WHY WE SLEEP

There is a new pandemic in town, and this time it's not COVID. Seriously. I can't stop talking about stuff I've been reading in this book with people around me. Sleep is as universal as concepts get - and yet, it's crazy how little we know about something we spend 1/3 of our lives doing.Here's a little something about me. I've had a peculiar sleep schedule for the past couple years, staying awake almost all the way through the night. And sleeping an average of 6 hours. Now, if you'd ask someone, they would point to the former as the unnatural pattern. Early to bed and early to rise is the mantra, is it not? And 6 hours doesn't seem TOO bad for a night of sleep, right?Turns out, both of the things couldn't be more wrong. By sleeping any less than 8 hours a day, I was potentially shaving 10 years off my life, of what would have would have been a relatively unhealthier one anyway. That's how much impact sleep has. While I would still highly recommend reading the book, since cliff notes don't do the message justice - I saw how sleep deficiency was linked to Cancer, Alzheimer's, Diabetes, Cardiovascular diseases, high blood pressure, mood swings, depression, anxiety, retention, and just a general sense of well being, to name a few things. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING is going to convince me to sacrifice sleep anymore.Secondly, I learned how sleeping later in the night isn't exactly something which is as terrible as so many people had been trying to convince me of. We keep seeing examples thrown around of CEOs waking up at 5AM in the morning, since the first ones to get up are the first ones to get started on doing great things in the world. But that, too, only has partial truth to it. Some of us are natural early birds and some night owls. And forcing one to comply with another can have a huge impact on how they perform at their workplace, school, or just in general. And I'm just gonna let you guess which of the two suffer here from the general rules widely accepted by society.Another interesting revelation to me, which had been out there in plain sight anyway, was how circadian rhythms are affected depending on age. Someone still in their formative years will have theirs shifted a little ahead, hence folks in their teens and early 20s go to sleep late and tend to wake up late. Unless, of course, they're forced out of bed, and asked to go about their schooling or job at a time the world functions in. And on the other hand, older people have their rhythms shift back, making them wake up as early as 4 AM, leading to drowsiness by late evening. If there's anything all the above shows us, it's that society should be much more forthcoming to people with their own individual sleep schedules, and encourage them to get all the sleep they need.And that brings me to what usually is encouraged. It's no news how getting less sleep is almost a fact people flaunt to show how hard they've been working, and I certainly have been guilty of it more times than one. What I am thankful to learn, now, is that the work you do when sleep deprived is not only less productive, but most likely counterintuitive. And it's only made worse by the cycle of consuming caffeine everyday, which leads to worse sleep, which leads to more caffeine, and the cycle continues.Please ask your doctor how long they've slept if they are to perform a surgery, as they're almost twice as likely to make a fatal mistake if they're not well-rested. Please ask your driver how much sleep they got. Because sleep deprivation has a HIGHER chance of causing a car accident, than even alcohol consumption, depending on the extent of both, of course. Why; you ask? Because alcohol makes you spaced out, or drowsy, or lose control. But lack of sleep will literally turn you off for a couple of seconds every now and then, into little microsleeps where you will lose complete control of what's happening. And those seconds are more than enough to put you into a death-assuring situation.Reading SO much about how lack of sleep can be life-ruining can certainly be very taxing to go through, for over 300 pages too, but this book also taught me a lot more about the brain through these tidbits. About research that revealed much more than simply sleep. About people. And knowing all this equips you, the reader, to protect yourself and the people around you from the sleep deprivation epidemic. This is a must-read book, even if you get 8 hours of sleep, and especially if you don't.

It has a lot of academic stuff about sleep but also takes you on a journey to understand sleep and its dynamics. Tips that we all can pick up to improve quality of sleep. Very useful educative book.

