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Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker is one of the most discussed and praised non-fiction books of the genre since its release in 2017, with praise from Bill Gates and entrepreneurs like Grace Beverley. As a sleep scientist, walker sets out to explain the history of sleep, and the impact a lack of sleep has on our mental and physical health.
As someone who has a very strict sleep schedule, as well as other healthy habits like not drinking, exercising regularly, and limiting my exposure to blue light, I thought this book would perhaps be a little repetitive when it comes to advice for the individual. While there is a couple of pages towards the end where Walker gives advice to his readers, this book is instead focused on and filled with a wealth of studies and knowledge surrounding topic, with further opportunity for even more research. This book is one that everyone should read and hopefully learn something from.
Despite many studies on sleep only having been undertaken in the last 20 years, his research is thorough and in depth, being clear on his ethics, the process, and the results. For many of the results, Walker does not tiptoe around the conclusion – overworking yourself, pulling all-nighters and limiting the amount of REM sleep you have, and therefore the amount you dream, will impact your mental and physical health in ways that have not even been fully explored, such as being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.
Additionally, the author ensures that he is not being dismissive or patronising, acknowledging that there are people with serious trouble sleeping that do need medical help, as well as acknowledging the seriousness of Alzheimer’s and ADHD, but he also stresses that the way society is treating sleep is unsustainable. Constant all-nighters with the knowledge than you can fix it quickly with over the counter sleeping pills is becoming a pandemic, with more and more people adopting this ethos, and it needs to be addressed. The balance Walker has between informing the readers and giving them the correct information, but also stressing the importance in people getting the correct sleep and treatment for their issues, is perfect, and I never once felt he went too far.
In a similar vein, Walker comments several times that many of these studies are either still in their infancy, or otherwise far from being fully discovered. This direct clarity that science does not currently have all the answers, but hopefully they will soon, is one way I think Walker is honest and clear in wanting to engage in a respectful conversation about our current society. It is alarming, to say the least, the vast studies that prove that even losing a couple of hours sleep a night can have life long damaging effects on humans. This book is just one of the few ways I hope people will begin to acknowledge their unhealthy relationship with sleep and create a space for open dialogue.
Overall, the often-light-hearted tone of the book, with several jokes throughout, made this a fairly digestible read that I’m sure most people will be able to glide through. The information in this book, and the work Walker does in his role as a professor of neuroscience and psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, is accessible to so many people, and hopefully in the next few years we will see younger generations having this information at their fingertips to act on.