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Why We Sleep: The New Science of Sleep and Dreams

Matthew Walker

4.38 · Rating details · 134,440 ratings · 14,355 reviews

The first sleep book by a leading scientific expert—Professor Matthew Walker, Director of UC Berkeley’s Sleep and Neuroimaging Lab—reveals his groundbreaking exploration of sleep, explaining how we can harness its transformative power to change our lives for the better.

Sleep is one of the most important but least understood aspects of our life, wellness, and longevity. Unt The first sleep book by a leading scientific expert—Professor Matthew Walker, Director of UC Berkeley’s Sleep and Neuroimaging Lab—reveals his groundbreaking exploration of sleep, explaining how we can harness its transformative power to change our lives for the better.

Sleep is one of the most important but least understood aspects of our life, wellness, and longevity. Until very recently, science had no answer to the question of why we sleep, or what good it served, or why we suffer such devastating health consequences when we don't sleep. Compared to the other basic drives in life—eating, drinking, and reproducing—the purpose of sleep remained elusive.

But an explosion of scientific discoveries in the last twenty years has shed new light on this fundamental aspect of our lives. Now, preeminent neuroscientist and sleep expert Matthew Walker gives us a new understanding of the vital importance of sleep and dreaming. Among so many other things, within the brain, sleep enriches our ability to learn, memorize, and make logical decisions. It recalibrates our emotions, restocks our immune system, fine-tunes our metabolism, and regulates our appetite. Dreaming mollifies painful memories and creates a virtual reality space in which the brain melds past and present knowledge to inspire creativity.

Walker answers important questions about sleep: how do caffeine and alcohol affect sleep? What really happens during REM sleep? Why do our sleep patterns change across a lifetime? How do common sleep aids affect us and can they do long-term damage? Charting cutting-edge scientific breakthroughs, and synthesizing decades of research and clinical practice, Walker explains how we can harness sleep to improve learning, mood, and energy levels; regulate hormones; prevent cancer, Alzheimer’s, and diabetes; slow the effects of aging; increase longevity; enhance the education and lifespan of our children, and boost the efficiency, success, and productivity of our businesses. Clear-eyed, fascinating, and immensely accessible, Why We Sleep is the crucial account on sleep that will forever change readers’ minds on the subject. ...more

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ebook, 368 pages

Published 2017 by Penguin Books Ltd

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Dec 12, 2019 Bill Gates rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Back in my early Microsoft days, I routinely pulled all-nighters when we had to deliver a piece of software. Once or twice, I stayed up two nights in a row. I knew I wasn’t as sharp when I was operating mostly on caffeine and adrenaline, but I was obsessed with my work, and I felt that sleeping a lot was lazy.

Now that I’ve read Matthew Walker’s Why We Sleep, I realize that my all-nighters, combined with almost never getting eight hours of sleep, took a big toll. The book was recommended to me by ...more

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Oct 06, 2017 K.J. Charles added it · review of another edition

Shelves: horror, non-fiction

This book is genuinely terrifying. The author, a sleep scientist, lists the devastating consequences of getting less than 7-9 hours regularly and it is so much worse than you might have thought. SO much worse. We're basically all going to die.

I'm not even kidding--being just an hour short on sleep a day will do serious damage to your immune system almost immediately, and the Western world is in the grip of a massive sleep deprivation epidemic. Lack of sleep is a carcinogen, literally. It also d ...more

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Nov 02, 2020 Tharindu Dissanayake rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: all-must-read, favorites-self-improvement, favorites

"The shorter your sleep, the shorter your life span"

This is not a book that I had in any of my reading lists, and only picked up because the title seemed interesting while I was searching for some other books. I'm really glad that I did so, because this turned out to be one of the most incredible books I've ever read: full of enlighteningly descriptive insights on many aspects related to sleeping.

"Wakefulness is low-level brain damage, while sleep is neurological sanitation."
"When sleep i "The shorter your sleep, the shorter your life span"

This is not a book that I had in any of my reading lists, and only picked up because the title seemed interesting while I was searching for some other books. I'm really glad that I did so, because this turned out to be one of the most incredible books I've ever read: full of enlighteningly descriptive insights on many aspects related to sleeping.

"Wakefulness is low-level brain damage, while sleep is neurological sanitation."
"When sleep is abundant, minds flourish. When it is deficient, they don’t."

The books contains four main standalone parts, starting with explaining what sleep really is, then moving across how/ why should we sleep and dream, and finally on establishing proper sleeping habits. The reader will have the opportunity to learn about different stages of sleep and their functions with a staggering amount of examples and research references to better comprehend the principles outlined. And unlike most health related books, Walker's writing is excellent for readers of any prior background on the area. It made the reading experience very smooth and entertaining.

"REM sleep is what stands between rationality and insanity"
"The REM-sleep dreaming brain was utterly uninterested in bland, commonsense links – the one-step-to-the-next associations. Instead, the REM-sleep brain was shortcutting the obvious links and favoring very distantly related concepts. The logic guards had left the REM-sleep dreaming brain."

It is indeed alarming - as the author has stated throughout the book - how unaware we are about the importance of sleep to all beings. I, for one, had never even dreamed of such severe implications due to poor quality or reduced sleeping, but shared the common misconception of being wake up more is important for success in all areas in life. This book not only correct such mistaken beliefs but will cause a paradigm shift in how we should embrace proper sleeping habits, and soon.

"Humans, modern-living or pre-industrial, need less than seven hours of sleep therefore appears to be a wishful conceit, and a tabloid myth."

I cannot emphasize enough, how important it is for every single person to read this book, and cannot thank the author enough, for this is undoubtedly one the most helpful books one can ever read. I believe everyone should read this - irrespective of any and all variables - and the only worry you will have is not having read it sooner. Read this book, and as soon as you can!

"Memories formed without sleep are weaker memories, evaporating rapidly." ...more

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Sep 27, 2017 Emily rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction, medicine, 2017, review-copy

For once, I actually mean five stars in the sense of "everybody should read this book." This book is highly readable but contains stunning information I'd never seen anywhere else (and includes numerous references to serious primary literature).