For a long time, the questions of why we sleep and dream remained unanswered -- or answered speculatively in ways that proved without merit. One presumes the reasons are potent because there seems to be little evolutionary advantage in spending a third of one’s life unconscious of one’s environs and paralyzed (literally in REM sleep, but for all intents and purposes in NREM sleep as one can’t respond to changes in the environment without some part of one’s brain taking note of said changes.) The good news is that Matthew Walker’s book offers insight into what scientists have learned about why we sleep, why we dream, why we become so dysfunctional without doing both, and what it is about modern life and its technologies that has created an apparent crisis of sleep loss. Walker goes beyond the science to discuss what individuals and institutions can do to reduce the harmful effects of sleep deprivation.The downside of this book is that it’s a bit alarmist, and in contrast to many books of this nature one doesn’t get a good indication of the quality of studies reported. Some pretty brazen claims are made and the reader doesn’t necessarily know if they are preliminary and unvalidated or if they are well established. Here, I’m speaking about the studies that try to isolate out the effect of sleep loss versus all other factors (which is a notoriously messy affair,) and not so much studies that report on the physiological effects of sleep and sleep loss (which I see less reason to not take at face value.) At any rate, any reader who doesn’t fall asleep as soon as his head hits the pillow and sleep straight through 7 hours and fifty-five minutes -- waking 5 minutes before the alarm -- is likely to feel doomed if they take this book too seriously. And if you ever engaged in shift-work (as I have) or had an intense travel schedule, you are likely to feel that your life is permanently and irretrievably wrecked.I know this is a book on sleep, but I think it went a little too far in marginalizing all other elements of health and well-being. Walker said that he used to tell people that sleep, nutrition, and exercise were the trifecta of good health, but he ultimately concluded that sleep was more important because diet and exercise were adversely impacted by sleep loss. I don’t disagree that diet and exercise are harmed by sleep loss, but – of course – sleep quality is harmed by lack of proper diet and exercise as well. The author later discusses research confirming this two-way street. I, therefore, have no idea why he changed his initial balanced and reasonable view with one that suggests sleep is the 800-pound gorilla of health and well-being.The book’s 16 chapters are divided into four parts. Part I (Ch. 1 – 5) lays out what sleep is, how rhythms of sleep are established / disrupted, how much sleep one needs, and how one’s sleep needs change throughout the course of one’s life. Part II (Ch. 6 – 8) explores the benefits of sleeping as well as describing the nature of the damage caused by lack of sufficient sleep. Part III (Ch. 9 – 11) shifts the focus to dreams, and delves into what they appear to do for us. The final part (Ch. 12 – 16) investigates the many ways in which modern life disrupts sleep from blue light in LED’s to arbitrary school and work schedules to cures that are worse than the ill (i.e. sleeping pills.)There is an appendix that summarizes twelve key changes that an individual can make to get more and better sleep. There are graphics throughout the book, mostly line-drawn graphs to provide visual clarity of the ideas under discussion.I found this book interesting and informative. I would recommend it for anyone interested in the science of sleep or how they might sleep better, with the exception of anyone who has anxiety about the state of his or her health and well-being. While I understand that Dr. Walker wants to drive changes regarding views and policies that have been wrong-headed or deleterious regarding sleep, I feel he went too far toward suggesting the sky is falling for anyone who gets less than a perfect night’s sleep every night of his life.

Get the most accurate information about how important it is to get sleep from the Sleep Scientist. I was impressed with the author, Matthew Walker, and his eloquent writing talent. My English teachers would be impressed with the quality of the diction and vocabulary. A thoroughly education and enjoyable read. Now, get some good sleep! This book will show you how important it is.

Life changing book. You will learn why to sleep, including a very consistent and technical answer. After reading this book, for sure, you will learn how to improve many areas of your life.

Amo este libro. Me lo recomendó una amiga porque yo tenía muy malos hábitos de sueño. Desde el capítulo uno me cambió la vida. Se lo recomendaría a cualquier persona, sin importar sus hábitos de sueño. La lectura es un poco pesada porque de pronto es muy técnico, entonces no lo recomiendo para niños y jóvenes, sobre todo si no están habituados a leer

I learned a lot of things about sleep, this book is great and Matthew knows his so much subject as he is one of the best sleep expert scientist in the world.I even subscribed to the Masterclass platform in part to watch his video Masterclass, which is essentially a condensed version of the book but to hear him talk with passion about his subject was very complementary to the book. He is very well articulated and speaks clearly.Conclusion: Everyone should read this book. Sleep is so underrated in our society.

Excelente livro, muito esclarecedor.