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webart-studio · 5 years

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Studying One E-book a Week Gained

How and what you learn issues greater than ending 100 books in a 12 months.

February 28, 2019 10 min learn

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their very own.

The time period “bookworm” was an insult. It was a schoolyard taunt, albeit a tame one, utilized in the identical context as geek, nerd or dork. However studying has undergone a makeover. It’s the brand new inexperienced smoothie; one thing we should always work into our every day routines just because it’s good for us.

Founders and thought leaders can’t cease speaking about what, when, and the way a lot they learn, and the message is obvious: extra is healthier. Some even counsel that we should always learn a e-book a day if we wish to succeed.

However who has that form of time? Enter pace studying. Weblog posts, movies and articles with titles like “How you can Learn 300 P.c Quicker in 15 Minutes” inform us that pace studying is now a aggressive sport. We have to measure our phrases per minute and devour the whole New York Instances bestseller record.

Associated: The 5-Hour Rule Utilized by Invoice Gates, Jack Ma and Elon Musk

Studying is considered one of my biggest pleasures. I learn to discover new concepts and views. Over the previous 13 years, studying from others has additionally helped me to bootstrap my enterprise, JotForm, into an organization that serves 4.Three million customers. However, I don’t care about pace, targets or racking up books like searching trophies.

The secrets and techniques of pace studying.

Again within the 1960s, President John F. Kennedy claimed he may learn an astounding 1,200 phrases a minute. After a little bit digging, it was revealed he made that quantity up. Whereas pace studying is having fun with a second within the highlight, the pursuit has been round for many years.

In response to the 1990 version of The Guinness E-book of World Information, Howard Berg mentioned he may learn greater than 80 pages of textual content per minute. That’s about 25,000 phrases each 60 seconds. Studying specialist Mark Pennington, nonetheless, says Berg’s talents had been additionally fabricated.

Researchers constantly discredit the claims of individuals like Berg and world speed-reading champion Anne Jones, who supposedly learn Dan Brown’s 624-page thriller, Inferno, in 41 minutes and 48 seconds.

The late eye-tracking researcher Keith Rayner, for instance, defined that techniques like concurrently studying giant web page segments aren’t biologically or psychologically attainable. Our “foveal viewing space” — a small melancholy within the macula — is the solely a part of the attention that may ship clear, targeted pictures to the mind. Something outdoors this space enters our peripheral imaginative and prescient.

We merely can’t learn a complete web page without delay. The human eye can’t zig-zag across the textual content and nonetheless soak up the that means. Apps that declare to extend pace by displaying one phrase at a time will also be deceptive. They could promise to scale back the time your eyes spend shifting from phrase to phrase, however we don’t cease considering when our eyes transfer.

We course of content material on a regular basis, however our eyes transfer simply 10 p.c of the time. Furthermore, when the mind skims, we dedicate much less time and a spotlight to crucial evaluation, interference and empathy, wrote UCLA psychologist Patricia Greenfield.

Meaning skimmers can’t actually soak up what they learn — and we deny ourselves the power to know complicated concepts or develop knowledgeable opinions. The reality is easy: larger studying pace = decrease comprehension. And that’s high quality if you happen to’re scanning a buying record or on the lookout for your seat at a banquet.

Typically we don’t want to soak up each phrase. But when we’re making an attempt to achieve knowledge and problem our considering, pace defeats the entire objective.

“I took a speed-reading course the place you run your finger down the center of the web page and was in a position to learn Conflict and Peace in 20 minutes,” Woody Allen as soon as mentioned. “It’s about Russia.”

Studying properly is its personal reward.

Science, enterprise and even former U.S. presidents have weighed in on pace studying. However there’s a deeper query we haven’t addressed: why can we need to learn quicker? If somebody naturally reads a e-book per week, and even per day, that’s nice — if it’s a tempo they take pleasure in.

All of us have totally different studying speeds and comprehension ranges, inside the vary of human talents. There’s no want to succeed in some arbitrary quantity, like ending 100 books per 12 months. Then there’s the truth that not all books are created equal. For each insightful, unbelievable title on the market, most cabinets additionally comprise numerous duds. Some books simply aren’t value studying.

Style varies, too. The e-book that strikes a nerve for some will depart others bored to tears. And all of us learn for various causes — from momentary escape to gaining data to delighting in the fantastic thing about masterful writing.

Talking of magnificence, many titles deserve greater than pace studying. These books ought to be savored, like a glass of high quality wine. Blazing by means of the phrases of Gabriel Garcia Marquez or Alice Munro, for instance, is like assigning a KPI or ROI goal to considered one of life’s biggest pleasures.

Once we learn to cross a end line, we soak up little or no and we miss an (more and more) uncommon alternative for quiet reflection. Sure, a few of the world’s most profitable individuals learn lots, however that’s additionally as a result of they’re curious and so they like to study. So, we should always look not at how a lot they learn, however how they learn.

Associated: 19 Books to Learn to Be Profitable in 2019

The alternative ways we learn.

All of us have interaction in three kinds of studying. If you scroll by means of Instagram or flip by means of {a magazine} on the grocery retailer checkout, that’s passive studying. It occurs to you.

The second sort is sensible. This consists of studying a psychology textbook or the high quality print on a medicine label. Sensible studying has a objective, and we have interaction particularly to achieve data.

The ultimate form of studying is pleasurable — and it’s completely subjective. Whether or not we’re studying Vogue within the bathtub or we’re engrossed in a Winston Churchill biography, we learn to have interaction with the phrases and the subject material, not as a result of we’re making an attempt to fulfill a purpose. Once we learn for pleasure, time and place tends to slide away. We go deep inside one other world.

When studying is pleasurable, the content material stays with us. We don’t overlook the tales. We develop our vocabulary, course of recent concepts, and we’re way more more likely to act on what we soak up.

All three studying sorts are legitimate and helpful. But when we’re making an attempt to enhance our lives and careers, the 100 books we end are solely as useful as the teachings we apply. Even the sharpest, smartest books received’t change something if we haven’t processed them correctly.

Because the American thinker Mortimer J. Adler wrote:

“Within the case of excellent books, the purpose is to not see what number of of them you may get by means of, however quite what number of can get by means of to you.”

Listed below are just a few suggestions that will help you discover the books that get by means of.

1. Revisit the classics.

Most books on at present’s bestseller lists are repackaged variations of traditional titles. Return to the unique sources and discover their longstanding knowledge. Or, query the concepts they first popularized. Choose the easiest in no matter space pursuits you.