I was reminded (stay with me here) of ancient Egyptian funerary practices. After carefully embalming organs like the heart and liver, and placing them in canopic jars, the Egyptians pulled the brain out with a hook and threw it away, because they didn't r For once, I actually mean five stars in the sense of "everybody should read this book." This book is highly readable but contains stunning information I'd never seen anywhere else (and includes numerous references to serious primary literature).

I was reminded (stay with me here) of ancient Egyptian funerary practices. After carefully embalming organs like the heart and liver, and placing them in canopic jars, the Egyptians pulled the brain out with a hook and threw it away, because they didn't really know what it was for. This is how most modern people approach sleep. We know it must be sort of important, because why else would it be there, but we're quite foggy on the specifics and tend to give it short shrift. At worst, we see it as an "annoying and enfeebling" obstacle to other uses of our time.

Some standout topics here: your natural day/night pattern and the buildup of a chemical called adenosine in your brain that makes you sleepy, which contribute independently to your sleep cycle; and how caffeine and jetlag get you off your rhythm. (This was particularly interesting to me because I read this on a long flight. I never sleep on flights to Europe and this book explains why: I'm not sleep deprived enough to have excess adenosine to make me sleepy, plus it doesn't feel like nighttime yet when we depart. So my brain isn't interested in sleeping. When I arrive, my goal is to stay awake until 9pm and at first, it's easy. That's the "day" part of the circadian rhythm giving me a bit of a boost. But soon, that fades away and the extra adenosine comes crashing down.) The role of sleep in processing memories and new information: sorting out what's important, solidifying newly gained understanding, and turning traumatic experiences into bearable memories. How all creatures sleep, but in different ways that make the brain-repairing effects of sleep compatible with their environments. Some things that we think aid sleep, like alcohol and sleeping pills, are only useful if your goal is to lie inert in bed; they don't lead to true, restorative sleep.

Oh, and the doctor who developed the system for medical residents, and insisted that long shifts and little sleep were essential training, was a big-time cocaine addict.

There's some genuinely frightening information here as well. Sleep deficits cannot be made up (sleeping in on the weekends doesn't help) and lead to shorter lifespans. Lack of sleep contributes to Alzheimer's disease, mental illness, and cancer. (The WHO categorizes night shift work as a probable carcinogen.) Drowsy driving is more common than drunk driving and more dangerous. We may be seriously harming the country's teens by forcing them to wake up and go to high school at an hour so inimical to the circadian rhythm of that age group.

I already follow the author's advice about "sleep hygiene" so I was mostly attuned to the scientific information and arguments here about social ills. Many people in my sleep-deprived cohort may be genuinely alarmed to read this book. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't! I read so many nonfiction books with titles like this one that are ho-hum--but this one's a humdinger.

Review copy received from Edelweiss. ...more

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Jun 06, 2020 Mario the lone bookwolf rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 0-mental-strength, 0-biology

The best book about the importance of sleep and the dangers of a lack of it.

Often it´s our own fault, because we eat too much too late, consume media before going to bed, don´t exercise, float the mind with negative and repetitive thoughts that come back at night, sadly not as succubi and incubi, but more the nightmarish evil, not sexy, demon style thing. Even if full 8 hours are reached, the quality can be so low that healthier people with an optimistic mindset find more regeneration with lesse The best book about the importance of sleep and the dangers of a lack of it.

Often it´s our own fault, because we eat too much too late, consume media before going to bed, don´t exercise, float the mind with negative and repetitive thoughts that come back at night, sadly not as succubi and incubi, but more the nightmarish evil, not sexy, demon style thing. Even if full 8 hours are reached, the quality can be so low that healthier people with an optimistic mindset find more regeneration with lesser sleep than that.

The consequences of sleeping too less because of work, too many hobbies or mental problems are as devastating as overweight, smoking, drinking, and many other harmful activities one normally avoids, but doesn´t care when it´s about finishing just one more level, one more chapter, one more project for work, one more beer with friends, one more episode, one more cancer, heart attack, virus infection due to a weakened immune system...

The funny thing is, we mostly don´t to it because of existential necessity, but to consume any kind of medium, have a longer good time with friends and family and intuitively think that the time is better invested in those activities than in 1 or 2 more hours of unproductive, forever lost hours of sleep. Cutting down to under 7, 6, sometimes even less seems legit to get more out of life and we don´t realize that we don´t just pay the expensive long-term price of higher mortality and more sickness, but that the following day is not as productive as creativity, workflow, concentration, and perseverance drastically drop and so we are slower, worse in any aspect, and unmotivated. Even if one sleeps the full 8 hours, the consequences of once sleeping too less or even not can reduce the performance for days, just as alcohol does the days after the hangover. Look how sad you make that poor little brain buddy there behind your eyes, what were you thinking when you did that, that reading is more important or what?

But, of course, it´s also societies fault and by forcing kids and teens to wake up far too early to go to school and pressing the last out of every working person, the current conventions produce immense unnecessary harm that could easily be avoided by better, progressive models of society and, once again, shining Scandinavia enters the limelight with the mantra "Social benefits and social security in a fair and strong eco-social welfare state make happy people."

Any drug around and before sleeping *cough beer cough* is a bad idea, alcohol before sleeping helps to fall asleep, but kills REM- sleep and sleeping pills are strong drugs with severe side effects like for instance killing oneself when accidentally overdosing. If there is already trouble with insomnia, one adds more problems to it by using chemical methods instead of finding out what the real cause is, changing something and searching help. In extreme cases, good old pharma is the only option, but many may not even try alternatives.

A big, but unsolvable, problem is the positive effect of sleep deprivation on people with depression and similar mental diseases. I don´t know how the harm of both illnesses could be quantified and compared, but both options seem to be horrible. To be desperately unhappy with full sleep and floating the body with stress hormones while diving ever deeper into the vicious cycle or too sleep far too less and be happier and more motivated, but meanwhile damaging the whole body.

This lucid dreaming thing is so extremely individual that one person might be close to unable to ever produce something satisfying while the other can do it as if it was nothing. That´s just random luck or bad luck, some people can add years and more quality to their lives by being conscious and creating any, totally real dream and fantasy wonderland and understanding personal problems, traumas and even solving them, while others can´t crack the brains code how to unlock the treasure chest.

