Phuntsho

February 1st 2020

Having recently graduated from college, I can still vividly remember those all-nighters or nights with just four hours of sleep. I would love to remember those nights as working hard on a project but sadly, it was mostly goofing around or roasting your friends. Back then other than just feeling a little grumpy in the morning, I had no idea of the detrimental effects of lack of sleep. My perspective on sleep and to an extent my sleep habits have been drastically changed after this book. I try to get eight hours sleep and avoid my phone or laptop before sleep. Eventually, I will have to stop reading my kindle at night and use good old books but this has to wait until things are a little more permanent.

Why We Sleep is written by Matthew Walker, the director of UC Berkeley’s Center for Human Sleep Science, a guy who loves saying “as we will see in later chapters.” This is a must read for everyone. Walker shows the benefits and the need of sleep in everyone, from an unborn baby in a mother’s womb to your grandparents.

Diversity of sleep in the animal kingdom.

Sleep is universal in the animal kingdom but the way some animals sleep is very different and fascinating compared to humans. Dolphins sleep with one side of their brain awake and the other asleep and switch it throughout the night.

One half of the brain must always stay awake to maintain life-necessary movement in the aquatic environment. But the other halfs of the brain will at times fall into the most beautiful NREM sleep.

As you realized humans aren’t as skilled as some animals when it comes to sleeping. Walker writes the following on how flock of birds sleep and it is truly captivating.

The flock will first line up in a row. With the exception of the birds at each end of the line, the rest of the group will allow both halves of the brain to indulge in sleep. Those at the far left and right ends of the row aren’t so lucky. They will enter deep sleep with just one half of the brain (opposing in each), leaving the corresponding left and right eye of each bird wide open. In doing so, they provide full panoramic threat detection for the entire group, maximizing the total number of brain halves that can sleep within the flock. At some point, the two end-guards will stand up, rotate 180 degrees, and sit back down, allowing the other side of their respective brains to enter deep sleep

Weight Loss.

Walker writes of experiments where they saw the changes in weight loss when the sleep duration was altered. When you are recieve less sleep (5 hours), you lose more than 70 percent of weight from your muscles and when you get eight and half hours of sleep, more than 50 percent of the weight loss is from fats while preserving the muscle.

Lean and toned is unlikely to be the outcome of dieting when you are cutting sleep short. The latter is counterproductive of the former.

Sleeping Pills.

Back in college, I used to take AdvilPM (sleep aid pill) whenever I had something important early in the morning. Thinking that it would help me sleep and be well rested for the next day, I happily swallowed the pill but I was wrong. Sleep pills are deceiving in their name because they act more like alcohol where they suppress your brain and do not generate natural sleep. They might cause more harm than any benefits. Individuals using prescription sleep medications are significantly more likely to develop cancer and die.

Sleep is NOT a Credit System.

I think I am not alone in thinking that whatever sleep I lose during weekdays, I will recover it during the weekends. However, Walker’s chilling revelation has left me questioning myself. Sleep does not work like a credit system. A sleep loss is forever lost and cannot be recovered.

Sleep is not like a credit system or the bank. The brain can never recover all the sleep it has been deprived of. We cannot accumulate a debt without penalty, nor can we repay that sleep debt at a later time.

Side STORY

I remember my late grandfather going to bed at 7pm and waking up early at 4 am. He was healthy during the whole time I remember him and even at 80, he was doing hard manual work, often against my mother’s advice. We can never know for sure but after reading this book, I strongly believe his sleep duration and consistency might have had a huge impact on his healthy life. I hope that one day I can have such a well structured and consistent sleep schedule like him.

My grandfather was a unique man with his idiosyncrasies. He would always shout at me and my siblings for sleeping in very late. More often that you think, he would literally pour a jar full of water at us in the morning. He did not care if it soaked all the blankets and pillows or had the patient to gently wake us up. He wanted us up and pouring water on us did the work. At the time, I would angrily complain to my mom but now I smile like a fool remembering the story. Miss the guy :D I bet if he read this book, he would have let us sleep till afternoon or probably not.

A goofy grandfather if there ever was one