The Aim by Eliyahu M. Goldratt was first revealed in 1984, however this “enterprise novel” launched the Idea of Constraints, and stays completely related in at present’s technology-driven world.

2. Drop the judgment.

“What’s your responsible pleasure?” is a enjoyable interview and get together query. However I believe we should always abandon the concept some books are simply responsible pleasures — titles that ought to solely be learn on a seashore, for instance. Studying doesn’t must be tedious to be precious.

How you can Fail at Nearly Every thing and Nonetheless Win Huge is by Scott Adams, creator of the Dilbert syndicated sketch. It is a enjoyable learn that made me chuckle with nearly each web page. It is also crammed filled with nice profession recommendation, like utilizing programs as an alternative of objectives to create lasting change.

3. Select for your self.

Studying to impress others is never satisfying. Life’s too quick to endure books that put you to sleep. Learn what you’re keen on and luxuriate in each second. Diving deep right into a topic that fascinates and engages you’ll add extra worth to your life than working begrudgingly by means of another person’s “must-read” record.

A Information to the Good Life by William B. Irvine is a philosophy e-book about Stoicism, and the way it can assist us to keep away from continual dissatisfaction. It won’t be everybody’s cup of tea, however I discovered it deeply participating.

4. Return to books you’re keen on.

My favourite books really feel like a pair of cozy slippers. They’re heat and acquainted, however they by no means stop to offer consolation. I typically return time and again to beloved titles — and I uncover one thing new every time I crack the duvet. Re-reading a e-book that impressed, motivated, or modified you is finally extra impactful than a brand new title that doesn’t stir your thoughts.

I’ve a duplicate of The Conflict of Artwork by Steven Pressfield on my iPad and the audiobook model on my Kindle. Once I’m struggling to work, I will randomly choose a chapter and begin listening. In lower than 5 minutes, I am fired up and able to go.

Associated: This is How you can Learn 300 Books This 12 months

5. Make notes.

We retain extra data after we take guide notes. You may spotlight sections or scribble notes in books you personal, or preserve a notepad close by for any ideas that emerge. Actively participating with books can assist you to soak up and interpret the content material extra completely.

The Rules of Product Improvement Movement by Donald G. Reinertsen was my introduction to the lean manufacturing mannequin. After jotting down a stack of notes, I used to be impressed to overtake our growth course of at JotForm. We proceed to depend on Reinertsen’s ideas and have by no means regarded again.

6. Begin or be a part of a e-book membership.

Studying is a solo pastime, however a e-book membership could make it really feel collaborative. Listening to what different individuals take into consideration a title is fascinating, and the dialogue can spotlight totally different views. Likelihood is you’ll additionally learn books that you simply won’t have picked. You don’t have to like them, however it’s an effective way to play the literary area.

I did not learn The 12 months With out Pants by Scott Berkun with a e-book membership, however it will be an excellent choose for a nonfiction group. On the floor, it is a story about distant work, however Berkun’s experiences confirmed me scale a staff with out rising its dimension — a precious precept whether or not your groups work within the workplace or from a seashore in Bali.

Eradicate the end line.

Nobody ought to gauge their value by what number of books they end, or by the titles on their shelf. Clearly, studying has all kinds of advantages. It educates, will increase our empathy and stretches our consciousness. It’s additionally simply enjoyable.

So, let’s cease studying to develop our companies and our financial institution accounts, and focus as an alternative of the straightforward pleasure of shifting, web page by web page, by means of a very nice e-book.

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jenmedsbookreviews · 6 years

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Hi folk(s). How have you been? I’ve had quite a week and I can’t believe it is Monday once again. Where did the week go? Went for a couple of nice walks this weekend, making the most of the good weather. Eight plus miles on Saturday and another three and a half around the local deer park on Sunday. I’m still overweight and my legs are tired but apparently it was good for me so that’s okay then.

So. Last Monday saw me and Mandie heading off to Liverpool for a bit of a mooch (and that was all it really was in fairness) and to attend the Investigating a Murder event to celebrate the launch of In A House of Lies by Ian Rankin. Ian was joined by Senior Investigating Officer Chris Sephton of Merseyside Police and Forensic Pathologist Dr Richard Shepherd, author of Unnatural Causes. It was an absolutely fascinating afternoon as first Ian discussed his new book and the Rebus series in general including how he’d one day like to write a story with Siobhan as the central focus, before being joined by the others for a more general discussion on investigating crimes in general. I always find these kinds of talks fascinating, and I’d love to tell you more about the even itself but I was so engrossed I took no notes at all. Did manage to squeeze in a few snaps though, and get my book signed by the lovely Mr Rankin.

After the excitement of Monday I spent a few days reading (just for a change) and then on Thursday we headed over to Stoke to join Mel Sherratt as she celebrated the launch of Hush Hush, her first book to be published in paperback. It was a fab evening and it was lovely to see a few familiar faces there including Kerry Ann Parsons, Steph Lawrence, Jo Furniss and Sharon Riley Sant (aka Tilly Tennant who, incidentally, has a new book out today, The Christmas Wish, which Mandie will be reviewing later in the week.). It was also nice to finally meet Sabah Khan of Avon after exchanging emails for so long about blog tours. Some great company, lush cakes (totally diet food) and a new signed book for the collection, I’d say it was an evening well spent.

We did spot one thing while in Waterstones, and it may just be our dirty minds working overtime, but can’t help feeling this bookseller recommends label could have used the word book at the end of the first line …

Anyway, back to the books … Bought a few new ones this week. First wasUnnatural Causes by Richard Shepherd. I thought I had it on kindle already but apparently not. I do now. I also preordered A Gift For Dying by MJ Arlidge which isn’t out until next March and doesn’t yet have a cover but as I was already on Amazon, it seemed rude not to. As I have just bought a new soup maker I also bought a book of soup recipes for inspiration – A Soup for Everday from the Covent Garden Soup Company. Two Netgalley downloads this week, both for tours. Graham Smith’s The Darling Dead and Drew Davies’ The Shape of Us.

I was also a very lucky blogger receiving three absolutely gorgeous titles on Tuesday. Firstly I was sent an advance copy of The Hermitage by LJ Ross from the author herself which I devoured that afternoon. When I got home from a quick jaunt into town I found I had received book post in the shape of Attend by West Camel and Deep Dirty Truth by Steph Broadribb from Orenda Books. So excited to read both I have to do some major schedule juggling to sneak them in early.