A wiki walk can be as refreshing to the mind as a walk through nature in this completely overrated real life outside books:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep ...more

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Aug 10, 2021 Emily (Books with Emily Fox) is currently reading it · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobooks

I'm only 50% into and while it's good, if you have anxiety or if you're not sleeping well... don't read it!

I didn't need to stress myself more about sleeping badly. Now I know exactly how bad for me it is XD

PS. Guys, this isn't my official review, this is just me joking around that it's stressing me out lol ...more

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Jun 30, 2019 Petra Needs book recs for potential bf -See update rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed, 2019-read, medicine-science, 2019-100-reviews

Something to ponder; every living thing on earth is subject to the circadian (24 hour) rhythm. It is understandable why animals and plants need to be awake in daylight hours. Less so for fish that for thousands of generations have lived in underground rivers and have over the millenia lost the ability to even sense light. Even less so for bacteria. But still, all of us have this endogenous clock keeping time within us, keeping time with the sun.

In the 1930s, a scientist, Nathaniel Kleitman and a ...more

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Jul 28, 2020 Greg Swierad rated it liked it · review of another edition

Sleeping is probably the biggest productivity hack I know. If you don't get enough sleep every day or don't get regular sleep, this is the most important thing you should work on. Lots of bad decisions are made due to lack of sleep so no excuse just make sure you sleep well.
As important as sleeping is, writing a whole book about it feels like it's too much. I liked a lot of the things in this book but thought it was too long.
My biggest lesson from this book is to avoid sleeping pills whenever po ...more

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Aug 15, 2018 Trevor rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: medicine, science

So, this book is both a must read and deeply, deeply disturbing. I’ve been having trouble sleeping for the last few years and now I’m going to have to do something about it, simple as that, because the consequences of not sleeping properly are appalling.

For instance, it provides you, free of charge, with an increased risk of diabetes, dementia (in all its fun and various guises), weight gain, heart disease and even accidental death. And the situation is getting worse. We are losing sleep at a r So, this book is both a must read and deeply, deeply disturbing. I’ve been having trouble sleeping for the last few years and now I’m going to have to do something about it, simple as that, because the consequences of not sleeping properly are appalling.

For instance, it provides you, free of charge, with an increased risk of diabetes, dementia (in all its fun and various guises), weight gain, heart disease and even accidental death. And the situation is getting worse. We are losing sleep at a rate of knots as we squeeze the nights from both ends. Add to that the fact that our world is now awash with night-time blue light – the frequency of light we have used to tell us it is day-time ever since before we were even fish – and this particular self-created train wreck just keeps a-roll’n along.

There were times in this where he would say things and I would think, ‘oh yeah, see that, you’ve gone too far this time’ – for instance, his saying that driving with a sleep deficit is worse than driving while drunk, having done both, I figured I knew better. But then he justifies this by saying that when you are drunk your reaction times are reduced, but you generally still react – but when you are sleep deprived you drop (without warning) into micro sleeps and while in them you do not react at all. You know, you are asleep.

And then he reminds us of the stereotypical truck driver (by the way, in most states in the US, there are more truck drivers than any other occupation). Truck drivers are often over-weight, which is directly correlated with sleep apnoea, that is, a condition likely to increase the number of times you fall into micro-sleeps. Did I mention I found this book terrifying?

The other bit of this that really struck me was the correlation between anxiety and a lack of sleep. It is almost as if we are unable to trust people as we get less and less sleep. And this also translates into an inability to lay down new memories – that is, learn things. In fact, something students often do is stay up all night studying for an exam – on the basis of ‘never do today what you can do five minutes before it is almost too late’. But such a lack of sleep is likely to leave them feeling under-confident, anxious and also seriously impaired in their ability to actually learn and remember anything they have spent the night staring blankly at.

This is part of the reason why he says the shift in the US towards earlier school starting times is such a bad idea. He presents an evolutionary biology just-so story that goes: adolescents need a safe-ish way to move out of the parental nest. They do this by their body clock shifting so they stay awake later (when their parents are asleep), so they can interact with other young people in a relatively safe environment, and this means they therefore wake later than their parents too. But then we force them out of bed at 6 or earlier to cross town to go to a school that starts at 7am, and getting up at that time feels to them like getting out of bed at 4am, bad things are likely to happen. How can they possibly learn in that state? Whether or not the evolutionary story is right, it does seem teens do need to stay up later and to sleep in longer, and we ought to respect that. It also seems there is such a thing as night-owls, and our forcing them to work at the crack of dawn is just as cruel and just as stupid as our forcing teenagers to do the same thing.

You need to get hold of this book and to read it – and it is written by someone who does research in the field, so, not just some random guy who likes nice good sleep-in in the morning and figures you should like it too. I can’t tell you how many times I thought while reading this, ‘oh, for god’s sake’. This was not the mirror I felt I needed to look into at the moment, but then, I guess that means it is exactly the mirror I needed to look into. ...more

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Jan 24, 2021 ❀ Lily ❀ rated it really liked it · review of another edition

4.5 - Very well researched and the studies/arguments are explained in a way that's very accessible and easy to understand. ...more

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Feb 26, 2019 JV (semi-hiatus) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction, 2019, knowledge-is-power-guard-it-well, science

Have you ever felt knackered that you needed to catch some z's hopefully to sleep back what you've previously lost? Have you not slept a wink even if you hit the hay awhile ago and just decided to take some sleeping and other sedating drugs just to make you sleep like a log, but then you would wake up feeling like a zombie of sorts? Well, have no fear, the doctor's here! Not me, okay? Mind you!

"Ultimately, asking 'Why do we sleep?' was the wrong question. It implied there was a single functio

"Ultimately, asking 'Why do we sleep?' was the wrong question. It implied there was a single function, one holy grail of a reason that we slept, and we went in search of it."

