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A review by richardrbecker
Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker
informative
medium-paced
4.25
Matthew Walker makes a case for more sleep. As an English scientist and the Center for Human Sleep Science director at the University of California, Berkeley, specializing in neuroscience and psychology, he lays a compelling case for 7-9 hours of sleep (at least 8 hours, ideally).
His argument took four years to write, which is why it became a best-seller several years ago and still has some traction today. The book is broken into four parts: Introduction, Importance, Dreams, and Health.
The opening is especially interesting as Walker gives us the story of sleep: circadian rhythm, history, and evolution. In this area, we learn that everything sleeps — even worms do something that resembles slumber. Walked also talks about how sleep rhythms change in humans as they age.
The importance of sleep begins to get into our biology and benefits. It covers correlations between sleep and sports injuries and car crashes, sleep and general health, sleep and memory, etc. Eventually, he draws a more important conclusion, linking lack of sleep to cancer, heart attacks, and a shorter life.
The third part covers dreams, mainly from a neuroscience perspective on REM and NREM sleep. And the final section does a deeper dive into societal prejudice against sleep, sleeping pills, and other stuff we muck up because we're generally overtired. Walker goes as far as suggesting ADHD-like behaviors could be a symptom of not enough sleep and provides a better understanding of insomnia and how to correct it without medication.
The book's popularity has drawn its fair share of criticism, but nothing genuinely notable for the average reader. I enjoyed it, learned a few things, and certainly took some of it to heart. (I already knew there was a link to cancer and lack of sleep, having worked on an oncology course with a doctor.) If there is any criticism in the writing, it's mainly that Why We Sleep becomes a bit repetitive at times (and that literary put me to sleep once or twice). But overall, it was a solid read recommended to me by a health coach, and I've already put a couple of sleep-improving practices in place.
His argument took four years to write, which is why it became a best-seller several years ago and still has some traction today. The book is broken into four parts: Introduction, Importance, Dreams, and Health.
The opening is especially interesting as Walker gives us the story of sleep: circadian rhythm, history, and evolution. In this area, we learn that everything sleeps — even worms do something that resembles slumber. Walked also talks about how sleep rhythms change in humans as they age.
The importance of sleep begins to get into our biology and benefits. It covers correlations between sleep and sports injuries and car crashes, sleep and general health, sleep and memory, etc. Eventually, he draws a more important conclusion, linking lack of sleep to cancer, heart attacks, and a shorter life.
The third part covers dreams, mainly from a neuroscience perspective on REM and NREM sleep. And the final section does a deeper dive into societal prejudice against sleep, sleeping pills, and other stuff we muck up because we're generally overtired. Walker goes as far as suggesting ADHD-like behaviors could be a symptom of not enough sleep and provides a better understanding of insomnia and how to correct it without medication.
The book's popularity has drawn its fair share of criticism, but nothing genuinely notable for the average reader. I enjoyed it, learned a few things, and certainly took some of it to heart. (I already knew there was a link to cancer and lack of sleep, having worked on an oncology course with a doctor.) If there is any criticism in the writing, it's mainly that Why We Sleep becomes a bit repetitive at times (and that literary put me to sleep once or twice). But overall, it was a solid read recommended to me by a health coach, and I've already put a couple of sleep-improving practices in place.