I might have made one or two audio book purchases too. By might, I mean that i rounded off my DCI Ryan collection with copies of Dark Skies and Seven Bridges and I also bought a copy of Denzyl Meyrick’s The Relentless Tide. Because it would be rude not to, I preordered a copy of the DCI Ryan prequel too, The Infirmary. Out next month, this is an audio first release and I can’t wait.

Reading wise I did okay I guess. Three books completed and one very short children’s story to top it off.

Books I have read

Closer – KL Slater

I know my daughter better than I know myself and if there’s one thing I know for sure at this moment: it’s that Maisie is not ok.

My ex-husband Shaun and I are still friends. We would do anything for our beautiful little girl, Maisie. But now Shaun has moved in with Joanne and suddenly, Maisie has a brand new family.

And there’s something not quite right about it…I know Joanne isn’t everything she says she is. Yet no-one will listen.

I need to discover what she’s hiding.

Because if I don’t, my daughter will be in terrible danger.

The most gripping psychological thriller you’ll read this year from the Kindle top five bestselling author K.L. Slater. If you love The Girl on the Train or Gone Girl, you’ll be absolutely hooked.

I really love KL Slater’s writing and Closer is another brilliant and gripping story. It is more a domestic noir than perhaps a psychological thriller for me but still the pain which is clear in each page as someone systematically erodes a young child’s self confidence is so hard to read and yet very recognisable. I’ll be reviewing as part of the tour but you can buy a copy of the book here.

…

The Hermitage – LJ Ross

He thought he was invincible, but he was wrong…

When an old man is found dead inside the ancient hermitage at Warkworth Castle, Northumbria CID are called in to investigate. With no apparent motive, it’s their job to unravel why he was murdered – and this time they’re forced to do it without their star detective…

DCI Ryan is thousands of miles away. He’s tracked a killer across Europe and has sworn not to return until he has his man in custody. Nathan Armstrong is a dangerous psychopath but there’s just one problem – he’s also an international celebrity; a world-famous thriller writer with money and connections.

Ryan is a stranger in a foreign land, but he knows one thing – he’ll never give up.

Murder and mystery are peppered with romance and humour in this fast-paced crime whodunnit set amidst the spectacular landscapes of Northumberland and Tuscany.

Oh how I love this series and this is another brilliant instalment. With Ryan and Anna in Florence trying to track down Nathan Armstrong, it adds a certain European flair to an already superb series of books. You learn more about Ryan and it is littered with tension and the odd romantic moment too. You can read my review by following the recap link further down this post and buy your own copy of the book here.

…

A Spooky Tale – Sue Wickstead

When the teacher decided to take the class out on a walk the children did not want to go… But… What could POSSIBLY go wrong? Why did the class not feel well? Read the book to find out.

A fictional tale based on a real class walk around the neighbourhood. Where would your walk take you?

A short but fun little tale perfect for young children this Halloween, I’ll be reviewing next week so watch out for it. you can grab a copy here.

…

Some Old Bloke – Robert Llewellyn

When writer, comedian and Red Dwarf actor Robert Llewellyn’s son scrawled a picture of him at Christmas and titled it ‘Some Old Bloke’, Robert was cast deep into thought about life and what it means to be a bloke – and an old one at that. In this lighthearted, revealing and occasionally philosophical autobiography, we take a meandering route through Robert’s life and career: from the sensitive young boy at odds with his ex-military father, through his stint as a hippy and his years of arrested development in the world of fringe comedy, all the way up to the full-body medicals and hard-earned insights of middle age. Whether he is waxing lyrical about fresh laundry, making an impassioned case for the importance of alternative energy or recounting a detailed history of the dogs in his life, Robert presents a refreshingly open and un-cynical look at the world at large and, of course, the joys of being a bloke.

I am not now, nor am I ever likely to be, an old bloke, but that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy reading this book. Taking a look at his life from adolescent years, to hippydom, to fatherhood, Llewellyn takes us on a fascinating journey which will make you laugh and ponder, as well as give you insight into what he thinks our future may be heading towards. You can buy a copy here, I’ll be reviewing for the tour.

…

So that was it. Down from the lofty heights of five books last week, but in my defence I was quite busy. You can see a recap of my week on the blog below:

Trap by Lilja Sigurdardóttir

Perfect Liars by Rebecca Reid

Cover Reveal & Author Q&A: Star Girl by Louise Beech

Death on the River by Clare Chase

The Righteous Spy by Merle Nygate

Fatal Promise by Angela Marsons

The Hermitage by LJ Ross

Dead End by Rachel Lynch

Lies Between Us by Ronnie Turner

This week I shall be reading a lot hopefully, making some final preparations for taking part in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) where I hope to finally make progress with my own writing and taking part in the odd tour or two. Starting tomorrow when I’ll be reviewing Hush Hush by Mel Sherratt, then One Dark Night by Tom Bale, Steel and Shadows by Stuart Field, Closer by KL Slater, Mandie has a review of The Christmas Wish by Tilly Tennant, then back to me for Christmas at the Little Cottage on the Hill by Emma Davies and Off Island by Marlene Hauser.

Hope you all have a brilliant week. The rat bags on the TV were talking about snow later in the week but hopefully they were talking nonsense as usual. We will see I guess. I intend to try to make the most of the good weather in the meantime. Only two weeks now until I start work again. Whoop whoop.

See you next time.

Jen

Rewind, recap: Weekly update w/e 21/10/18 Hi folk(s). How have you been? I've had quite a week and I can't believe it is Monday once again.

#Rewind Recap #Weekly Round UP

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trendingnewsb · 7 years

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The shorter your sleep, the shorter your life: the new sleep science

Leading neuroscientist Matthew Walker on why sleep deprivation is increasing our risk of cancer, heart attack and Alzheimers and what you can do about it

Matthew Walker has learned to dread the question What do you do? At parties, it signals the end of his evening; thereafter, his new acquaintance will inevitably cling to him like ivy. On an aeroplane, it usually means that while everyone else watches movies or reads a thriller, he will find himself running an hours-long salon for the benefit of passengers and crew alike. Ive begun to lie, he says. Seriously. I just tell people Im a dolphin trainer. Its better for everyone.

