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Just finished reading Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker. The book has been one of the hardest hitting ones for me in many months. If you are one of those people who "need" only 6 hours of sleep, I strongly recommend you read this. 1/n
It took me over a month to read the book. For a simple reason. I tend to read starting at 10:30-11 at night. Often going upto 2 am. But I could never get past midnight with this one. Because by then I'd be scared that I'm compromising my sleep. 2/n
This book is just hundreds of pages why sleep matters, how it works, and what we stand to lose by compromising it. And also how we unwittingly compromise sleep as a society, year after year after year.
It starts off with an explanation of what induces sleep. 3/n
It starts off with an explanation of what induces sleep. 3/n
This part is fun. You begin to understand why jet-lag happens and how the body eventually corrects for it. It explains how coffee works to keep us awake. How the day-night cycle affects us.
This is followed by a whole part on the benefits of sleep. 4/n
This is followed by a whole part on the benefits of sleep. 4/n
From improving memory, problem solving, physiological cleansing to stress reduction, emotional well-being and whatnot. Again, this is fun. And you begin to feel like sleeping will probably be the most important thing you can do. 5/n
But then it gets to the side-effecst of a lack of sleep. Tonnes and tonnes of ways how everything from mental to physical to social well-being is affected by a lack of sleep. All backed by research done by lots of researchers worldwide.
One study that stood outt was this. 6/n
One study that stood outt was this. 6/n
...the switch to daylight savings time in March results in most people losing an hour of sleep opportunity.... millions of daily hospital records... you discover that this seemingly trivial sleep reduction comes with a frightening spike in heart attacks the following day. 7/n
There is so much in this book that should matter to all of us, even if only 10-20% of it were true. We'd all take sleep far more seriously. I certainly am. This book must be read more widely. /fin