For aeons, Mother Nature has been implementing this physiological need we all know as "sleep" — a "powerful elixir of wellness and vitality" that most of us take for granted (guilty me included)! Before we dive deep into this essential repose, know that this book is neither a self-help one nor it is a guide that will teach you how to have that restful sleep you're looking for, albeit there are 12 tips in the Appendix. Based on sleep science, Dr. Matthew Walker, a former psychiatry professor at Harvard Medical School and now a neuroscience and psychology professor at UC Berkeley, examines sleep with in-depth analysis backed by years of scientific research letting us know that sleep and dreams are vital for our physical and mental wellness. How so? He tells us that,

"Sleep enriches a diversity of functions, including our ability to learn, memorize, and make logical decisions and choices. Benevolently servicing our psychological health, sleep recalibrates our emotional brain circuits, allowing us to navigate next-day social and psychological challenges with cool-headed composure."

Dandy eh? For the average adult, 16 hours of wakefulness and 8 hours of sleep is the optimum balance. Caffeine and alcohol are also considered as two of the most common culprits from getting your much-needed slumber, not without evidence. Regarding insufficient sleep or not getting the same quality/quantity of it, you might want to hide under the sheets now as the next one will be a terrible and panic-inducing rollercoaster ride! Well, hang on to your pants and knickers, ladies and gents!

Sleep loss inflicts such devastating effects on the brain, linking it to numerous neurological and psychiatric conditions (e.g., Alzheimer’s disease, anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, suicide, stroke, and chronic pain), and on every physiological system of the body, further contributing to countless disorders and disease (e.g., cancer, diabetes, heart attacks, infertility, weight gain, obesity, and immune deficiency).

If that doesn't horrify you, I don't know what will! For those who are on a graveyard shift, you have been officially warned.

"A number of prominent epidemiological studies have reported that nighttime shift work, and the disruption to circadian rhythms and sleep that it causes, up your odds of developing numerous different forms of cancer considerably."

How... umm... reassuring, Dr. Walker! Nevertheless, thank you for that fact. Furthermore, have you ever heard about Fatal Familial Insomnia (FFI)? Good grief! I would never ever touch that one within a ten-foot bargepole, but just so, you all must know that "a lack of sleep will kill a human being." There are also a lot of scientific terms here that might be familiar to you such as REM or NREM sleep, suprachiasmatic nucleus, circadian rhythm, melatonin, etc. None of which I will discuss in full detail lest my puny brain would unnaturally go supernova! Dreams are discussed here too, but I won't be delving on it.

By the way, if you also want to magnetise someone with your looks, sense of humour, and personality, along with increasing your chances of landing your first sloppy snog or ultimately going for a home run (a titillating yee-haw!), well mates, heed the sleep scientist's advice: have some shut-eye!

"Reproductive hormones, reproductive organs, and the very nature of physical attractiveness that has a say in reproductive opportunities: all are degraded by short sleeping. One can only imagine Narcissus being a solid eight-to nine-hour sleeper on the basis of the latter association, perhaps with an afternoon nap for good measure, taken beside the reflection pool."

And there you go, dear folks! Sleep you must and sleep you will! Because I command thee! So, fare thee well! For now, I send thee up to the wooden hill to Bedfordshire! Get it? Good!

Audiobook rating (narrated by Steve West):
Narrative voice & style - ★★★
Vocal characterisation - ★★★
Inflexion & intonation - ★★★
Voice quality - ★★★★
Audiobook verdict - ★★★ (good performance overall, but he'll make you sleepy, which is the point of this book!) ...more

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Mar 03, 2021 Moeen Sahraei rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Five giant stars. This book is extremely precious because it is the intuitive summary of more than 50 years research on different facets and functions of sleep, and also because it is written by a proficient neurologist in a way that anyone can easily understand the intricate functions of the brain,hormones,body etc.
The author first thoroughly explains the endogenous reasons of sleep ( melatonin and adenosine ) and then describes two different phases of sleep ( NREM and REM ). Then he illustrat ...more

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Apr 06, 2019 Warwick rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: biology, science

Matthew Walker really, really thinks we all need some serious shut-eye, and he's not messing around when it comes to getting you on board – he hits you with both barrels on page one, and never lets up:

Routinely sleeping less than six or seven hours a night demolishes your immune system, more than doubling your risk of cancer. Insufficient sleep is a key lifestyle factor determining whether or not you will develop Alzheimer's disease. Inadequate sleep—even moderate reductions for just one week—di

Routinely sleeping less than six or seven hours a night demolishes your immune system, more than doubling your risk of cancer. Insufficient sleep is a key lifestyle factor determining whether or not you will develop Alzheimer's disease. Inadequate sleep—even moderate reductions for just one week—disrupts blood sugar levels so profoundly that you would be classified as pre-diabetic. Short sleeping increases the likelihood of your coronary arteries becoming blocked and brittle, setting you on a path to cardiovascular disease, stroke, and congestive heart failure […] sleep disruption further contributes to all major psychiatric conditions, including depression, anxiety, and suicidality.

And this is supposed to help me sleep better!? At least before, I just used to lie there going over the same three lines from ‘I Just Can't Wait to be King’; now, if I so much as drift into momentary consciousness at two a.m., I end up paralysed with alertness, calculating the gradually rising odds that my obese, cancer-ridden body will only cease to be a concern thanks to the merciful onset of my crippling dementia.

Eventually Walker just comes right out and admits that as far as the science is concerned, ‘wakefulness is low-level brain damage’, at which point you start to wonder how far he's really going to take this whole unconsciousness thing. But by then the damage is done. Your life is different. Come evening, when Hannah is pouring herself a glass of Sancerre and playing Gaga, I now appear in the doorway in my slippers, with a hot-water bottle clutched under one arm and a toothbrush jutting from my jaws. It may feel antisocial, but anything seems preferable to inviting the heart disease, obesity, cystitis, tennis elbow and plagues of locusts that Walker is otherwise promising.

A while back I got a Fitbit, which allows me to see in appalling detail just how much sleep I sometimes fail to get – the hypnograms, with their discrete stages of slumber, never quite stretching as far as you'd like them to. Thanks to this book, it's now possible to quantify exactly what I'm missing out on during such nights, as scientists have mapped more of the neurochemical processes involved than I ever realised: the deep, NREM sleep where memories are carefully transferred from short-term to long-term memory; then the ‘informational alchemy’ of REM-sleep dreaming, which sharpens creativity and conjures up solutions to our daytime problems.

