In this Business Blast Podcast episode, host Tyler Wagner interviews Dr. Charles Freeman, a behavioral medicine psychologist and sleep‑addiction specialist based in San Diego. Dr. Freeman shares a personal narrative of overcoming multiple life crises—including the loss of his brother, a devastating hurricane, repeated hospitalizations, and divorce—highlighting how these experiences built his resilience and empathy as a clinician. He critiques the widespread use of benzodiazepines (e.g., Xanax, Valium) and sedative‑hypnotics (e.g., Ambien, Lunesta), explaining their short‑acting nature, rebound anxiety, and “blackout” sleep effects, and positions cognitive‑behavioral therapy (CBT) as the gold‑standard treatment for insomnia. He expands on a four‑pillar model of well‑being that combines CBT, hypnosis, nutrition/exercise, and spiritual meaning. Dr. Freeman offers business advice emphasizing mentorship, daily operational habits, and diligent follow‑up after networking. He reflects on the value of suffering for personal growth, defines sustainable happiness as rooted in purpose, connection, health, and lifelong learning, and discusses Carl Jung’s archetype framework from Man and His Symbols as a tool for understanding dreams and patient behavior. He mentions inspirational metaphysical thinkers (Louise Hay, Eckhart Tolle, Wayne Dyer) and concludes by directing listeners to his website, www.sleeppsy.com, for resources on sleep psychology and drug‑free sleep improvement.
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Alright everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have a good friend of mine, Dr. Charles Freeman. He is the San Diego sleep doctor, addictionologist, and behavioral medicine psychologist. Removes the benzos, sedative-hypnotics, and alcohol with cognitive behavioral therapy, hypnosis, improved nutrition and exercise, and positive psychology and/or spiritual principles. So welcome to the show, man.
Yeah, thank you. It's good to be with you.
Grateful to have you on. So, Charles, the first one we got for you is, what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
Well, when I was at the University of Miami, which you're there in South Beach and Miami, and it's a pretty interesting place, isn't it?
Yes.
It'd be entertaining with all the characters on the street, the models, and it's a lot of fun. So I was at the Mount Sinai Sleep Disorder Center treat patients, and I was trying to get through a doctoral dissertation, and I experienced multiple significant life events. My brother passed away. I went through Hurricane Andrew, which was at the time that created the most devastation in the United States financially. Then I ended up in the hospital 3 times. I had never— I hadn't been in the hospital for 10 years, but Just bizarre things, a spider bite, which led to a really bad infection there in the tropics in Miami, dehydration from volleyball, ended up in my own emergency room at the hospital. That was a little embarrassing, blacking out and heat stroke. And then I went through a divorce. I moved across country to the VA hospital in Los Angeles to work my internship. Moved back to Miami for my first major job, and then I divorced. So, and during that time, I just reevaluated what was going on, kind of took a break from the dissertation, and I persisted even in the face of those life challenges to complete my doctoral dissertation and then to move forward as a licensed behavioral medicine psychologist.
And then I'm excited for your answer on this next one is, what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
So, uh, the benzodiazepines, which are the medications like Xanax and Valium, uh, uh, Ativan, which is lorazepam— these medications are— they get rid of anxiety, but They temporarily, it's more of a temporary thing because they're short-acting medications. So then people have rebound anxiety and some people use these for sleep also and they cause rebound insomnia. So it'll double back with the more anxiety, more insomnia. And then the medications like Ambien, Lunesta, those are called sedative-hypnotics. These are really bad for brain neurochemistry. They're blackout drugs. So people will fall asleep, they wake up, and they report that their sleep feels like fake sleep. Their eyes are red, but it felt like it was just 5 minutes, and then they're up. So the most important thing is that cognitive behavioral therapy, changing thoughts and behaviors, is the gold standard to treat insomnia and sleep disruption. And that through hypnosis, cognitive behavioral therapy, helping people change their exercise, nutrition, add meaning and purpose, and/or spirituality, those are the four foundations of well-being. I can see that people can have sound sleep, whole— without using these drugs and medications.
Got it. And then, uh, what is your best piece of overall business advice? So not necessarily industry-specific.
