Did You Get Eight Hours of Sleep Last Night?
I now have a new favorite book that I think everyone should read! It’s called, Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker, PhD. This book was recommended to me by my nephew, and I listened to it on Audible. Although it is quite technical and full of research studies, I found it fascinating. I learned once again about the importance of getting a full eight hours of sleep each night in order to function at your peak performance each day.
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Walker also talks about the value of short naps, if taken before 3 PM, so it doesn’t disrupt you from falling asleep at night. Since I’ve been taking naps for most of my life after becoming a mother (because I was always so tired with my 24-hour-a-day responsibilities) this part of his book was very interesting and reassuring to me! I also learned a lot of new information about how the brain works and the myriad health benefits of sleeping and dreaming.
Here are ten of Matthew Walker’s quotes:
“Human beings are the only species that deliberately deprive themselves of sleep for no apparent gain. Many people walk through their lives in an under-slept state, not realizing it.”
“Below seven hours of sleep, there are objective impairments in the body. Eight hours are recommended.”
“Regularity is a key: going to bed at the same time, waking up at the same time no matter what. But I think, also, it's not just about quantity - that's what we've been discovering. It's also about quality.”
“Friends say, 'Shall we go out to dinner at 8?' I say, 'I can't, I'm a 10 A.M.-till-6:30 P.M. kind of guy.' I keep that very regular, no matter what.”
“You're trying to sleep off a debt that you've lumbered your brain and body with during the week, and wouldn't it be lovely if sleep worked like that? Sadly, it doesn't. Sleep is not like the bank, so you can't accumulate a debt and then try and pay it off at a later point in time.”
“Stay away from screens, especially those LED screens. Those blue-light emitting devices fool your brain into thinking that it's still daytime, even though it's night-time and you want to get to sleep.”
“Falling asleep is like landing a plane. It takes time. You've got to sort of gradually descend. I think one of the problems with insufficient sleep is people are not very good at predicting how poorly they are doing when they are under-slept.”
“The gross demonstration of caffeine is that it prevents you from falling asleep. The slightly more nefarious aspect of caffeine is that maybe you can fall asleep, but we know that the depth of deep sleep you're getting if caffeine is still in your system is severely less.”
“Alcohol is a class of drugs that we call 'the sedatives.' And what you're doing is just knocking your brain out. You're not putting it into natural sleep.”
“Dream sleep provides a fascinating neurochemical soothing balm. It is during dream sleep and only during dream sleep when our brain shuts off a stress-related neurochemical called noradrenalin.”
Good night! I hope you all sleep well—by making and following a specific plan to get eight hours of sleep each night!