Essential Sleep Tips from ‘Why We Sleep’

Book Information

How I met this book

Originally, I was interested in Sleep. This is because sleep is one of the inevitable things for human beings. I heard about sleep from my friends or websites, such as people need to wake up early in the morning, using digital devices before bed affects sleep negatively, and people need only 5-6 hours of sleep. However, I did not know what is the facts about sleep.
In my life, after waking up in the morning, I felt different patterns each day. On somedays, I feel energized, but other days, I felt tired, but I could not find the same pattern. Meaning, even if I used my smartphone before bed, I had great energy on that day. Or, even if I sleep for good amount of sleep (8-9hours), I felt tired or sleepy. That is why I was wondering what is the best sleep for people or me specifically.

Before I found this book and started reading, I had found and watched the video “Sleep is Your Superpower”(TED) by the same author. You can see the video on YouTube or Ted Talks, or you might already have watched it. I was impressed by the fact that there is a person who specializes in sleep with studies to find out what are the facts about sleep.

One day, I was walking around in the library to look for the books randomly, and then I found the book written by the same person who delivered the TED speech! I did not even look over the book, and I grabbed and bought it. That is how I met this book.

Summary of this book

Short Summary

Sleep is one of the most important components for human beings. Sufficient and correct sleep has many benefits, such as improving memory, creativity, mental health, and even salary. Therefore, society should be designed well for people to get good sleep quality, such as late school start times and fewer work hours. In the end of this book, there are 12 tips to improve our sleep habits and qualities.

Key Points

1. People use a circadian rhythm, defined by melatonin, and sleep pressure, defined by adenosine, to determine when to sleep and when to wake.
2. Depending on age stages, people have different sleep cycles. For example, early exposure of melatonin is common for midlife or old age.
3. There are two types of sleep phases REM (dream) and NREM (deep) sleep in each 90 minutes cycle during sleep. Their roles are integration (creativity) and reflection (memory).
4. Enough sleep (8-9hours)can be beneficial to improve long term memory, sports performances, creativity, and health
5. Appropriate sleep habits (avoid caffeine intake in the afternoon, set up a repetitive sleep and wake-up cycle, etc.) might be better than sleeping pills to fix sleep issues.
6. Technology can be applied to improve sleep, instead of getting rid of it, such as by providing devices that suppress blue light, measure individual sleep quality, and urge a natural 24-hour circadian rhythm.

Fan Facts

• Early birds and Night owls are determined by genetics. (40% and 30% of population respectively)
• Half of Caffeine remains after 5-7 hours (half-life)
• 7 hours sleep for 10 days is as harmful as 24 hours awake.
• 0-1% of populations can live without any detriments by 5 or less hours sleep
• 1-2% of events between during real life and dreams matches. 35-55 % of emotional factors in real life are resurfaced in dreams.
• 20 minutes of nap has a memory consolidation advantage. 60-90minutes of naps include REM sleep (beneficial for learning)
• journaling of dreams can improve mental health
  

How I felt about this book

Before I started reading, I had felt ambiguous about sleep. However, now I know how much I should sleep each night and how to improve my sleep quality. I think that this book can be for every person because this book covers almost everything about sleep, such as what sleep is, how we should sleep, and why we should sleep from a scientific standpoint. This book reminds me of how important sleep is.

What I probably should improve is to make sure to sleep at least 8 hours, take short naps during the day, and refrain from taking caffeine in the late afternoon.

In the future, as the author suggested at the end of the book, we can get incentivized by getting vacation days or extra pay in exchange for continuous sleep. I think that people are still unaware of how important sleep is, or they do not prioritize sleep as much as the author does. To improve sleep issues as a society, the importance of sleep has to be recognized more. After reading this book, more or less, you will care about your sleep. And, I think that all people should read this book if they would like to improve their wellness in general.

Whom I recommend to read

• Those who want to improve sleep
• Those who want to know the facts about sleep
• Those who want to improve qualities of life