Review – Why We Sleep By Matthew Walker

If you landed on my blog because you like reading about financial independence or early retirement and are wondering why I’m reviewing a book titled “Why We Sleep”, fear not. 

Here’s the deal – most people are under slept because of the stresses of their job, especially on top of all the other demands of modern life.

I know when I was hammering away at my job in my journeyman years, sleep was often tossed aside.  Many or most of us have done it, or still do it.  Sometimes my job demanded it – overnight shifts, and 7:00 am meetings.

Now that I’m semi-retired and part time at my W2 job, I only wake to an alarm 2 days a week.  Besides being glorious, this book joyfully informed me that the extra sleep I’m now routinely getting will undoubtedly make me healthier and live longer.

That’s why I’m reviewing a book about sleep.  If for no other reason, I’m more convinced than ever you should seek financial independence and/or early retirement to get more sleep.

So about the book.  The title of Dr. Walker’s book is a tad misleading in regards to it’s contents.  Perhaps he should have called the book “This Is Why Your Lack Of Sleep Is Killing You”. 

Better yet, if he were one of those bloggers who writes the way the SEO algorithms tell them to, he would call it “867 Reasons Why You Need More Sleep”.

Check that, I think there are more like a couple thousand in the book but whose counting.

Embedded in the book is the elevator pitch that surely Walker has used in an elevator before:

Scientists have discovered a revolutionary new treatment that makes you live longer. It enhances your memory, makes you more attractive. It keeps you slim and lowers food cravings. It protects you from cancer and dementia. It wards off colds and flu. It lowers your risk of heart attacks and stroke, not to mention diabetes. You’ll even feel happier, less depressed, and less anxious. Are you interested?

You guessed it, the magic pill is sleep….

Sleep has until recently been one of the more enigmatic mysteries of medical science.  But the past 20 years have seen a plethora of new breakthroughs.  This book is chock full of clinical evidence that explains the seemingly endless benefits of sleep, and the scary dangers of not getting enough. 

What I liked most is that Walker has the goods to back up his claims.  He cites statistic after statistic, and tons of new clinical evidence.  I couldn’t help but walk away from this book convinced.

I’m sure many who read the book and the evidence will immediately think “correlation isn’t causation”.  But the sheer number of correlations between sleep and good health and the studies to back them up are overwhelming.  At some point it is causation.

 

About Sleep

In easy to read and often humorous language, Walker explains the difference between NREM (non-REM) sleep and REM sleep and why each is vital.  For instance, NREM is crucial for memory while REM sleep helps the brain overcome past traumatic memories.

He also dives into the research as to what’s happening at the neurological level in each state of sleep.  If it sounds boring don’t worry, his prose is easy for the laymen and actually very engaging.

Walker explains in detail the circadian cycle, how it developed, and why is so crucial to our health.  Like most things that evolved over time with our bodies the circadian cycle serves a valuable purpose, and to think we can just ignore it is foolish and dangerous. 

Walker discusses caffeine, alcohol, melatonin, and sleeping pills among other things, debunking numerous myths and folklore along the way. 

One particularly fascinating section discusses morning larks and night owls, and the differences between them.  If your significant other is a morning person and you’re not, you might think twice about trying to change them.

 

Consequences

As far as what the long-term risks of too little sleep are, the book gets dark.  I say that because most of us, especially in the first world, don’t get enough sleep (8 hours). 

In fact, if you’re like most you probably get less than 7 hours a night and don’t even recognize your sleep deprived state.  It has become your normal.

Individuals fail to recognise how their perennial state of sleep deficiency has come to compromise their mental aptitude and physical vitality, including the slow accumulation of ill health. A link between the former and the latter is rarely made in their mind.

Did you know that the World Health Organization has declared the lack of proper sleep an epidemic throughout industrialized nations?  They’ve also identified any form of night-shift work as a carcinogen, due to circadian disruption.  Yeah, it’s that serious and the medical science backs it up.

So if you’re one of those who doesn’t get enough sleep (you likely are) and you’re reading this and thinking “pffft, whatever, I feel fine, no big deal”.

Let me just drop some nuggets from Dr. Walker:

Routinely sleeping less than 6 or 7 hours a night demolishes your immune system, more than doubling your risk of cancer.

Insufficient sleep is a key lifestyle factor determining whether or not you will develop Alzheimer’s disease.

Inadequate sleep, even moderate reductions for just one week, disrupts blood sugar levels so profoundly that you would be classified as pre-diabetic.

Short sleeping increases the likelihood of your coronary arteries becoming blocked and brittle, setting you on a path towards cardiovascular disease, stroke, and congestive heart failure.

Sleep disruption further contributes to all major psychiatric conditions, including depression, anxiety, and suicidality.

Too little sleep swells concentrations of a hormone that makes you feel hungry while suppressing a companion hormone that otherwise signals food satisfaction.

There’s plenty more but I don’t want to completely ruin your day.  All of the above, by the way, are backed up by science and lots of clinical evidence.

 

Conclusion

You need to read this book.  I don’t really have any criticisms besides the fact that his tone sometimes slips a little too far into cheerleader territory.  But in the end you can’t fault him for that, his enthusiasm for his subject is refreshing.

So many people wear the lack of sleep as a badge of honor.  In modern start-up and workaholic cultures of the working world, sleep is for the weak. 

This book shows that kind of attitude is a surefire way to disease and early death, plain and simple.

For me this book was, quite frankly, alarming.  But you may only find it so if you are health conscious. 

The fact that about 17% of Americans still smoke cigarettes is damning evidence that a decent portion of the population seemingly just doesn’t care about their health.  The evidence on the consequences of smoking is irrefutable.

Will the evidence about sleep and health presented here by Dr. Walker ever reach that status?  Or will people become the same “science deniers” that they admonish in other facets of life?

I’m unapologetic about the fact that I would love to live to 100 or older, and still be climbing mountains at that age.  And “Why We Sleep” did nothing to give me warm fuzzies that I will based off of my past sleeping behavior. 

But I’m now more thankful than ever of my financial responsibility and being able to achieve FI and semi-retirement at such an early age.  Ironically, this book has definitely woken me up to the realization that I must focus on sleep way more, and I’ve already started.

ISBN – 978-1501144318
My Rating: 10/10

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