Why We Sleep

Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams

By: Matthew Walker

Narrated by: Steve West

The first sleep book by a leading scientific expert - Professor Matthew Walker, director of UC Berkeley's Sleep and Neuroimaging Lab - reveals his groundbreaking exploration of sleep, explaining how we can harness its transformative power to change our lives for the better.

Sleep is one of the most important but least understood aspects of our life, wellness, and longevity. 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 we don't sleep. Compared to the other basic drives in life - eating, drinking, and reproducing - the purpose of sleep remained elusive.

But an explosion of scientific discoveries in the last 20 years has shed new light on this fundamental aspect of our lives. Now, preeminent neuroscientist and sleep expert Matthew Walker gives us a new understanding of the vital importance of sleep and dreaming. Among so many other things, within the brain, sleep enriches 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 mollifies painful memories and creates a virtual reality space in which the brain melds past and present knowledge to inspire creativity.

Walker answers important questions about sleep: How do caffeine and alcohol affect sleep? What really happens during REM sleep? Why do our sleep patterns change across a lifetime? How do common sleep aids affect us, and can they do long-term damage? Charting cutting-edge scientific breakthroughs and synthesizing 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; increase longevity; enhance the education and lifespan of our children, and boost the efficiency, success, and productivity of our businesses. Clear-eyed, fascinating, and immensely accessible, Why We Sleep is the crucial account on sleep that will forever change listeners' minds on the subject.

©2017 Matthew Walker (P)2017 Simon & Schuster, Inc.

I recommend this to EVERYONE

I first noticed Why We Sleep on Audible's homepage under "New in Non-Fiction" and clicked on it simply because I saw it was narrated by one of my favorite narrators, Steve West. The subtitle "Unlocking the power of sleep and dreams" makes this sound like it would be full of watered down science and generic advice about getting a good night's sleep or interpreting your dreams. That is NOT what this book is, thankfully. Matthew Walker presents study after study explaining why we need sleep for every aspect of our lives (to prevent disease, to help remember things, to look more attractive, etc.). I was fascinated for all 14 hours of this book. I've recommended it to every person I know, because the content of the book is just so IMPORTANT. The next time I hear someone say, "Oh, I only need 5 hours of sleep a night," I will tell them how wrong they are and shove this book in their face. Seriously, everyone needs to READ THIS BOOK!!! Our society holds some really erroneous beliefs about sleep, from how much you should be getting a night, to whether you really have insomnia (you probably don't). Walker addresses everything you ever wanted to know about sleep and more in this book. I will be listening to this again soon.

This will change my life

This book will be on the short list of books that has a concrete, lasting impact on my life. I picked it because I've always been curious about why humans sleep. This book answers that question and makes an undeniable case for the importance of regular, deep sleep.

fascinating science & inspiration

I learned a lot, and am inspired to make lifestyle changes. I really hope I can make them stick!

Life Improving

In my 60’s, latter portion, I wish I had discovered this when the 21st century rolled around... no wait, add 30 more years to that... before that I knew everything 😎

I thought this book was an entirely waste of time

I was completely wrong. This book provides the best scientific evidence to understand the importance of sleeping in a personal and a large scale level.

This is key to awaken people's minds in order to brake paradigms that invade our society regarding the encouragement of lack of sleep.

Read it!

Great book. Well written and well read.

The author explains why he is in love with sleep and convince me why I should be that as well. I loved this presentation of evidence for why we sleep.
The narrator is great and sounds like he’s committed to the subject.

I will highly recommend this book to everyone.

After ended listening to this audiobook I bought it as paperback as well - because I wants to have every great sentence of this book within reach all the time. I didn’t just fall in love with sleep, I also fell in love with this book.

Wtf

Dear Mathew

You fuck. I love your work and how enthusiastic you were in joes podcast. When I watch the pod cast I loved how you were really getting into what your were talking about. Please redo that book and read it yourself. Thank you

Love now fully rested Damon Simonelli

The Most Important Book Ever

Everyone should get this book. It has changed my life! I've been recommending it to everyone I've spoken to for weeks now.

Hot shower before bedtime is key

Outstanding material and writing. Up to date data and research content till writing time 2017. Simple, doable and proven suggestions to improve sleep at unsocial level as well as at society level.

Highly recommend book

One of the best books...

In order to understand the importance of sleep.

Thoroughly enjoyed this and it had made a lasting impact on me by altering my behavior, taking sleep more seriously and designing better conditions to improve sleep.

Highly recommended to entrepreneurs