Why We Sleep

Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams

By: Matthew Walker PhD PhD

Narrated by: Steve West

“Why We Sleep is an important and fascinating book…Walker taught me a lot about this basic activity that every person on Earth needs. I suspect his book will do the same for you.” —Bill Gates

A New York Times bestseller and international sensation, this “stimulating and important book” (Financial Times) is a fascinating dive into the purpose and power of slumber.

With two appearances on CBS This Morning and Fresh Air's most popular interview of 2017, Matthew Walker has made abundantly clear that sleep is one of the most important but least understood aspects of our life. Until very recently, science had no answer to the question of why we sleep, or what good it served, or why we suffer such devastating health consequences when it is absent. Compared to the other basic drives in life—eating, drinking, and reproducing—the purpose of sleep remains more elusive.

Within the brain, sleep enriches a diversity of functions, including our ability to learn, memorize, and make logical decisions. It recalibrates our emotions, restocks our immune system, fine-tunes our metabolism, and regulates our appetite. Dreaming creates a virtual reality space in which the brain melds past and present knowledge, inspiring creativity.

In this “compelling and utterly convincing” (The Sunday Times) book, preeminent neuroscientist and sleep expert Matthew Walker provides a revolutionary exploration of sleep, examining how it affects every aspect of our physical and mental well-being. Charting the most cutting-edge scientific breakthroughs, and marshalling his decades of research and clinical practice, Walker explains how we can harness sleep to improve learning, mood and energy levels, regulate hormones, prevent cancer, Alzheimer’s and diabetes, slow the effects of aging, and increase longevity. He also provides actionable steps towards getting a better night’s sleep every night.

Clear-eyed, fascinating, and accessible, Why We Sleep is a crucial and illuminating book. Written with the precision of Atul Gawande, Andrew Solomon, and Sherwin Nuland, it is “recommended for night-table reading in the most pragmatic sense” (The New York Times Book Review).

One of my favorite nonfiction reads of 2017

I had been avoiding reading a book on what lack of sleep does to a person because I figured it the news would not be good and I sleep so badly, I just didn't want to know. But I heard the author on NPR and it sounded so interesting, I got it.

The news was worse than I thought! Nevertheless, it was so fascinating, full of such interesting information, I'm glad I read/listened to it. It's one of the few books that I'd say, "Everyone should read this." For those who can manage to get a decent night's sleep but think 5 or 6 hours is enough--this might change their minds.

Wow, should have read this years ago...

It is amazing how Matt Walker takes these new studies and forms them into data we can learn from. Data that is not dry and mind-numbing but interesting and wants you to listen to sections over to really soak in that information. After reading this book and am much more driven to protect my sleep time and keep a schedule. And I must say that my life daily stability is much more even, that my pulls from memory and learning is becoming better even though I am aging and that effect on memories.

So I encourage you, that if you are reading this, to get this book and value yourself enough to take this topic seriously so you protect something that you can not get back.

Five stars from a habitual short sleeper

With my new found knowledge on the importance of sleep, this book may prove to be one of the most valuable purchases I've made. Having experienced many of the issues talked about herein and now understanding the power of sleep, I have already began putting forth an effort to sleep more. I plan to make all necessary adjustments until I can regularly get a full nights sleep. Hopefully in the near future this information becomes more widespread and is taught in all schools. I don't think I would have been so careless with my sleep had I known the benefits from early on. Better late than never though, so I'm very thankful to have found this book now.

Profoundly important insight for our times.

I am recommending this book to all my friends. For the sake of one's health, creativity, mental wellbeing, and for the safety of our society, Matthew Walker's findings need to be widely known, especially by policy makers, and institutional decision makers such as school boards and superintendents and principles. And parents, and doctors, and everyone else, because insufficient sleep impacts EVERYTHING in our society.

Informative. Fascinating. Scary.

I highly recommend this book. I would advise, however, that the reader go into this book ready to view it as just one source of information on the topic. Because if you go into this book taking everything that the author says to heart, you are going to come away thinking that sleep is the answer to all of life's problems, and that you need to change your entire life around to make sleep your top priority. You will most likely also determine that you have already caused irrecoverable damage to your mind and body. Finally, you may become depressed, as you realize that even if you did rearrange your life to make sleep the most important thing, it would still probably not be enough.

With that behind us, let me say that this is a fascinating book. The author relies on countless studies to show the impact that sleep or lack of sleep has on the human existence. I would think that most listeners would get through the book in no time.

The narrator is great and well suited for the science heavy material.