The importance of sleep can be further appraised by its evolutionary heritage – it goes back about as far as life on earth. Walker finds that even ‘the very simplest form of unicellular organisms that survive for periods exceeding twenty-four hours, such as bacteria, have active and passive phases that correspond to the light-dark cycle of our planet’. Sleep is about the first thing natural selection locked in for us, and as far as we can tell every animal does it.

One always understood that sleep was a healthy thing, but somehow a full night of it is still often viewed as a luxury. On the evidence of this book, it's more like a medical necessity. Given working practices in many parts of the world, this is a big problem, and indeed part of Walker's mission is to explain that much of the developed world is suffering from a serious, chronic sleep deficit which is ultimately ‘a slow form of self-euthanasia’ – he is talking not just to individual sleepers, but to businesses and governments who have some responsibility to take what he says into account.

The difference between a four-star book and a five-star one is that while I might love both of them, I can keep a four-star book to myself, whereas a five-star book is one I can't shut up about to everyone around me. On that basis, despite its occasional infelicities, Why We Sleep makes the grade. It's passionate and clearly written, summarises a huge amount of research about which I knew little, and addresses a subject that obviously deserves the attention. It would take someone a lot more cynical than me to read this and not silently decide to make a few lifestyle changes – on which note, if you'll excuse me, I have some intensive, hi-octane pillow time to get to. ...more

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May 26, 2018 Kamil rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, non-fiction, 2018

There's an overwhelmingly positive experience I had with this book. For most of it, Walker talks about his research (and his colleagues) surrounding the sleep and those arguments are fascinating and convincing.
However, there are moments, mostly closer to the end of it, when you feel like you are listening to a sales pitch. First of all, I dislike when somebody uses percentage without reference, ie "it's a 150% growth" as it might easily mean it was 1% in the past and now is 2,5% (150% growth), ...more

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Jan 10, 2018 Clif Hostetler rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science

The less you sleep the shorter your life span will be. Do I have your attention yet? If so read this excerpt from the beginning of this book (p3-5), and you will understand why this book caught my attention.

This book is divided into four parts. Part 1 defines the nature and types of sleep, describes how the need for sleep changes over a life span, and goes on to discuss the evolutionary origins of sleep. Part 2 describes why you should sleep and lays out the dire consequences of not sleepin ...more

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Oct 08, 2018 David Rubenstein rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: evolution, audiobook, biology, health, medicine, science, psychology

This is such an excellent book, mainly because I had never thought very much about the need for a good night's rest. The first part of this book does not really address "why we sleep". Instead, the book describes "what happens if we do not get enough sleep." Not until about halfway through the book, does the question "why we sleep" really get answered.

The author, Matthew Walker, is a professor of neuroscience and psychology. I always prefer to read science-related books that are written by scien This is such an excellent book, mainly because I had never thought very much about the need for a good night's rest. The first part of this book does not really address "why we sleep". Instead, the book describes "what happens if we do not get enough sleep." Not until about halfway through the book, does the question "why we sleep" really get answered.

The author, Matthew Walker, is a professor of neuroscience and psychology. I always prefer to read science-related books that are written by scientists who are actively doing research in the field. They are the most authoritative, and they best understand all of the nuances involved in the interpretation of experimental results. As long as the science book is well written--and this book is definitely written in an engaging style--I always prefer to read a book written by an active researcher.

The author divides a night's sleep into two primary portions; the early portion is characterized mostly by NREM (non-REM) sleep, while the later portion is mostly REM sleep (Rapid Eye Movements). Both portions are essential. NREM sleep helps one to cement memories into permanent storage, while REM sleep helps one to apply past experiences to solve problems. If you skimp on either portion, then your brain has a very difficult time recuperating. The book describes, in just the right amount of detail, a host of experiments that have shown the deleterious consequences of insufficient sleep. And, I was really surprised by the range of consequences, and their seriousness. This book has thoroughly convinced me to make every effort to get a full night's sleep; at least 7 hours, and preferably 8 hours.

I am not going to try to recap the myriad consequences of insufficient sleep. Suffice it to say, they are truly scary. This is a fascinating book, and I highly recommend it to everyone who sleeps.

I didn't read this book; I listened to the audiobook version, as narrated by Steve West. He does a very good job keeping my interest throughout his narration. ...more

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Sep 09, 2018 Bharath rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Sleep has been a big mystery for long, as it has been unclear what purpose it serves, and why natural selection did not weed it out. After all, in earlier times, the period of sleep must have been one of considerable danger for humans (and even now for many animals and birds). And yet, sleep is a common requirement across the animal kingdom as well. In fact, birds and some sea creatures have the remarkable ability to sleep half a brain at a time.

Matthew Walker is a sleep scientist and does an e Sleep has been a big mystery for long, as it has been unclear what purpose it serves, and why natural selection did not weed it out. After all, in earlier times, the period of sleep must have been one of considerable danger for humans (and even now for many animals and birds). And yet, sleep is a common requirement across the animal kingdom as well. In fact, birds and some sea creatures have the remarkable ability to sleep half a brain at a time.

Matthew Walker is a sleep scientist and does an exceptional job in this book of explaining what sleep achieves for us. In fact, sleep deprivation is extremely dangerous and there is not enough awareness of this. Modern lifestyle has dealt a blow to both our duration and quality of sleep, and the effects are already quite apparent.

While sleep has not completely revealed all its mysteries to us, a lot is now known after painstaking research over several years. Our sleep shuffles between NREM, Light and REM sleep – and all of them have their purpose. NREM sleep fortifies our memory helping in longer term recall, while REM sleep & dreams lend emotional balance and help us get to the big picture. The book discusses a large number of experiments detailing what happens when we skip sleep. Depending on the sleep cycle and the quantum of deprivation, the ill effects are nothing short of disastrous – lower immunity, failing memory, loss of emotional balance, pre-disposition to serious diseases such as diabetes, dementia and even cancer. Getting adequate sleep (~8 hours) on the other hand makes people more creative & productive other than being healthy.