Well, I think that, um, people really should have a mentor in business, especially if they, they didn't have business people in their family, to, um, to get a business coach and find the fundamental tasks that they need to do daily to, um, for organization, for networking, for creating the documents for their presentations or their PowerPoint or electronic kind of presentations, and really have those foundations in place so that they are more efficient with their time, better with their time management, consistently follow up with people after a networking meeting. I think that's a big mistake for people where they'll have the networking meetings but they never follow up and then they may not even ask for the client or for the sale or whatever their product is and it's important to just follow up with people and ask for that. Mm-hmm.
And then if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
I think that one of the bigger things is just that you'll walk through the valley of darkness and that suffering, and it's just temporary. That it'll make you more resilient and strong. And for me, in my profession, it's given me the ability to treat a lot of diverse patients with not just academically or from the book, but experientially. I went through a hurricane, I lost a brother. I can relate to people that have lost a loved one or have gone through a natural disaster. And having that experience, I have more empathy and compassion. So just telling my younger self that those life experiences will enrich you and enable you to be stronger and more resilient so that you can be even a greater servant to help heal people or help them through a psychological or spiritual crisis.
And then in your opinion, what is the key to happiness?
Well, there's a difference between happiness and just temporarily feeling better. And So people will seek different addictions like, oh, social media or through alcohol, drugs, gambling, food, sex, work, and temporarily their dopamine will be increased, which is a brain neurotransmitter, makes people feel good, but it's not sustainable because they have this dopamine rush and then they kind of crash afterwards. So it's, for happiness, I think it has to be more core things with meaning and purpose, something that a person's passionate about, being altruistic, helping others, feeling connected, not being isolated, exercise, nutrition, sleep are really critical in creating a foundation of wellness. Enriching their life through learning, always through life experiences like traveling. I think that there are just a whole series of things that can be interconnected that help people to increase that set point for happiness.
Got it. And then what is the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?
Well, I really love Man and His Symbols by Carl Jung. Carl Jung, J-U-N-G, was a disciple of Freud. Freud had a lot of theories that were more the death instinct and the Oedipal complex, which were more dark. Jung was a spiritual psychologist and had an incredible theory of dream interpretation. He looked at the archetypes, which are Universal symbols and legends, myths, religions, stories, and how they play a role in people's unconscious or dreams. And so, for example, some archetypes are the king, lover, magician, warrior or warrioress, king, queen. And when you think of those different images, they all have an emotional impact and they, they lead somebody in a certain direction in their actions and behaviors. So if someone is in the Magician archetype, then they're creating something. It's really the healing to shaman or a priest, a priestess. It's related to transformation, transcendence. So There are these different archetypes, and you still see it. Some of them are latent in the unconscious, they're not actualized, and other ones are active and people are engaging those archetypes. And it's about balance. So if somebody's really extreme on a king warrior kind of archetype, then they're more of a dictator. And it's about balancing those energies. So somebody's judicious and kind, compassionate, they're fair, they're a healthy leader, somebody that will acquire collaboration, not just make a unilateral decision. So I think the archetypes, and there are beautiful images in that book, Man and His Symbols as well, from legends and stories, and it just really inspired my imagination of what I could do with both sleep, insomnia, and dream interpretation as well.
Yes, man. Dude, I love Carl Jung. That's awesome.
Yeah. Great.
Then what's your favorite quote and why?
For some reason, I don't look at quotes as much, but some of the things said by some of the metaphysicians have really struck me with whether it's Louise Hay or Eckhart Tolle or Wayne Dyer. And so some of the ones about manifestation, law of attraction, some of those principles I think are really important for positive psychology and for manifesting one's goals.
Yes, man. Thank you so much for coming on. Last one I got for you is where can our audience best find you online?
So my website is www.sleeppsy.com, S-L-E-E-P-P-S-Y dot com, and it'll, it'll show you some videos about sleep behavioral psychology and just give you an idea of how I approach removing these drugs and and alcohol as well, which is really deleterious to sleep quality. And I just like saying that word because it makes me sound smart.
Yes. Thank you again so much for coming on.
Thank you so much, Tyler. I appreciate you hosting and this great show. I'm really privileged to be here. Thank you.
Thank you.
Good connecting with you, brother.
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