The positive effects of a good night's sleep stretch into every aspect of our lives. We feel energetic, focused, and ready to take on the day's challenges. But the long-term effects of bad sleep are less known. And it turns out they have a huge impact on our health and even how long we live.
Sleep is the foundation on which exercise and nutrition sits. It's not a third pillar. It's the foundation for those two other things.
Counting sheep not only didn't make you fall asleep any faster, it actually took you longer to fall asleep when you were counting sheep. There is an alternative mental strategy. That strategy is taking yourself on a mental walk.
Your brain is incredibly active during stages of sleep. In fact, during some stages, it's up to 30% more active than when you're awake.
Sleep in human beings, in fact, in all mammalian species, is separated into two main types. On the one hand, we have something called non-rapid eye movement sleep, non-REM sleep. On the other hand, we have rapid eye movement sleep or REM sleep.
In fact, 50 years ago, we used to ask the question, why do we sleep? The crass answer at the time was that we sleep to cure sleepiness, which tells you nothing about the meaningfulness of sleep. Now, 50 years later, we've had to upend the question. We now have to ask, is there any major operation of your brain or is there any major physiological system in your body that isn't wonderfully enhanced when you get sleep or demonstrably impaired when you don't get enough?
All of those stages of sleep are important. And so sometimes people will come up to me and say, how do I get more deep sleep? How do I get more REM sleep? And my question to them usually is, why do you want to get more REM sleep or deep sleep? And it turns out that it's all good stuff. It's just that different stages of sleep will do different things for your brain and your body at different times of night.
REM sleep provides a form of overnight therapy. It's emotional first aid. And it's during dream sleep and the particular brain chemistry of dream sleep where we reactivate emotional experiences and events that we've had during the day or even in past years or months.
Prof. Matthew Walker explains the functions of REM sleep and deep non-REM sleep. Deep non-REM sleep cements new memories into the brain, acting like hitting the save button on a document. REM sleep collides and interconnects new information with past experiences, creating new associations and solutions to problems.
REM sleep is a form of informational alchemy, creating new and novel links and associations. This process allows for waking up with a revised mind-wide web of associations capable of defining solutions to previously impenetrable problems.
REM sleep leads to eureka moments, where things suddenly make sense the next day, even if the solution was elusive the day before.
Prof. Matthew Walker explains the importance of sleep and how it impacts problem-solving.
Jonathan Wolff asks about the methods used in Prof. Walker's lab to understand sleep, and Prof. Walker mentions using high density EEG to measure brainwaves during different sleep stages.
Jonathan Wolff inquires if his hair needs to be shaved for the EEG, to which Prof. Walker responds humorously.
Prof. Matthew Walker emphasizes the importance of sleep and its impact on health, highlighting the use of various technologies to study sleep patterns and brain activity.
Insufficient sleep has detrimental effects on the cardiovascular system, immune system, and Alzheimer's disease risk.
The link between lack of sleep and Alzheimer's disease is a significant finding, with sleep playing a role in de-escalating Alzheimer's proteins.
The ZOE collaboration focuses on understanding inter-individual differences in sleep over time and its relation to metabolic, immune, and genetic factors.
Personalized sleep advice includes maintaining regular sleep patterns, understanding chronotype, keeping the bedroom cool and dark, limiting caffeine and alcohol, and minimizing screen use before bed.
Prof. Matthew Walker's research provides actionable insights for improving sleep and overall health.
Prof. Matthew Walker expresses gratitude for the collaboration and the privileged data set.
Jonathan Wolff thanks Matt Walker for joining the podcast and encourages listeners to subscribe and leave reviews.
ZOE aims to improve health by understanding the right food for each individual through at-home tests and personalized nutrition programs.