Fittingly for a book all about sleep, I would put this Audible on as a nightcap, and in the most interesting way, it helped me fall asleep. Not only did I learn all about the life-benefiting importance of sleep, it actually made me excited about a more structured sleep schedule.
When you know the scientific benefits of sleep, it makes staying up late a little less appealing or an afternoon cup of caffeine much less sensible or a late-night cocktail a whole lot less desirable. Fact is, sleep is pretty important and there is a lot of ways we are hindering it from happening and delivering its crucial functions to our human bodies. That’s pretty much the whole point of this book: sleep is crucial for life, we don’t get enough of it and we should be taking it more seriously. It’s one thing to say it as a broad stroke of wisdom, but when you dive into the scientific facts and what people are collectively starting to understand about sleep, it really drives the point home. It’s time to get woke on sleep.
Something peculiar about the ideas in this book reminded me of Pete Holmes skit about sleep and wonder if he came across the same book. Essentially it was on how crazy sleep really is when you think deeper about it. Automatically, we basically shut our brains off and go into a coma…. After a certain amount of time each day, we’re just depleted, and we wander into a dark room where after lying still our brains gradually shut the fuck down and we’re out into a different state of consciousness. During which our eyes rapidly move around and our brains play out a range of imaginative and bizarre scenes. And then after this trip into another realm of existence, we miraculously wake up the next day recharged and ready to go at it again. Ain’t that a beautiful and amazing thing?
Walker talks about our natural circadian rhythms, our natural internal sleep cycles that vary as we go through life. For me, this was liberating proof that I wasn’t a lazy teenager. It rid me of my shame for sleeping in and being chronically late to high school. In truth, it was a struggle because it was part of a natural sleep cycle. The way I see it, school was at the wrong time for me and the right time for my teachers. There’s actual science to prove I was being forced to wake up on their natural sleep rhythms and not my own. So no wonder I couldn’t focus, I was an exhausted irritable zombie throughout my entire formal educational years.
Beyond all that, there’s lots of wild stuff that happens in our minds and bodies that we’re just beginning to learn about. In simpleton terms, dream sleep or REM sleep is really good stuff. There are all sorts of cleansing and healing processes that start-up and go to work while we sleep. If you need some extra encouragement for sleep, there’s also a study done that proves people actually look more attractive when they are well-rested. Giving truth to the old adage of getting your beauty sleep.
The heap of sleep benefits keeps coming. Sleep improves memory and overall performance as a human being, it’s easier to learn things, you’re more creative, you can more easily handle stressful situations, you’re less irritable yadda yadda yadda sleep is good stuff. It’s even safe to say sleep can make you smarter. Which made me dread how many times I pulled an all-nighter trying to study or cram for a test. Or stayed out late partying like a hooligan. Drinking red bulls and caffeine to keep a wired mind strung out and awake all night just isn’t worth the loss of losing sleep. It turns out chronic sleep loss is seriously harmful to humans with long term effects causing a laundry list of dreadful diseases and a shorter life span. It ain’t no joke, you gotta get yer winks in.
Of course, there are wonders to be enjoyed and discovered in the night time. There’s the beauty of the stars and astronomy. There’s the fun of going out and dancing. Experiencing the beauty and energy of cities aglow. But the point is to not make sleepless nights an unhealthy pattern.
Walker argues we need to dive deeper into the social structure and change the way we think about sleep. In many ways, the way we treat nightshift workers or put pressure on college students is unethical, irresponsible, and causing life-threatening illnesses which all equates to a lower quality of life and shorter life spans. The issue of sleep affects billions of people — jet-lagged business travelers or bosses putting pressure on employees to stay up late and lose out on sleep causing businesses to lose money while simultaneously causing health issues.
Thinking deep about sleep has made me realize just how important rest and recovery are and what an awesome, essential and beautiful part of life it is. Unfortunately, it is also something that is becoming a privilege, something that needs to be more thoughtfully considered as a means of health and safety for all human life. Even if we are all aware of sleep benefits, there still needs to be a cultural system in place that encourages healthier sleep and allows for its benefits to be equally shared.
Why We Sleep has also made me more aware of certain substances or external forces that disrupt or destroy sleep quality. For instance, caffeine takes a really long time to process and filter out of our system. It blocks certain biological functions of our natural sleep rhythms. Alcohol has similar self-destructive results on sleep, acting as a sedative but disrupting sleep quality making it more difficult to achieve REM sleep for a healthy and satisfactory amount of time.
Then there’s the whole screen thing. A more recent phenomenon in our existence which includes our dependence on phones, laptops, and TVs with bucketloads of drama and news. They all play an effect on how our brains sleep. Communication is great but there are plenty of best practices to cut out the light and information overload to set you up for healthier sleep routines.
Reading this book has certainly motivated me to build a better sleep routine. And with that written, I’m going to close my laptop and put this book review to bed. Good night, I’m off for some sweet-sweet and lovely sleep.