Somehow, our cultures today do not emphasise the importance of sleep, as much as we do exercise and diet. So much so, that sleeping less is mistakenly regarded as a confirmation of working hard and being more ambitious. The assumption that each of us can do with varying periods of sleep is largely a myth as well. While a genetic mutation allows a few to function effectively with around 6 hours of sleep, this is extremely rare. Almost all of us do need ~8 hours of sleep. There are tips on improving sleep quantity as well as quality all through the book, such as regulating caffeine in the later part of the day.

Most of us are guilty of not according sleep the importance it deserves, and this book is an eye opener. This is a book everyone should read. There are very important points of note for individuals, educational institutions, hospitals, organisations and even governments. ...more

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May 21, 2020 Mark Porton rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: science, non-fiction, netgalley, 5-stars

Why we Sleep by Sleep Scientist, Matthew Walker was totally BRILLIANT!

Matthew Walker is a British Sleep Scientist and Professor of Neuroscience and Psychology at Berkeley – and it shows. Essentially everything Professor Walker asserts is backed up by evidence. More often than not, he not only states the source but will explain the details of the studies in question to explain his statements. It is just so well done – all easy to read, all so well explained.

But this is all very well. It wouldn’t ...more

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Mar 13, 2019 Bradley rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2019-shelf, non-fiction, science

You know, I'm not usually one to tout NY Times bestsellers, but in this particular case, I want to mention that...

This kinda should be required reading for everyone.

Why? Because despite the rather innocuous title and no-nonsense factual information being presented, with no less than 750 scientific studies supporting the findings within, the author OUGHT to have been screaming that we're all freaking fools and morons.

Sure, I've heard of some of the studies, such as the ones related to the huge p You know, I'm not usually one to tout NY Times bestsellers, but in this particular case, I want to mention that...

This kinda should be required reading for everyone.

Why? Because despite the rather innocuous title and no-nonsense factual information being presented, with no less than 750 scientific studies supporting the findings within, the author OUGHT to have been screaming that we're all freaking fools and morons.

Sure, I've heard of some of the studies, such as the ones related to the huge probability of obesity and depression and cancer rates for people who don't get 8 hours of sleep, but when we see all the other facts involved with it are all laid out, I frankly despair. Our societies are made up of complete idiots.

Most of the most powerful and necessary REM sleep happens in the last block of sleep, between 6-8 hours. Most of us are reducing our sleep to 6 or less. Learning and retention and memory decrease as if you're constantly drunk, and the long-term effects short circuit all rational behaviors. We eat more because we act high. We get into more car accidents. Test performance is abysmal, as is our moods, our ability to digest foods properly, and our ability to resist the flu drops from an 18% chance at 8 hours of sleep to a whopping 50% chance when you get less than 6 hours. These are studies, based on people who, in a controlled environment, are swabbed with the sick. Think about that. Add VERY significant numbers to cancer, suicide, and total life dissatisfaction, and the picture becomes very dire.

Oh, and sleeping pills short-circuit the REM cycle. As do drugs for ADHD.

This is the funniest and most horrible thing I picked up here: Teens all have a natural change in their circadian rhythm. They all become night owls. So WTF are we forcing them to get up earlier and earlier to go to school? They AREN'T getting enough sleep. So what happens? They go in, do abysmally in school, show all the same symptoms as ADHD, get diagnosed with ADHD, and then get drugs to help them concentrate while only making the fundamental problem of not getting enough REM sleep WORSE.

*slow clap*

Idiots.

And I'm talking about ALL of us. Long term sleep deprivation is the thing we do to TORTURE PEOPLE WE DON'T LIKE. And yet, there's this thing about rewarding long work cycles, turning people in unthinking zombies with decreasing work productivity JUST BECAUSE we're trying to squeeze out that last hour of work? It's KILLING US. Literally. Our minds aren't working well enough to even realize there's a problem.

Put a STOP to this! Seriously, folks! This is right up there with dancing around in a cloud of radium. Oh, look, it's so pretty!

This is science, folks. Not a fad. Don't be an idiot. ...more

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Jan 01, 2020 Andy rated it did not like it · review of another edition

This is artful science-writing, except that the science seems sketchy. It is fishy, especially in the context of the author's lambasting of Big Pharma, that he is a self-styled entrepreneur (https://www.sleepdiplomat.com/entrepr...) working with Fitbit and Google, presumably on the types of gadgets he recommends in the book.

Nerd addendum:
The general point is reasonable: people should get enough sleep. Fine -- that hardly requires a book. The potential plus-value here is the fear-mongering to mo This is artful science-writing, except that the science seems sketchy. It is fishy, especially in the context of the author's lambasting of Big Pharma, that he is a self-styled entrepreneur (https://www.sleepdiplomat.com/entrepr...) working with Fitbit and Google, presumably on the types of gadgets he recommends in the book.

Nerd addendum:
The general point is reasonable: people should get enough sleep. Fine -- that hardly requires a book. The potential plus-value here is the fear-mongering to motivate people to get more sleep, but I found his scare-stories frustratingly kooky. For example, the idea that zillions of lives would be saved by flu vaccine if only people got enough sleep is an enormous stretch. It is dangerous in general to extrapolate from laboratory observations, evolutionary psychology theory or principles of physiology to clinical/health policy recommendations. Yet much of the book is gee-whiz reporting on animal studies and "neurobollocks" research (see: Brainwashed: The Seductive Appeal of Mindless Neuroscience.)
Also, the problems of people who suffer from true sleep disorders are different from the general public problem of poor sleep hygiene. For example, people with debilitating insomnia may benefit from cutting out all caffeine, but even if that were true the evidence presented in the book doesn't justify telling everyone to do that.
Although I don't agree with all its points, the following article catalogs important problems in the book: https://guzey.com/books/why-we-sleep/. Other low-score Goodreads reviews list other non-facts. Some might find Guzey's tone off-putting but I try to focus on evidence and I appreciate that he makes verifiable statements of fact. One of Guzey's main falsifiable claims is that there's a U-shaped curve of mortality vs. sleep duration. He gives references to the peer-reviewed scientific literature. I checked one from the journal Sleep (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...) and it does say what he says it says: "In the pooled analysis, short duration of sleep was associated with a greater risk of death (RR: 1.12; 95% CI 1.06 to 1.18; P < 0. 01) ... . Long duration of sleep was also associated with a greater risk of death (1.30; [1.22 to 1.38]; P < 0.0001) ... . Conclusion: Both short and long duration of sleep are significant predictors of death in prospective population studies." This one fact by itself is a huge problem for Walker's book.
I think that in science, substance needs to matter more than surface.

