Chris Kresser Popular Books

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Why We Sleep: The New Science of Sleep and Dreams (or simply known as Why We Sleep) is a 2017 popular science book about sleep written by Matthew Walker, an English scientist and the director of the Center for Human Sleep Science at the University of California, Berkeley, who specializes in neuroscience and psychology. In the book, Walker discusses about the importance of sleeping, the side effects of failing to do so, and its impact on society. Walker spent four years writing the book, in which he asserts that sleep deprivation is linked to numerous fatal diseases, including dementia. Why We Sleep became a bestseller under The New York Times and The Sunday Times that discusses the topic of sleep from the viewpoint of neuroscience. The book has received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised Walker's research and views on the science of sleep, while criticizing the book for its certain claims regarding sleep. Background According to Walker, who had never written a book at the time, he was motivated to write the book after an encounter with a woman who glanced at his work related to sleep and its benefits for health, stating, "When that comes out, I want to read it". Walker described this encounter as a sincere "independent ratification" that made him write the book. The book took Walker roughly four and a half years to write. Walker and his team spent roughly 20 years studying the rejuvenating ability sleep has. Walker's communication style, in which he makes use of "metaphors and analogies effectively," allowed him to explain ideas related to sleep in detail. At 18 years of age, Walker, who was a medical student at the time, became an "accidental sleep researcher" and moved over to studying neuroscience because of his habit of asking many questions. It was during his PhD at London's Medical Research Council when Walker learned about how little information there was on sleep. A scientific paper helped Walker with his research after his failure to determine the differences of brainwave activity between various dementia found in people, with the paper's contents describing the areas of the brain each variant of dementia attacks. It was then Walker realized that in order to measure his patients' brainwave patterns properly, they need to be asleep. Walker spent six months teaching himself how to set up his sleep laboratory, which allowed him to voice his findings on sleep differences amongst his patients. Walker noted that many people misinterpret the amount of sleep they actually receive, likely caused by deep thought during the light sleep phases. Following the release of the book, Walker went on to describe his book as having the potential to make readers sleep and jokingly admitted to being concerned to hear if his book kept people awake at night. Contents The book is written from a neuroscientific view and is mainly devoted to discussing about the impact sleep has on the functions of the human brain. The book is divided into four parts, each section focusing on how sleep works, its benefits, the reason why dreams occur and sleep issues surrounding society. The book is written in a way so that it does not need to be read sequentially. In the book, Walker discusses about the effects of the widespread effect of sleep-loss, in which the goal in mind being that readers will endeavour in achieving eight hours of sleep once they learn about the connection sleep loss has to other health issues, such as Alzheimer's disease. Other details about lack of sleep explained by Walker include adults who sleep for less than 6 hours at the age of 40 and above have a higher chance of suffering a cardiac arrest or a stroke during their lifetime. "Sleep pressure and circadian rhythms", the driving forces and the framework of sleep, are brought up by Walker in the book. Other sleep behaviors, such as non-rapid eye movement sleep and rapid eye movement sleep, and the impact sleep has on "synaptic pruning" and the creation of memories during a human's lifespan are also covered. NREM and REM are further explained by Walker to be the two sleeping basics, with 5 cycles present in a person's good night sleep. The book mentions about "morning types" and "evening types" of people, with Walker writing about how spending fewer amounts of time sleeping benefited earlier human predecessors who slept in groups of people due to their time period being safer than now. The book emphasises on the significance of having a good night's sleep without the feeling of uneasiness or guilt of laziness. Walker, in his book, defines insomnia as a disorder that usually related to an overwrought commiserating nervous system that's usually caused by anxiousness. He goes on to addresses the P.T.S.D victims' nightmares, stating that their dreams' ability to heal them by reducing the emotions connected to a distressing memory is affected by an unusual quantity of noradrenaline being created. Walker also believed that dreams carry information regarding fundamental emotions while admitting that they can be quite apparent to people, resulting in no explanations required to describe them. The values of sleep and the consequences of sleep deprivation are also brought up in the book. One particular research conducted in the past, where people volunteered themselves to sleep for only six hours in a span of 10 nights, is brought up by Walker. This resulted in the volunteers being "cognitively impaired" along with their brains being heavily damaged, regardless of the three week eight-hour sleep schedule they received later. Actions carried out by sleep-deprived people, such as answering emails at every hour of a day, are brought to question in the book. Walker wrote that research proves that sleeping after studying allows for "memory, integration and retention benefits" to occur. He further wrote that sleeping has the ability to retain memories and amend the abilities of human learning. Many organizations, who make creativeness, productiveness and resilient workers valued, give themselves a "sleep bonus", with the amount of extra sleep received being determined through electronic monitoring. Walker further noted that companies are changing their workplaces by allowing more "flexible working" and comfort zones for people to rest. Walker's research on what impacts sleep is brought up in the book, with temperature influencing sleep being one of them. A five-step guideline is written in the book, with Walker explaining how to prevent "self-euthanasia" from missing sleep. The guideline also brings up "individual-level transformation" and a reformation of society. The book teaches about the basics behind how sleep works neurologically and biologically. The impact of caffeine on sleep is written in the book, with Walker noting its effects on the adenosine that allows people to fall asleep. It is further explained that caffeine will take more time to exit the body as it ages, with younger people having the ability.... Discover the Chris Kresser popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Chris Kresser books.