Walker is a sleep scientist. To be specific, he is the director of the Center for Human Sleep Science at the University of California, Berkeley, a research institute whose goal possibly unachievable is to understand everything about sleeps impact on us, from birth to death, in sickness and health. No wonder, then, that people long for his counsel. As the line between work and leisure grows ever more blurred, rare is the person who doesnt worry about their sleep. But even as we contemplate the shadows beneath our eyes, most of us dont know the half of it and perhaps this is the real reason he has stopped telling strangers how he makes his living. When Walker talks about sleep he cant, in all conscience, limit himself to whispering comforting nothings about camomile tea and warm baths. Its his conviction that we are in the midst of a catastrophic sleep-loss epidemic, the consequences of which are far graver than any of us could imagine. This situation, he believes, is only likely to change if government gets involved.

Walker has spent the last four and a half years writing Why We Sleep, a complex but urgent book that examines the effects of this epidemic close up, the idea being that once people know of the powerful links between sleep loss and, among other things, Alzheimers disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity and poor mental health, they will try harder to get the recommended eight hours a night (sleep deprivation, amazing as this may sound to Donald Trump types, constitutes anything less than seven hours). But, in the end, the individual can achieve only so much. Walker wants major institutions and law-makers to take up his ideas, too. No aspect of our biology is left unscathed by sleep deprivation, he says. It sinks down into every possible nook and cranny. And yet no one is doing anything about it. Things have to change: in the workplace and our communities, our homes and families. But when did you ever see an NHS poster urging sleep on people? When did a doctor prescribe, not sleeping pills, but sleep itself? It needs to be prioritised, even incentivised. Sleep loss costs the UK economy over 30bn a year in lost revenue, or 2% of GDP. I could double the NHS budget if only they would institute policies to mandate or powerfully encourage sleep.

Why, exactly, are we so sleep-deprived? What has happened over the course of the last 75 years? In 1942, less than 8% of the population was trying to survive on six hours or less sleep a night; in 2017, almost one in two people is. The reasons are seemingly obvious. First, we electrified the night, Walker says. 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. Were a lonelier, more depressed society. Alcohol and caffeine are more widely available. All these are the enemies of sleep.

But Walker believes, too, that in the developed world sleep is strongly associated with weakness, even shame. We have stigmatised sleep with the label of laziness. We want to seem busy, and one way we express that is by proclaiming how little sleep were getting. Its a badge of honour. When I give lectures, people will wait behind until there is no one around and then tell me quietly: I seem to be one of those people who need eight or nine hours sleep. Its embarrassing to say it in public. They would rather wait 45 minutes for the confessional. Theyre convinced that theyre abnormal, and why wouldnt they be? We chastise people for sleeping what are, after all, only sufficient amounts. We think of them as slothful. No one would look at an infant baby asleep, and say What a lazy baby! We know sleeping is non-negotiable for a baby. But that notion is quickly abandoned [as we grow up]. Humans are the only species that deliberately deprive themselves of sleep for no apparent reason. In case youre wondering, the number of people who can survive on five hours of sleep or less without any impairment, expressed as a percent of the population and rounded to a whole number, is zero.

The world of sleep science is still relatively small. But it is growing exponentially, thanks both to demand (the multifarious and growing pressures caused by the epidemic) and to new technology (such as electrical and magnetic brain stimulators), which enables researchers to have what Walker describes as VIP access to the sleeping brain. Walker, who is 44 and was born in Liverpool, has been in the field for more than 20 years, having published his first research paper at the age of just 21. I would love to tell you that I was fascinated by conscious states from childhood, he says. But in truth, it was accidental. He started out studying for a medical degree in Nottingham. But having discovered that doctoring wasnt for him he was more enthralled by questions than by answers he switched to neuroscience, and after graduation, began a PhD in neurophysiology supported by the Medical Research Council. It was while working on this that he stumbled into the realm of sleep.

Matthew Walker photographed in his sleep lab. Photograph: Saroyan Humphrey for the Observer

I was looking at the brainwave patterns of people with different forms of dementia, but I was failing miserably at finding any difference between them, he recalls now. One night, however, he read a scientific paper that changed everything. It described which parts of the brain were being attacked by these different types of dementia: Some were attacking parts of the brain that had to do with controlled sleep, while other types left those sleep centres unaffected. I realised my mistake. I had been measuring the brainwave activity of my patients while they were awake, when I should have been doing so while they were asleep. Over the next six months, Walker taught himself how to set up a sleep laboratory and, sure enough, the recordings he made in it subsequently spoke loudly of a clear difference between patients. Sleep, it seemed, could be a new early diagnostic litmus test for different subtypes of dementia.

After this, sleep became his obsession. Only then did I ask: what is this thing called sleep, and what does it do? I was always curious, annoyingly so, but when I started to read about sleep, I would look up and hours would have gone by. No one could answer the simple question: why do we sleep? That seemed to me to be the greatest scientific mystery. I was going to attack it, and I was going to do that in two years. But I was naive. I didnt realise that some of the greatest scientific minds had been trying to do the same thing for their entire careers. That was two decades ago, and Im still cracking away. After gaining his doctorate, he moved to the US. Formerly a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, he is now professor of neuroscience and psychology at the University of California.

Does his obsession extend to the bedroom? Does he take his own advice when it comes to sleep? 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, its 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 is, however, a sting in the tale. Should his eyelids fail to close, Walker admits that he can be a touch Woody Allen-neurotic. When, for instance, he came to London over the summer, he found himself jet-lagged and wide awake in his hotel room at two oclock in the morning. His problem then, as always in these situations, was that he knew too much. His brain began to race. I thought: my orexin isnt being turned off, the sensory gate of my thalamus is wedged open, my dorsolateral prefrontal cortex wont shut down, and my melatonin surge wont happen for another seven hours. What did he do? In the end, it seems, even world experts in sleep act just like the rest of us when struck by the curse of insomnia. He turned on a light and read for a while.

Will Why We Sleep have the impact its author hopes? Im not sure: the science bits, it must be said, require some concentration. But what I can tell you is that it had a powerful effect on me. After reading it, I was absolutely determined to go to bed earlier a regime to which I am sticking determinedly. In a way, I was prepared for this. I first encountered Walker some months ago, when he spoke at an event at Somerset House in London, and he struck me then as both passionate and convincing (our later interview takes place via Skype from the basement of his sleep centre, a spot which, with its bedrooms off a long corridor, apparently resembles the ward of a private hospital). But in another way, it was unexpected. I am mostly immune to health advice. Inside my head, there is always a voice that says just enjoy life while it lasts.

