Why We Sleep

Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book was both enlightening and a bit horrifying. Like Michael Pollan's "Cooked" documentary, Walker's discussion of sleep is going to stick with me for a long time. It was so interesting and informative that I bought the physical book while listening to the audiobook so that I could return to certain chapters again in the future. The short version is that we need more sleep. In a culture that celebrates working all hours of the day and night, our lack of sleep hurts us in more ways than we know.

Ironically getting married is what profoundly changed my sleep habits since I married a man who loves to sleep, and I wanted to be where he was so I stayed in bed when in a previous life I would have been up and working away at my "to do" list. It's not enough though. Walker gives solid research and reasoning for why we need more sleep individually and collectively. Perhaps the timing was off in my choice to read the book since I am currently up with an infant at all hours of the night, but Walker also gives profound insights into why babies and teenagers need sleep alongside how lack of sleep contributes to ailments in older people.

Full disclosure though that Walker is a scientist, so at times he gets long-winded or the research gets technical. I'm rounding up though to five stars because this book is a game changer.

Happy reading and happy sleeping--