Book Review: Why We Sleep

Author: Matthew Walker

Genre: non-fiction, sleep

Rating: 4/5

Verdict

*slight spoilers ahead*

Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams by Matt Walker is a book I wanted to read this year – I was absolutely determined it would be a 2020 read. In general, reading more non-fiction books was a goal of mine for this year. Whilst I enjoy reading non-fiction, I don’t dabble in it very often. Mainly because non-fiction books take me a lot longer to read, which I account for the need to constantly be switched on when reading. No skim reading here or run the risk of reading the same paragraph over and over. It took me about a month to read, but boy am I glad I read it.

I started reading this book with the aim to educate myself on a topic I knew very little about. It had cropped up on my social media channels a few times, with other people praising it and recommending the book to their audiences. Despite spending up to a third of our lives asleep, common knowledge around sleep is very limited. As someone that can struggle to sleep, I wanted to understand the fundamentals of sleep better. I figured if I know why we sleep and how poor quality sleep can impacts us, maybe it would help me take measures to improve my sleeping habits.

The book has a great structure. It flows together nicely, but you can read it out of sequence if there’s just a particular topic you want to jump to. I chose to read it from front to back and found that doing so meant the information gradually built on what had been discussed earlier in the novel, thereby consolidating that information for me. Chapters can be read isolated though, with links between points in the book made clear by the author should you decide you want to learn more.

This book doesn’t shy away from any truths, it’s a very detailed and informative piece on the topic of sleep. The passion the author has for this topic permeates the entire book. Fortunately, you don’t need to be a fellow sleep scientist to understand what’s being discussed; the discourse is very accessible and visual.

Whilst the book does contain facts based on data, a few statements made by the author are theory rather than fact. There are a lot of medical complications and illnesses that can be linked to sleep deprivation; brain development, Alzheimer’s, and depression being just a few. The author discusses all these potential links in detail. However, it is worth noting that due to the restriction of research and data a lot of these statements are in the early stages of investigation. There’s no clear proof that sleep deprivation contributes or causes these health problems. The potential is there though. Walker is clearly trying to demonstrate that sleep is powerful and more intricately tied to our health than we currently understand.

I think this is one of those books everyone should read. At the very least, everyone needs to understand the importance of sleep better. We live in a society that does not value sleep enough, with sleep easily sacrificed in the name of a good night out, or hustle culture meaning we have to constantly be switched on. How we live our lives now compared to just 100 years ago has drastically influenced our sleeping habits, and not for the better. The core message I got from this book is that sleep deprivation is a real issue, one that can be life-threatening.

Increased awareness or the risks of the sleep deprivation and the ongoing impact to our health (physical and mental) is the first step to countering our sleep epidemic. So I’d like to do my bit and recommend that if you don’t know why we sleep, this book provides a very thorough answer.

Find the book on Goodreads!