sleep late, or be sleepy during the day, and occasionally my athletic performance suffers.
Kirk Parsley FAQs on sleep
Doc Parsley
Kirk Parsley's first appearance on Robb Wolf's Podcast (audio and transcript available)
Dr. Kirk Parsley - Paleo Solution Podcast Episode 181
Kirk Parsely on Barbell Shrugged (video and he goes into depth on the hormonal issues)