Update Jan. 2021:
Please see comment stream below for interesting discussion. ...more

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Dec 05, 2018 Hamad rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommended to Hamad by: Tala

Shelves: non-fiction, 2018-reads, e-books

This review and other non-spoilery reviews can be found @The Book Prescription

“The best bridge between despair and hope is a good night’s sleep.”

🌟 I am still on a quest to discover more non-fiction books, that started last year and I am willing to continue this year. So when Tala (Who also happens to be a medical student in my class) recommended this, I knew that I had to read it!

🌟 I also had the same first question that most of us will think of: How a ~370 pages book is filled with things on s This review and other non-spoilery reviews can be found @The Book Prescription

“The best bridge between despair and hope is a good night’s sleep.”

🌟 I am still on a quest to discover more non-fiction books, that started last year and I am willing to continue this year. So when Tala (Who also happens to be a medical student in my class) recommended this, I knew that I had to read it!

🌟 I also had the same first question that most of us will think of: How a ~370 pages book is filled with things on sleep?! This book answered many questions that I had thought about in my long sleepless nights. It explains why do we need to sleep, the evolutionary role of sleep, why do we dream and what are the benefits of dreaming, Why do we as teenagers and new adults like to go to sleep late while adults go early, why do you feel tired after you pull an all-nighter but then gradually get energized! And one of my favorite things is explaining why we like to keep one foot out of the bed at night!!

🌟 What is cooler about this is that it does so in a simple language that everyone can understand. No need to be in the medical field to do so. If you are interested in sleep then you should read this!

🌟 One of my professors once told me that people like to view the world in what they are best at. So a doctor will see everything as physiology and pathology, an engineer will see things as equations, numbers and drawings, a chemist will announce the secret of life as Alchemy. So a sleep scientist will explain everything by -you guessed it- Sleep!
As much as I enjoyed the book, I thought it was trying too much sometimes! There was a graph depicting the relationship between Obesity and sleep and it shows that through the years we have been sleeping less and thus becoming more obese. Which has a certain truth to it but we can not ignore the changes in food and lifestyles too!

🌟 Also the author would tell you that if you don’t sleep well (I assure you that 99% of us don’t) then you will get Alzheimer, cancers, obesity, diabetes and all sort of things… If you find this idea uncomfortable then you may want to skip this.

🌟 Summary & Prescription: I really enjoyed this book as much as I expected to. It is kind of scientific but still awesome to read. I like that the author provided concrete evidence -Although I want to discuss some things further more- through the book and that it was not all theories. I recommend this for all of you looking for a non-fiction book and are interested in Sleep!

Happy reading and Sleep tight I guess? ...more

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Feb 07, 2019 Olive Fellows (abookolive) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites-2019

Written by sleep scientist Matthew Walker, this is a look at what all we know about sleep right now. Though much about sleep is still not understood, Walker makes the bold assertion that more than anything else in our lifestyles, sleep is the factor that is the key to our overall wellbeing. Diet and exercise are important, but nothing is as crucial as getting the 7-9 hours you need every single night.

This is not a self-help book on how to sleep more, but understanding the science - presented in ...more

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Jul 28, 2019 Amora rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: self-improvement

After listening to Matthew Walker’s appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast I decided to leave a review for this book. Overall, it’s quite good and the content is original. This book highlights the benefits of nine hours of sleep and how it is imperative to live a healthy life and do excellent academically. I didn’t think you could write so much over the research on sleeping. I do hope Walker appears on Joe Rogan’s podcast again to remind people to sleep more!

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Dec 05, 2017 Lubinka Dimitrova rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: award-winning, audio, eye-opening, male-author, psychology, dark, fitness-health-wellbeing, favorite, thought-provoking, based-on-real-events

Hands down, one of the best books I read this year (more like ever, to be honest).

So, a miracle drug has been discovered. A revolutionary new treatment that makes you live longer. It enhances your memory, makes you more attractive. It keeps you slim and lowers food cravings. It protects you from cancer and dementia. It wards off colds and flu. It lowers your risk of heart attacks and stroke, not to mention diabetes. You’ll even feel happier, less depressed, and less anxious. Sleep! Who would ha Hands down, one of the best books I read this year (more like ever, to be honest).

So, a miracle drug has been discovered. A revolutionary new treatment that makes you live longer. It enhances your memory, makes you more attractive. It keeps you slim and lowers food cravings. It protects you from cancer and dementia. It wards off colds and flu. It lowers your risk of heart attacks and stroke, not to mention diabetes. You’ll even feel happier, less depressed, and less anxious. Sleep! Who would have imagined?! And on the other hand, failing to get this drug will result in extensive damage to your overall health, and no aspect of your biology would be left unscathed. Sleep deprivation! Many of us are bizarrely convinced that getting by with constantly less hours of sleep is actually a sign of coolness and exceptional abilities to function as a super-human. Due to this utter ignorance about the importance and the complexity of sleep’s role in our lives, we do a great disservice to ourselves and mostly to our children, who grow up with the notion that getting enough sleep could be labeled as laziness. Instead, we should realize that our sleeping hours are not an endless resource from which we can borrow limitless amounts of time "to do productive work", as I personally very often do (I really wished to be able to say "did", but alas, I've only managed to lightly reduce this vice). They are not. And the work of a sleep deprived person isn't as productive as one'd imagine. Eventually the constant low level exhaustion becomes our accepted norm. We fail to recognize how our habitual state of sleep deficiency has come to compromise our mental aptitude and physical vitality, resulting in the slow accumulation of ill health.