The evidence Walker presents, however, is enough to send anyone early to bed. Its no kind of choice at all. Without sleep, there is low energy and disease. With sleep, there is vitality and health. More than 20 large scale epidemiological studies all report the same clear relationship: the shorter your sleep, the shorter your life. To take just one example, adults aged 45 years or older who sleep less than six hours a night are 200% more likely to have a heart attack or stroke in their lifetime, as compared with those sleeping seven or eight hours a night (part of the reason for this has to do with blood pressure: even just one night of modest sleep reduction will speed the rate of a persons heart, hour upon hour, and significantly increase their blood pressure).

A lack of sleep also appears to hijack the bodys effective control of blood sugar, the cells of the sleep-deprived appearing, in experiments, to become less responsive to insulin, and thus to cause a prediabetic state of hyperglycaemia. When your sleep becomes short, moreover, you are susceptible to weight gain. Among the reasons for this are the fact that inadequate sleep decreases levels of the satiety-signalling hormone, leptin, and increases levels of the hunger-signalling hormone, ghrelin. Im not going to say that the obesity crisis is caused by the sleep-loss epidemic alone, says Walker. Its not. However, processed food and sedentary lifestyles do not adequately explain its rise. Something is missing. Its now clear that sleep is that third ingredient. Tiredness, of course, also affects motivation.

Sleep has a powerful effect on the immune system, which is why, when we have flu, our first instinct is to go to bed: our body is trying to sleep itself well. Reduce sleep even for a single night, and your resilience is drastically reduced. If you are tired, you are more likely to catch a cold. The well-rested also respond better to the flu vaccine. As Walker has already said, more gravely, studies show that short sleep can affect our cancer-fighting immune cells. A number of epidemiological studies have reported that night-time shift work and the disruption to circadian sleep and rhythms that it causes increase the odds of developing cancers including breast, prostate, endometrium and colon.

Getting too little sleep across the adult lifespan will significantly raise your risk of developing Alzheimers disease. The reasons for this are difficult to summarise, but in essence it has to do with the amyloid deposits (a toxin protein) that accumulate in the brains of those suffering from the disease, killing the surrounding cells. During deep sleep, such deposits are effectively cleaned from the brain. What occurs in an Alzheimers patient is a kind of vicious circle. Without sufficient sleep, these plaques build up, especially in the brains deep-sleep-generating regions, attacking and degrading them. The loss of deep sleep caused by this assault therefore lessens our ability to remove them from the brain at night. More amyloid, less deep sleep; less deep sleep, more amyloid, and so on. (In his book, Walker notes unscientifically that he has always found it curious that Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, both of whom were vocal about how little sleep they needed, both went on to develop the disease; it is, moreover, a myth that older adults need less sleep.) Away from dementia, sleep aids our ability to make new memories, and restores our capacity for learning.

And then there is sleeps effect on mental health. When your mother told you that everything would look better in the morning, she was wise. Walkers book includes a long section on dreams (which, says Walker, contrary to Dr Freud, cannot be analysed). Here he details the various ways in which the dream state connects to creativity. He also suggests that dreaming is a soothing balm. If we sleep to remember (see above), then we also sleep to forget. Deep sleep the part when we begin to dream is a therapeutic state during which we cast off the emotional charge of our experiences, making them easier to bear. Sleep, or a lack of it, also affects our mood more generally. Brain scans carried out by Walker revealed a 60% amplification in the reactivity of the amygdala a key spot for triggering anger and rage in those who were sleep-deprived. In children, sleeplessness has been linked to aggression and bullying; in adolescents, to suicidal thoughts. Insufficient sleep is also associated with relapse in addiction disorders. A prevailing view in psychiatry is that mental disorders cause sleep disruption. But Walker believes it is, in fact, a two-way street. Regulated sleep can improve the health of, for instance, those with bipolar disorder.

Ive mentioned deep sleep in this (too brief) summary several times. What is it, exactly? We sleep in 90-minute cycles, and its only towards the end of each one of these that we go into deep sleep. Each cycle comprises two kinds of sleep. First, there is NREM sleep (non-rapid eye movement sleep); this is then followed by REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. When Walker talks about these cycles, which still have their mysteries, his voice changes. He sounds bewitched, almost dazed.

During NREM sleep, your brain goes into this incredible synchronised pattern of rhythmic chanting, he says. Theres a remarkable unity across the surface of the brain, like a deep, slow mantra. Researchers were once fooled that this state was similar to a coma. But nothing could be further from the truth. Vast amounts of memory processing is going on. To produce these brainwaves, hundreds of thousands of cells all sing together, and then go silent, and on and on. Meanwhile, your body settles into this lovely low state of energy, the best blood-pressure medicine you could ever hope for. REM sleep, on the other hand, is sometimes known as paradoxical sleep, because the brain patterns are identical to when youre awake. Its an incredibly active brain state. Your heart and nervous system go through spurts of activity: were still not exactly sure why.

Does the 90-minute cycle mean that so-called power naps are worthless? They can take the edge off basic sleepiness. But you need 90 minutes to get to deep sleep, and one cycle isnt enough to do all the work. You need four or five cycles to get all the benefit. Is it possible to have too much sleep? This is unclear. There is no good evidence at the moment. But I do think 14 hours is too much. Too much water can kill you, and too much food, and I think ultimately the same will prove to be true for sleep. How is it possible to tell if a person is sleep-deprived? Walker thinks we should trust our instincts. Those who would sleep on if their alarm clock was turned off are simply not getting enough. Ditto those who need caffeine in the afternoon to stay awake. I see it all the time, he says. I get on a flight at 10am when people should be at peak alert, and I look around, and half of the plane has immediately fallen asleep.

So what can the individual do? First, they should avoid pulling all-nighters, at their desks or on the dancefloor. After being awake for 19 hours, youre as cognitively impaired as someone who is drunk. Second, they should start thinking about sleep as a kind of work, like going to the gym (with the key difference that it is both free and, if youre me, enjoyable). People use alarms to wake up, Walker says. So why dont we have a bedtime alarm to tell us weve got half an hour, that we should start cycling down? We should start thinking of midnight more in terms of its original meaning: as the middle of the night. Schools should consider later starts for students; such delays correlate with improved IQs. Companies should think about rewarding sleep. Productivity will rise, and motivation, creativity and even levels of honesty will be improved. Sleep can be measured using tracking devices, and some far-sighted companies in the US already give employees time off if they clock enough of it. Sleeping pills, by the way, are to be avoided. Among other things, they can have a deleterious effect on memory.

