Many things in our lives are linked to a very enjoyable activity, which we all need – sleep.
In order to better understand the peculiarities of this habit, we must enter the world of Matthew Walker, director of the Center for Human Sleep Science at the University of California, Berkeley.
More specifically, Matt works in an institute whose purpose is to understand the impact of sleep on us, from birth to death, when we are healthy or sick, and so on.
Walker does not limit his discussions to banal advice and superficial discussions, but he strongly believes we are at the brink of a “catastrophic sleep-loss epidemic,” and the consequences of this are more serious than we can imagine.
In Matthew’s view, sleeplessness is all that is less than 7 hours per night, and he believes the government should get involved in this issue.
Walker says that sleeping pills are not the solution but the sleep itself, and for that, campaigns should be made to encourage people to sleep.
There is a very large gap between 75 years of life and the current one – for example, in 1942, less than 8% of the population tried to survive 6 hours of sleep (or less) per night. In 2017, one in 2 people already does that.
“”First, we electrified the night. Light is a profound degrader of our sleep. Second, there is the issue of work: not only the porous borders between when you start and finish, but longer commuter times, too. No one wants to give up time with their family or entertainment, so they give up sleep instead. And anxiety plays a part. We’re a lonelier, more depressed society. Alcohol and caffeine are more widely available. All these are the enemies of sleep”, says Matt.
In our society, sleep is associated with a weakness or even shame. Sleep has become equivalent to laziness and because we want to look busy, we say how little we sleep.
It’s like getting a medal for that, says Matt. He also says that when we see babies sleeping, nobody comes to say – “what lazy baby,” which means that for the little ones the sleep is not negotiable. We abandon this notion quickly when we grow up, though.
Basically, as the scientist says, humans are the only species that breaks consciously from sleep without a very clear reason.
Obviously, Matt applies what he says:
“Yes. I give myself a non-negotiable eight-hour sleep opportunity every night, and I keep very regular hours: if there is one thing I tell people, it’s to go to bed and to wake up at the same time every day, no matter what. I take my sleep incredibly seriously because I have seen the evidence.
Once you know that after just one night of only four or five hours’ sleep, your natural killer cells – the ones that attack the cancer cells that appear in your body every day – drop by 70%, or that a lack of sleep is linked to cancer of the bowel, prostate and breast, or even just that the World Health Organisation has classed any form of night-time shift work as a probable carcinogen, how could you do anything else?”.
There are many studies that confirm the theory – the less you sleep, the less you will live. For example, adults over 45 years of age who sleep less than 6 hours per night have a 200% chance of suffering a heart attack.
We also add here that those who sleep a little have more chances to get fat, but also have a weaker immune system. Did you know that lack of sleep reduces the number of cells that fight cancer or that they can cause Alzheimer’s?
What can we do?
Matt encourages us not to miss nights and think of sleep as a job. We wake up to wake up in the morning, why do not we do that and when we have to sleep?
He imagines a whole system focused around sleep – schools start later and companies give bonuses according to this – productivity will increase, creativity, but also the level of honesty. Sleeping pills should be avoided.
Matt has documented his research in the book “Why we sleep” that you find here.
Click Here to learn how to Cure Snoring and Sleep Apnea
Cure Your Insomnia in 6 Simple Steps & Start Sleeping for 8 Hours Every Night – in Just 3 Days!
No Comments Yet