I picked up this book with an inquiring mind, perhaps hoping to find a technique or two to improve my sleep, after obtaining a better understanding of its underlying mechanisms. As it turns out, it gave me nightmares. Still, I'm glad that I got this insight before I die a depressed, obese, demented diabetic, because I "must" work late or I "must" watch the silly movie till the end, well beyond midnight. Next, I'm reading "Go the fuck to sleep". ...more

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Apr 05, 2020 Krishna Chaitanya rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, nonfiction, 2020, psychology, health, self-help

My sleep is broken, I play games or surf internet for hours before going to bed at midnight and I lazily snooze the alarm at 8am and I continue to do so till 10am or even 11 sometimes. I was looking for a silver bullet to fix my sleep and I picked this one.

So, did it help?
ah, er.. em, yes.

Out of 13.5 hours of material on sleep, author hardly covers on how to fix your sleep but reveals the horrors that are inevitable if your don't change your sleep habits. The author, a sleep scientist strongly a ...more

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Nov 23, 2019 Alexey rated it did not like it · review of another edition

update: there's now an example of deliberate data manipulation by Walker (he edited out the data that contradicted his argument from the graph) -- https://guzey.com/books/why-we-sleep/...

---

Read my full review here: https://guzey.com/books/why-we-sleep/

Walker misrepresents science, invents things on the fly (e.g. sleeplessness epidemic declared by the WHO), and scaremongers everyone into sleeping more than they probably should. I wrote a fact-check of the first 10 pages of the book, and it's not ...more

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Apr 05, 2018 James Hartley rated it liked it · review of another edition

This is going to sound naive but it still surprises me that so many scientists can be so vain. I like to imagine them outside and above such concerns but of course they aren´t: they´re as human as the rest of us. They want to win prizes, "go down in history", have students applaud them in lectures and be popular.
Walker is Professor of Neuroscience and Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley and tours, lectures and writes on sleep and sleep science. This book - which can be read in o ...more

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Dec 08, 2020 Dave Schaafsma rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, science

I've never been a great sleeper. Not an insomniac, no sleep disorders, but I have always been secretly proud that I "need less sleep than most normal people," never sleeping as much as any friend or family member. Hey, I'm ambitious, relatively healthy, I like to stay up late and wake early, bam, waking up without the need for coffee, a bit of a lifer adhd kind of guy. But in the last couple years I have begun to listen to doctors about my blood pressure, heart rate, cholestoral, the need to exe ...more

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Feb 22, 2018 Rebecca rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science-tech, reviewed-for-blog, read-via-netgalley, skimmed, newbury-library, current-events

We often hear that sleep, diet and exercise are the three pillars of health, but Walker, a professor of neuroscience at the University of California, Berkeley, goes further: he believes sleep is the platform on which diet and exercise rest. Getting 7–9 hours of sleep a night is not some luxury to aim for but an absolute essential for the brain to process new information and prepare for receiving more the next day. Dreaming is like overnight therapy, and fuels creativity. Sleep deprivation has be We often hear that sleep, diet and exercise are the three pillars of health, but Walker, a professor of neuroscience at the University of California, Berkeley, goes further: he believes sleep is the platform on which diet and exercise rest. Getting 7–9 hours of sleep a night is not some luxury to aim for but an absolute essential for the brain to process new information and prepare for receiving more the next day. Dreaming is like overnight therapy, and fuels creativity. Sleep deprivation has been associated with dementia and cancer: it’s no accident that Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, who prided themselves on getting by on just five hours of sleep a night, both developed Alzheimer’s. Just a few nights of insufficient sleep can weaken the immune system and increase the risks of developing a serious illness. It’s no wonder Walker calls sleep loss an epidemic.

Here are some other facts I gleaned:

During primate evolution, the transition to sleeping on the ground instead of in trees meant we could sleep more deeply – not having to worry about falling out – and the resulting increase in REM sleep and dreams contributed to the development of complex culture and creativity.

Fetuses are asleep most of the time; they kick in their sleep. Alcohol use during pregnancy or breastfeeding can lead to a decline in the offspring’s sleep quality or quantity.

People with autism get 30–50% less REM sleep than neurotypical people.

The postprandial slump in energy many of us experience is evolutionarily inbuilt, and suggests that a short nap (30–40 minutes) would be natural and beneficial. For instance, some African tribespeople still regularly nap at the hottest point of the day.

Walker’s sleep tips are mostly common-sense stuff you will have heard before. His #1 piece of advice is to have a sleep schedule, always going to sleep and waking up at the same time. (“Catching up” on weekends doesn’t work, though napping before 3 p.m. can.) Set an alarm for bedtime so you’ll stick to it, he suggests.

It’s a fairly long and dense book, with smallish type and scientific figures, so I knew I was unlikely to read the whole thing, but enjoyed mining it for fascinating information about evolution, neuroscience and child development.

Originally published, along with some personal reflections, on my blog, Bookish Beck. ...more

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Dec 28, 2019 Johann (jobis89) rated it liked it · review of another edition

"Our lack of sleep is a slow form of self-euthanasia."

Leading scientific expert Professor Matthew Walk reveals his groundbreaking exploration of sleep and why it's so important.

If anything is going to scare me into taking my sleep more seriously, it would be this book. I can't even begin to detail all the amazing - yet terrifying - facts I learned while listening to Why We Sleep. And I always KNEW us night owls were at a disadvantage when it came to the normal 9-5 lifestyle - our body clock simp ...more

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topics	posts	views	last activity
Goodreads Reviewe...: Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker	2	24	Sep 01, 2021 05:18PM
Goodreads România: Citește cu mine: Why We Sleep, de Matthew Walker	7	79	Jun 09, 2020 10:53AM
What's Next?: Book Review: Why We Sleep	1	17	May 17, 2020 04:33AM
Accusations of Scientific Mistakes/Errors	4	171	Mar 16, 2020 02:34AM
Goodreads Librari...: Missing 'total pages'	2	17	Dec 09, 2019 05:44AM
Read With Me!: Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams	1	14	Dec 02, 2019 10:51AM

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About Matthew Walker

Matthew Walker

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Matthew Walker is a British scientist and professor of neuroscience and psychology at the University of California, Berkeley. His research focuses on the impact of sleep on human health and disease. Previously, he was a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.