Those who are focused on so-called clean sleep are determined to outlaw mobiles and computers from the bedroom and quite right, too, given the effect of LED-emitting devices on melatonin, the sleep-inducing hormone. Ultimately, though, Walker believes that technology will be sleeps saviour. There is going to be a revolution in the quantified self in industrial nations, he says. We will know everything about our bodies from one day to the next in high fidelity. That will be a seismic shift, and we will then start to develop methods by which we can amplify different components of human sleep, and do that from the bedside. Sleep will come to be seen as a preventive medicine.

What questions does Walker still most want to answer? For a while, he is quiet. Its so difficult, he says, with a sigh. There are so many. I would still like to know where we go, psychologically and physiologically, when we dream. Dreaming is the second state of human consciousness, and we have only scratched the surface so far. But I would also like to find out when sleep emerged. I like to posit a ridiculous theory, which is: perhaps sleep did not evolve. Perhaps it was the thing from which wakefulness emerged. He laughs. If I could have some kind of medical Tardis and go back in time to look at that, well, I would sleep better at night.

Why We Sleep: The New Science of Sleep and Dreamsby Matthew Walker is published by Allen Lane (20). To order a copy for 17 go toguardianbookshop.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over 10, online orders only. Phone orders min p&p of 1.99

Sleep in numbers

Two-thirds of adults in developed nations fail to obtain the nightly eight hours of sleep recommended by the World Health Organisation.

An adult sleeping only 6.75 hours a night would be predicted to live only to their early 60s without medical intervention.

A 2013 study reported that men who slept too little had a sperm count 29% lower than those who regularly get a full and restful nights sleep.

If you drive a car when you have had less than five hours sleep, you are 4.3 times more likely to be involved in a crash. If you drive having had four hours, you are 11.5 times more likely to be involved in an accident.

A hot bath aids sleep not because it makes you warm, but because your dilated blood vessels radiate inner heat, and your core body temperature drops. To successfully initiate sleep, your core temperature needs to drop about 1C.

The time taken to reach physical exhaustion by athletes who obtain anything less than eight hours of sleep, and especially less than six hours, drops by 10-30%.

There are now more than 100 diagnosed sleep disorders, of which insomnia is the mostcommon.

Morning types, who prefer to awake at or around dawn, make up about 40% of the population. Evening types, who prefer to go to bed late and wake up late, account for about 30%. The remaining 30% lie somewhere in between.

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thirteenthanda · 7 years

Text

'Sleep should be prescribed': what those late nights out could be costing you

Leading neuroscientist Matthew Walker on why sleep deprivation is increasing our risk of cancer, heart attack and Alzheimer’s – and what you can do about it

Matthew Walker has learned to dread the question “What do you do?” At parties, it signals the end of his evening; thereafter, his new acquaintance will inevitably cling to him like ivy. On an aeroplane, it usually means that while everyone else watches movies or reads a thriller, he will find himself running an hours-long salon for the benefit of passengers and crew alike. “I’ve begun to lie,” he says. “Seriously. I just tell people I’m a dolphin trainer. It’s better for everyone.”

Walker is a sleep scientist. To be specific, he is the director of the Center for Human Sleep Science at the University of California, Berkeley, a research institute whose goal – possibly unachievable – is to understand everything about sleep’s impact on us, from birth to death, in sickness and health. No wonder, then, that people long for his counsel. As the line between work and leisure grows ever more blurred, rare is the person who doesn’t worry about their sleep. But even as we contemplate the shadows beneath our eyes, most of us don’t know the half of it – and perhaps this is the real reason he has stopped telling strangers how he makes his living. When Walker talks about sleep he can’t, in all conscience, limit himself to whispering comforting nothings about camomile tea and warm baths. It’s his conviction that we are in the midst of a “catastrophic sleep-loss epidemic”, the consequences of which are far graver than any of us could imagine. This situation, he believes, is only likely to change if government gets involved.

Walker has spent the last four and a half years writing Why We Sleep, a complex but urgent book that examines the effects of this epidemic close up, the idea being that once people know of the powerful links between sleep loss and, among other things, Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity and poor mental health, they will try harder to get the recommended eight hours a night (sleep deprivation, amazing as this may sound to Donald Trump types, constitutes anything less than seven hours). But, in the end, the individual can achieve only so much. Walker wants major institutions and law-makers to take up his ideas, too. “No aspect of our biology is left unscathed by sleep deprivation,” he says. “It sinks down into every possible nook and cranny. And yet no one is doing anything about it. Things have to change: in the workplace and our communities, our homes and families. But when did you ever see an NHS poster urging sleep on people? When did a doctor prescribe, not sleeping pills, but sleep itself? It needs to be prioritised, even incentivised. Sleep loss costs the UK economy over £30bn a year in lost revenue, or 2% of GDP. I could double the NHS budget if only they would institute policies to mandate or powerfully encourage sleep.”

I get on a flight at 10am when people should be at peak alert, and half of the plane has immediately fallen asleep

Why, exactly, are we so sleep-deprived? What has happened over the course of the last 75 years? In 1942, less than 8% of the population was trying to survive on six hours or less sleep a night; in 2017, almost one in two people is. The reasons are seemingly obvious. “First, we electrified the night,” Walker says. “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.”

But Walker believes, too, that in the developed world sleep is strongly associated with weakness, even shame. “We have stigmatised sleep with the label of laziness. We want to seem busy, and one way we express that is by proclaiming how little sleep we’re getting. It’s a badge of honour. When I give lectures, people will wait behind until there is no one around and then tell me quietly: ‘I seem to be one of those people who need eight or nine hours’ sleep.’ It’s embarrassing to say it in public. They would rather wait 45 minutes for the confessional. They’re convinced that they’re abnormal, and why wouldn’t they be? We chastise people for sleeping what are, after all, only sufficient amounts. We think of them as slothful. No one would look at an infant baby asleep, and say ‘What a lazy baby!’ We know sleeping is non-negotiable for a baby. But that notion is quickly abandoned [as we grow up]. Humans are the only species that deliberately deprive themselves of sleep for no apparent reason.” In case you’re wondering, the number of people who can survive on five hours of sleep or less without any impairment, expressed as a percent of the population and rounded to a whole number, is zero.

