[sametmax]

Some HN comments recently recommanded the book "why we sleep".

After having read it, I can't prevent my self from doing the same. It definitly changed my views on the topic, and while it has a bit of a melodramatic tone, it is a well written entertaining piece that feeds you with data backed evidences with ease.

[pwned1]

The Joe Rogan podcast with the author is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwaWilO_Pig

[Tomte]

I‘ve just bought it on that recommendation, but have only read the table of contents, yet.

I was a bit disappointed that he does not discuss some common sleep disorders, only others that I haven‘t recently been diagnosed with.

[heurist]

In the book he says he chose the most prevalent to avoid meandering too much. His discussion of those disorders and the more general discussion of what is happening in the body when we sleep have helped me pinpoint some issues I have been having, even though I don't have a sleep disorder. I highly recommend it.

[achompas]

I recommend Meir Kryger's "The Mystery of Sleep." In the middle of the book, each chapter is devoted to a different sleep disorder (with accompanying anecdote).

It focused too much on these disorders for my taste, which might make it perfect for your taste.

https://www.amazon.com/Mystery-Sleep-Nights-Better-Healthier...

[sn41]

I recommend "The Promise of Sleep" by Dr. William C. Dement of Stanford. I don't know if it covers your interest, but I found it informative.

[loco5niner]

Thanks. I struggle with wanting to go to bed at night and getting out of bed in the morning. Just placed a hold on the audiobook at my library.

[andai]

I can fall asleep in the afternoon (3-7pm) but I usually decide to stay up later, so I don't wake up fully rested in the middle of the night. As a result, by the time I finally go to bed at a normal hour, I'm wide awake and can't sleep for ages.

[dijit]

This must be a common problem, I have exactly the same situation.

Someone once told me that you get tired when the body warms up, which makes some sense if you are one of those who goes from a cold outside to a warm inside.

[atilaneves]

I read the book earlier this year and can confirm. I've been recommending to everyone and their brother.

[pdfernhout]

Me too. I saw the book recommended in a comment on HN about a month or so ago, got a copy, and I am now trying to get more sleep inspired by it. Just yesterday I told the main EH&S officer at the company I work for about it -- given the book shows how sleep impacts health and safety. I feel like it is one of the single most important books I've read in the past decade.

I also submitted the book to HN as a story a week ago: "Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams" by Matthew Walker https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17528154

Some example ideas from the book:

* Sleep is when we move memories from shorter-term storage in the hippocampus to longer-term storage in the frontal cortex. If you don't sleep well at night, you lose many memories of the day.

* Without adequate sleep (about 8 hour a night) your cognitive performance during the day nosedives into the ground -- and the cumulative effects get worse over time. At the same time, you may be less able to recognize this effect.

* After 20 hours of being awake you are as cognitively impaired as if you were legally drunk.

* More and worse car accidents happen from drowsy driving then drunk driving. While drunk driving may slow reaction times, drowsy drivers have "microsleeps" where for seconds at a time they stop responding to external stimuli and can unknowingly drift over into oncoming traffic or not stop for a red light or a pedestrian.

* Sleep is needed to make new immune cells like for preventing cancer.

* Sleep is needed to process emotional events from the day so we can reflect on what happened without becoming too anxious about it. He gives an example for treating PTSD of veterans via better sleep and a medication that affects dreaming.

* Sleep-deprived people are more likely to slack off and even make unethical choices. Underslept people also are less charismatic leaders. So less sleep does not equate to more productivity.

* Sleep (and dreams) are a time when the brain connects random ideas that may lead to useful ideas when awake the next day.

* Good sleep is absolutely essential to the developing brain in children even from before birth.

* While ADHD may be a real health condition, many symptoms of sleep deprivation overlap with those of ADHD and so there may be some misdiagnosis going on from that.

* Some people are naturally early-riser larks and others are naturally late-rising night owls (and many are in the middle). Forcing one to keep the schedule of the other leads to worse performance and more accidents and so on.

* Teenagers naturally go to sleep later and wake up later than younger children or adults (possibly to give them experience acting independently of their elders in a tribal setting). Delaying the start time for high school students by about an hour in one case lead to a 200+ point increase in SAT scores of top performers -- and in another case to a 60% decrease in car accidents among the teenagers who drove.

All this is backed by references to recent scientific studies.

Essentially, as my own analogy, our brains are overclocked during the day and need eight hours of good sleep to fix up all the deferred maintenance.

He includes advice on getting more and better sleep. One surprising recommendation from the book -- set an alarm to remind you when to go to sleep!