Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams
This phenomenal book has impacted me greatly and I highly recommend it, while reading it I was amazed by every chapter and making adjustments to my sleeping habits and schedule. It’s very well-written and covers every aspect of sleep―from our sleep rhythm across our life spans (including other animals), what happens to our body and brain in relation to sleep (and lack of), the different types of dreams we have, and how to transform our sleep―while smoothly explaining the science and research in a way that can be easily understood. Sleep has been one of my greatest struggles for the longest time, maybe it's severe insomnia or just my lifestyle. I used to sleep an average of 4.5 hours a day. This was a result of managing, advising, and supporting multiple organizations simultaneously while working (or attending university (past)) and being based in two different time zones. I’ve always sacrificed my sleep. My friends have experienced me drinking 3 cups of Zzzquil or the usual Tylenol pms (ask my friend Bader Saeed), otherwise, I can’t fall asleep on schedule; it’s known that if someone calls me at 3 am, I’ll be awake to pick it up (my old housemate Milad Rohani can confirm this), and if there’s a party, I can keep going until the next day despite being on a few hours of sleep while everyone’s knocked out tired. One of my favorite quotes about sleep comes from the House of Cards, when Frank Underwood says "I've always loathed the necessity of sleep. Like death, it puts even the most powerful men on their backs." When I saw Bill Gates review this book, it was an impulse buy, one that I’m very grateful for and have learned a lot from. I’ll start off with how my new sleeping schedule has been shaped based on what I learned, then mention the amazing facts about sleep.
I’ve been trying to sleep 8 hours a day, with a regular bed-time and wake-up time (it’s harder to follow on the weekends), practicing a biphasic sleeping schedule. At night, I stopped using my phone or laptop at least an hour before heading to bed due to the blue light, wash my face with warm water right before going to bed, setting my room a 65°F/18.3°C, replacing my nighttime brainstorm pace with an hour of reading in a slightly dim room. I’ve never been a coffee drinker and I don’t drink alchohol, so I didn’t have much problems with those burdens. As for the sleeping pills, I’ve been trying to wean off them and have been experiencing withdrawals that I’ve been managing to counter with advice from the book.
We have a 24-hour biological clock called the suprachiasmatic, that is reset by zeitgeber signals. This nucleus within our brain is made up of only 20,000 brian cells out of the 100 billion neurons in our brain, but holds a significant influence on our behaviours. Our circadian rhythms are different from one another, which puts a disadvantage on night owls (like me) due to the corporate world man-made schedule dominating our time. I’ve also learned that our set bed-time sleeping schedules for kids are flawed, because their bodies and rhythms are different; however, because we have them on our schedule and the school schedule, we ask them to go to bed earlier and sleep more (I wonder how this can be improved through a reformed corporate and school system that’s focused on our health). Also, the reason we get jetlagged is because our body still thinks we’re in another timezone, eastward travelling requires us to fall asleep earlier while westward travelling requires us to stay up later.
The most interesting parts I found in this book was regarding our misconceptions of sleep. We think that melatonin puts us to sleep, when really it calls for sleep. The other chemical, adenosine, is what forces us to sleep that builds up in our brain and induces sleep pressure, increasing the desire to sleep; caffeine, the most traded commodity after oil, artificially mutes adenosine signals and screws up your sleeping schedule. Our health, mood, and perfromance are all impacted heavily by our sleep; losing sleep one night, cannot be made up for by increasing sleep on another night, and losing sleep actually shortens our lifespan. It is suggested that we practice taking short naps in the mid day, known as biphasic sleeping as opposed to sleeping only at night for a long period, monophasic. There’s also very interesting research and discussion about dreams regarding the differences and benefits REM sleep (I want more of this since it fuels creativity) and NREM sleep.
This book has so much to offer, that it must be read and used. I think we should consider reforms based on our sleep; whether we truly care about our performance or personal health, both sides of coin tell us to sleep better.