Why We Sleep - Matthew Walker
Why read this book?
I really like sleep, and had always thought I was very good at it too! This book encourages you to consider sleep in a different way - covering the function and benefits of sleep, the impact of not sleeping, the role dreaming, and implications for the real world. By real world I don’t mean what this means for future academic research and scientific discovery, but what it means for you as a human right now, what you can do to maximise the benefit of your sleep and the impact this would have on your health, career and performance.
The author
Matthew Walker is professor of neuroscience and psychology at UC Berkeley, and formerly professor of psychiatry at Harvard. Yes, he’s a scientist and an academic - he brings all the detail, references and experiment-based evidence you’d expect from someone with his experience, but it’s also easy to read, it isn’t too heavy.
He’s also done a TED talk:
What has this book encouraged me do differently?
It has made me value sleep more (and I was already a very big fan!) - I’m no longer tempted to ‘just get that done’ before finishing work for the day. By doing this you’re enforcing a double effect - not only are you doing a worse job now as you’re tired, but you’re also affecting the next day… your ability to work to your potential, to drive, to even function at all.
Knowing that sleep deprivation world record attempts are not recognised due to the possibility of death, and that pilots are encouraged to nap early in a long haul flight to help their performance later (i.e. when landing a plane) really makes you think about working late yourself, and the impact this has on professions such as junior doctors.
I also have a much clearer understanding of how substances and routines affect sleep - caffeine won’t wake me up, but it will block the systems which help me to fall asleep - once those effects wear off, I’m going to crash faster than ever! Blue light is bad, alarm clocks cause mini heart attacks and alcohol is a big no-no for both sleep quality and memory retention.
There are also implications for creativity and maximising your performance in this area… but I won’t give away all the secrets… go read the book, it’s a good’un.