Why We Sleep: the New Science of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker(Penguin Books, 2018)
This might just be the perfect book for the bedside table if the contents were not so damned scary.
The list of what lack of sleep causes is vast and should be a concern for those who, up to now, have regarded the daily hours of shut-eye as a waste of time.
The facts and discoveries from decades of scientific research prove that sleeping makes you healthier, wealthier and wiser. It can also make you more attractive and slimmer.
“Sleep fixes what is upset by wake” states Walker. As director of University College Berkeley’s Sleep and Neuroimaging Lab, the results of his long research carry a genuine authority. The title of the book is not framed as a question (Why do we sleep?) since the science gives us the answers. Ignore the findings at your peril.
Walker is also an excellent public speaker so if you haven’t got the time (or the energy!) to read the book, then you should at least watch the Google video talk.
I’m grateful to Radiohead’s Thom Yorke for recommending this title during an interview with Zane Lowe. Rock stars like him and other performers are, along with night shift workers, in a high risk category so need to pay heed to this book’s recommendations.
Sleep may not a cure for cancer but it is can delay the early onset of other killer conditions like alzheimer’s and high blood pressure. Higher alertness also reduces the risk of accidents, notably the amount of deaths in car crashes.
Walker states the case in unambiguous terms: “Humans need more than seven hours of sleep each night to maintain cognitive performance”. Ideally his book will be a wake-up call for individuals, employers and institutions to recognize the importance of sleep to everyone’s mental and physical wellbeing.