The world of sleep science is still relatively small. But it is growing exponentially, thanks both to demand (the multifarious and growing pressures caused by the epidemic) and to new technology (such as electrical and magnetic brain stimulators), which enables researchers to have what Walker describes as “VIP access” to the sleeping brain. Walker, who is 44 and was born in Liverpool, has been in the field for more than 20 years, having published his first research paper at the age of just 21. “I would love to tell you that I was fascinated by conscious states from childhood,” he says. “But in truth, it was accidental.” He started out studying for a medical degree in Nottingham. But having discovered that doctoring wasn’t for him – he was more enthralled by questions than by answers – he switched to neuroscience, and after graduation, began a PhD in neurophysiology supported by the Medical Research Council. It was while working on this that he stumbled into the realm of sleep.

“I was looking at the brainwave patterns of people with different forms of dementia, but I was failing miserably at finding any difference between them,” he recalls now. One night, however, he read a scientific paper that changed everything. It described which parts of the brain were being attacked by these different types of dementia: “Some were attacking parts of the brain that had to do with controlled sleep, while other types left those sleep centres unaffected. I realised my mistake. I had been measuring the brainwave activity of my patients while they were awake, when I should have been doing so while they were asleep.” Over the next six months, Walker taught himself how to set up a sleep laboratory and, sure enough, the recordings he made in it subsequently spoke loudly of a clear difference between patients. Sleep, it seemed, could be a new early diagnostic litmus test for different subtypes of dementia.

After this, sleep became his obsession. “Only then did I ask: what is this thing called sleep, and what does it do? I was always curious, annoyingly so, but when I started to read about sleep, I would look up and hours would have gone by. No one could answer the simple question: why do we sleep? That seemed to me to be the greatest scientific mystery. I was going to attack it, and I was going to do that in two years. But I was naive. I didn’t realise that some of the greatest scientific minds had been trying to do the same thing for their entire careers. That was two decades ago, and I’m still cracking away.” After gaining his doctorate, he moved to the US. Formerly a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, he is now professor of neuroscience and psychology at the University of California.

Does his obsession extend to the bedroom? Does he take his own advice when it comes to sleep? “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 is, however, a sting in the tale. Should his eyelids fail to close, Walker admits that he can be a touch “Woody Allen-neurotic”. When, for instance, he came to London over the summer, he found himself jet-lagged and wide awake in his hotel room at two o’clock in the morning. His problem then, as always in these situations, was that he knew too much. His brain began to race. “I thought: my orexin isn’t being turned off, the sensory gate of my thalamus is wedged open, my dorsolateral prefrontal cortex won’t shut down, and my melatonin surge won’t happen for another seven hours.” What did he do? In the end, it seems, even world experts in sleep act just like the rest of us when struck by the curse of insomnia. He turned on a light and read for a while.

Will Why We Sleep have the impact its author hopes? I’m not sure: the science bits, it must be said, require some concentration. But what I can tell you is that it had a powerful effect on me. After reading it, I was absolutely determined to go to bed earlier – a regime to which I am sticking determinedly. In a way, I was prepared for this. I first encountered Walker some months ago, when he spoke at an event at Somerset House in London, and he struck me then as both passionate and convincing (our later interview takes place via Skype from the basement of his “sleep centre”, a spot which, with its bedrooms off a long corridor, apparently resembles the ward of a private hospital). But in another way, it was unexpected. I am mostly immune to health advice. Inside my head, there is always a voice that says “just enjoy life while it lasts”.

The evidence Walker presents, however, is enough to send anyone early to bed. It’s no kind of choice at all. Without sleep, there is low energy and disease. With sleep, there is vitality and health. More than 20 large scale epidemiological studies all report the same clear relationship: the shorter your sleep, the shorter your life. To take just one example, adults aged 45 years or older who sleep less than six hours a night are 200% more likely to have a heart attack or stroke in their lifetime, as compared with those sleeping seven or eight hours a night (part of the reason for this has to do with blood pressure: even just one night of modest sleep reduction will speed the rate of a person’s heart, hour upon hour, and significantly increase their blood pressure).

A lack of sleep also appears to hijack the body’s effective control of blood sugar, the cells of the sleep-deprived appearing, in experiments, to become less responsive to insulin, and thus to cause a prediabetic state of hyperglycaemia. When your sleep becomes short, moreover, you are susceptible to weight gain. Among the reasons for this are the fact that inadequate sleep decreases levels of the satiety-signalling hormone, leptin, and increases levels of the hunger-signalling hormone, ghrelin. “I’m not going to say that the obesity crisis is caused by the sleep-loss epidemic alone,” says Walker. “It’s not. However, processed food and sedentary lifestyles do not adequately explain its rise. Something is missing. It’s now clear that sleep is that third ingredient.” Tiredness, of course, also affects motivation.

Getting too little sleep across the adult lifespan will significantly raise your risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. The reasons for this are difficult to summarise, but in essence it has to do with the amyloid deposits (a toxin protein) that accumulate in the brains of those suffering from the disease, killing the surrounding cells. During deep sleep, such deposits are effectively cleaned from the brain. What occurs in an Alzheimer’s patient is a kind of vicious circle. Without sufficient sleep, these plaques build up, especially in the brain’s deep-sleep-generating regions, attacking and degrading them. The loss of deep sleep caused by this assault therefore lessens our ability to remove them from the brain at night. More amyloid, less deep sleep; less deep sleep, more amyloid, and so on. (In his book, Walker notes “unscientifically” that he has always found it curious that Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, both of whom were vocal about how little sleep they needed, both went on to develop the disease; it is, moreover, a myth that older adults need less sleep.) Away from dementia, sleep aids our ability to make new memories, and restores our capacity for learning.

And then there is sleep’s effect on mental health. When your mother told you that everything would look better in the morning, she was wise. Walker’s book includes a long section on dreams (which, says Walker, contrary to Dr Freud, cannot be analysed). Here he details the various ways in which the dream state connects to creativity. He also suggests that dreaming is a soothing balm. If we sleep to remember (see above), then we also sleep to forget. Deep sleep – the part when we begin to dream – is a therapeutic state during which we cast off the emotional charge of our experiences, making them easier to bear. Sleep, or a lack of it, also affects our mood more generally. Brain scans carried out by Walker revealed a 60% amplification in the reactivity of the amygdala – a key spot for triggering anger and rage – in those who were sleep-deprived. In children, sleeplessness has been linked to aggression and bullying; in adolescents, to suicidal thoughts. Insufficient sleep is also associated with relapse in addiction disorders. A prevailing view in psychiatry is that mental disorders cause sleep disruption. But Walker believes it is, in fact, a two-way street. Regulated sleep can improve the health of, for instance, those with bipolar disorder.

