Life Fright

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Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker

I have never really thought about sleep more than making sure I got some sleep every night. I would feel my eyes getting tired and droopy signaling to me to stop what I’m doing and catch some shut eye. In high school and college, I would hear my peers talk about pulling an all-nighter or staying up till 3AM all said in proud tones like it was an achievement to possess this superpower to be able to function on little sleep. Teachers would acknowledge that students would need to devote more time to assignments, projects, and tests never mind there are only so many waking hours in the day.

I for one have never been able to feel like I can function on little sleep. I’ve had to stay up late finishing assignments or feeling the urge to continue studying in an attempt to match the aptitude of my peers both in sleep deprivation and skill acquisition. It has been so reassuring that I am not the odd one out for feeling this way, it is biologically so as Walker describes and recounts countless stories and research studies hammering in the main point: sleep is important and very, very, very few people are exempt from the tolls of sleep deprivation.

But why do we resist sleep so? There has been a slow rise in awareness touting the importance of getting enough sleep from the news sites I visit every day, but none of it goes into depth like this book does on how crucially sleep affects learning, memorization, and the good and bad accumulated health effects.

One of the most surprising takeaways from the book is how dangerous driving drowsy is. I initially was under the impression that drunk driving is the worst vehicular behavior to engage in alongside texting while driving. Both have legal ramifications at least in the U.S., but driving drowsy is not. The lack of sleep leads to a lack of awareness and inhibits drivers from being awake at a moment’s notice leading to heightened, potential catastrophes if it is not taken seriously. Walker mentions a study equating driving with a lack of sleep to driving with a dangerous blood alcohol concentration but emphasizes that it is so much worse than that. Mind. Blown.

I believe this book should be read by everyone so that as a society we can collectively make progressive changes to the way we view sleep not as an adversary, but as a friend. Moreover, through increased awareness we can make changes to the fabric of society to optimize on the positive effects of sleep and gear changes towards all levels of society, new and old, to the betterment of everyone.

Read more reviews of the book here.