Why We Sleep: Part I— Chapters 1–5
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In April we focused on wealth, on spending consciously and investing automatically.
Read the full Book Report for April’s book of the month.
This month we will focus on health, and the number one determinant for health is…sleep!
Why We Sleep is a powerfully researched book on everything that has to do with sleep. I have outlined the book below, as well as broke out which chapters we will be reviewing each week.
Sleep is the foundation of your health, and we strongly recommend reading along and taking action to improve the quality of your sleep.
Links to get this book:
** The links above are affiliate links. If you purchase the books with the links above, I receive a super tiny commission, which helps support this newsletter. Thank you! **
Part 1: This Thing Called Sleep — May 6
- Chapter 1: To sleep
- Chapter 2: Caffeine, Jet Lag, and Melatonin
- Chapter 3: Defining and Generating Sleep
- Chapter 4: Ape beds, Dinosaurs, and Napping with Half a Brain
- Chapter 5: Changes in Sleep Across the Life Span
Chapter 1: To Sleep
Overview:
This chapter introduces the book and scares the shit out of you.
Seriously. This chapter foreshadows that a lack of sleep is REALLY bad for your mental and physical health. Like, doubling your chance of cancer bad. It also breaks down that most people are sleep deprived, and explains how sleep affects every part of our body and mind’s recovery.
Takeaways:
- You need to sleep or you will die
- It’s okay to fall asleep while reading this book (lol)
- Sleep enriches the mind — including the ability to learn, memorize and make logical decisions and choices
- It recalibrates our emotional brain circuits, allowing us to navigate life
- Sleep repairs the body at every level — restocking our immune system, preventing infection, and warding off all manner of sickness (cough, COVID, cough)
- Sleep also regulates our metabolism and appetite, meaning the less sleep you get the more you try to eat everything.
My thoughts:
Well, when it comes to being healthy I try to do a good job. What area do I chronically struggle with the most? Sleeping enough.
I like to wake up early, around 5 am because that is the only time of day I can be alone and focus. If I don’t go to bed at 9 pm, I don’t get enough sleep.
So this isn’t a topic I am already a master at. I am hoping by reading and sharing this knowledge with all of you, that I can become a better sleeper.
Chapter 2: Losing and gaining Control of Your Sleep Rhythm
Overview: Your body is a clock, and it will try to drug you into sleeping if you try to stay up too long.
Your circadian rhythm is an internal clock designed to help regulate your body’s hormones. It uses the rising and falling of the sun to stay on track but will continue on its own even in the absence of sunlight. It just won’t be as accurate.
Takeaways:
- Your circadian rhythm is unique to you
- Your body produces melatonin to prepare you to fall asleep. Melatonin helps your body fall asleep but does not improve the overall quality of your sleep
- Air travel fucks your sleep cycle up, especially if you fly east.
- Caffeine can cover up the hormone that makes you feel tired, but it does not stop that hormone from building. If you use caffeine to stay up later, prepare for the avalanche of fatigue that is building up.
- You are probably not getting enough sleep
My thoughts:
I used to fight with my parents all the time about what time I should go to sleep when I was in high school.
Chapter 3: Defining and Generating Sleep
Overview: Sleep exists in two phases — NREM sleep and REM sleep. NREM sleep is commonly knowns as “deep sleep” while REM sleep is the “rapid-eye-movement” sleep where dreams happen.
This chapter talks a LOT about each of these two phases of sleep and how they are equally valuable.
Takeaways:
- NREM sleep is more prevalent in the first half of the night
- REM sleep is more prevalent in the second half of sleep, which is why it’s so easy to have crazy dreams after you hit the snooze button :P
- You need both. NREM helps your body recover and REM helps your brain recover, grow, and heal.
My thoughts:
Honestly, for a long time, I thought my sleep cycle was off. I track my sleep every night, and noticed that I never got a lot of REM sleep early in the night. This book is fascinating.
Chapter 4: Who Sleeps, How do we Sleep, and How Much?
Overview: Every creature that lives on Earth sleeps in some form or another. On land or underwater, all creatures sleep.
But only landbound animals enter REM sleep,
Takeaways:
- Birds and dolphins can put half of their brains to sleep while staying awake with the other half. Humans…can’t.
- Dreams occur during REM sleep
- Your sleep is better in a place you are familiar with that feels safe.
- Certain animals can go without sleep and not experience awful side effects during very specific conditions. The US government wants to unlock this to create 24/7 super-soldiers or 24/7 research scientists. So yeah.
- Humans have really high-quality REM sleep cycles, while not needing as much REM sleep as our primate cousins. We’re special like that.
Chapter 5: Changes in Sleep Across the Life Span
Overview: Your sleep cycles will change as you age, but no matter how old you are, you still need the same amount of sleep.
Apparently babies get 12 hours of REM sleep a day right before they are born.
Takeaways:
- REM sleep is CRITICAL to baby development
- Teenagers naturally have sleep cycles that start later at night
- Old people still need a lot of sleep, they just struggle to make it happen
My personal takeaways
Unlike the last book on our reading list, I don’t have a lot of knowledge and experience with optimizing my sleep, so a lot of this information is new for me.
I am going to try to get better sleep and share that data with all of you. I hope you all do the same.