I’ve mentioned deep sleep in this (too brief) summary several times. What is it, exactly? We sleep in 90-minute cycles, and it’s only towards the end of each one of these that we go into deep sleep. Each cycle comprises two kinds of sleep. First, there is NREM sleep (non-rapid eye movement sleep); this is then followed by REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. When Walker talks about these cycles, which still have their mysteries, his voice changes. He sounds bewitched, almost dazed.

“During NREM sleep, your brain goes into this incredible synchronised pattern of rhythmic chanting,” he says. “There’s a remarkable unity across the surface of the brain, like a deep, slow mantra. Researchers were once fooled that this state was similar to a coma. But nothing could be further from the truth. Vast amounts of memory processing is going on. To produce these brainwaves, hundreds of thousands of cells all sing together, and then go silent, and on and on. Meanwhile, your body settles into this lovely low state of energy, the best blood-pressure medicine you could ever hope for. REM sleep, on the other hand, is sometimes known as paradoxical sleep, because the brain patterns are identical to when you’re awake. It’s an incredibly active brain state. Your heart and nervous system go through spurts of activity: we’re still not exactly sure why.”

Does the 90-minute cycle mean that so-called power naps are worthless? “They can take the edge off basic sleepiness. But you need 90 minutes to get to deep sleep, and one cycle isn’t enough to do all the work. You need four or five cycles to get all the benefit.” Is it possible to have too much sleep? This is unclear. “There is no good evidence at the moment. But I do think 14 hours is too much. Too much water can kill you, and too much food, and I think ultimately the same will prove to be true for sleep.” How is it possible to tell if a person is sleep-deprived? Walker thinks we should trust our instincts. Those who would sleep on if their alarm clock was turned off are simply not getting enough. Ditto those who need caffeine in the afternoon to stay awake. “I see it all the time,” he says. “I get on a flight at 10am when people should be at peak alert, and I look around, and half of the plane has immediately fallen asleep.”

So what can the individual do? First, they should avoid pulling “all-nighters”, at their desks or on the dancefloor. After being awake for 19 hours, you’re as cognitively impaired as someone who is drunk. Second, they should start thinking about sleep as a kind of work, like going to the gym (with the key difference that it is both free and, if you’re me, enjoyable). “People use alarms to wake up,” Walker says. “So why don’t we have a bedtime alarm to tell us we’ve got half an hour, that we should start cycling down?” We should start thinking of midnight more in terms of its original meaning: as the middle of the night. Schools should consider later starts for students; such delays correlate with improved IQs. Companies should think about rewarding sleep. Productivity will rise, and motivation, creativity and even levels of honesty will be improved. Sleep can be measured using tracking devices, and some far-sighted companies in the US already give employees time off if they clock enough of it. Sleeping pills, by the way, are to be avoided. Among other things, they can have a deleterious effect on memory.

Those who are focused on so-called “clean” sleep are determined to outlaw mobiles and computers from the bedroom – and quite right, too, given the effect of LED-emitting devices on melatonin, the sleep-inducing hormone. Ultimately, though, Walker believes that technology will be sleep’s saviour. “There is going to be a revolution in the quantified self in industrial nations,” he says. “We will know everything about our bodies from one day to the next in high fidelity. That will be a seismic shift, and we will then start to develop methods by which we can amplify different components of human sleep, and do that from the bedside. Sleep will come to be seen as a preventive medicine.”

What questions does Walker still most want to answer? For a while, he is quiet. “It’s so difficult,” he says, with a sigh. “There are so many. I would still like to know where we go, psychologically and physiologically, when we dream. Dreaming is the second state of human consciousness, and we have only scratched the surface so far. But I would also like to find out when sleep emerged. I like to posit a ridiculous theory, which is: perhaps sleep did not evolve. Perhaps it was the thing from which wakefulness emerged.” He laughs. “If I could have some kind of medical Tardis and go back in time to look at that, well, I would sleep better at night.”

Sleep in numbers

■ Two-thirds of adults in developed nations fail to obtain the nightly eight hours of sleep recommended by the World Health Organisation.

■ An adult sleeping only 6.75 hours a night would be predicted to live only to their early 60s without medical intervention.

■ A 2013 study reported that men who slept too little had a sperm count 29% lower than those who regularly get a full and restful night’s sleep.

■ If you drive a car when you have had less than five hours’ sleep, you are 4.3 times more likely to be involved in a crash. If you drive having had four hours, you are 11.5 times more likely to be involved in an accident.

■ A hot bath aids sleep not because it makes you warm, but because your dilated blood vessels radiate inner heat, and your core body temperature drops. To successfully initiate sleep, your core temperature needs to drop about 1C.

■ The time taken to reach physical exhaustion by athletes who obtain anything less than eight hours of sleep, and especially less than six hours, drops by 10-30%.

■ There are now more than 100 diagnosed sleep disorders, of which insomnia is the most common.

■ Morning types, who prefer to awake at or around dawn, make up about 40% of the population. Evening types, who prefer to go to bed late and wake up late, account for about 30%. The remaining 30% lie somewhere in between.

by Rachel Cooke

0 notes

trendingnewsb · 7 years

Text

The shorter your sleep, the shorter your life: the new sleep science

Leading neuroscientist Matthew Walker on why sleep deprivation is increasing our risk of cancer, heart attack and Alzheimers and what you can do about it

Matthew Walker photographed in his sleep lab. Photograph: Saroyan Humphrey for the Observer

Sleep in numbers

Two-thirds of adults in developed nations fail to obtain the nightly eight hours of sleep recommended by the World Health Organisation.

An adult sleeping only 6.75 hours a night would be predicted to live only to their early 60s without medical intervention.

A 2013 study reported that men who slept too little had a sperm count 29% lower than those who regularly get a full and restful nights sleep.

The time taken to reach physical exhaustion by athletes who obtain anything less than eight hours of sleep, and especially less than six hours, drops by 10-30%.

There are now more than 100 diagnosed sleep disorders, of which insomnia is the mostcommon.