[klenwell]

This is also covered in Matthew Walker's Why We Sleep where he cites several controlled studies demonstrating the role of sleep in learning and outlines the neurobiology behind it:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34466963-why-we-sleep

I used to see sleep as a waste of time. A few years ago I started to recognize its importance in overall well-being and adjusted my schedule and commute accordingly.

Reading Walker's book led me both to take sleep more seriously still and to take more pleasure in it.

[tomp]

For those that don't wanna read the book, I enjoyed Peter Attia's interview with Walker. I haven't read the book though, so no idea if you'd be missing something.

One of the most interesting takeaways / proofs about the importance of sleep mentioned in the podcast, was that there's a huge increase in car accidents and heart attacks after the clocks shift in the spring (I haven't verified the claim).

https://peterattiamd.com/matthewwalker1/

[Smaug123]

On the other hand, while Walker may be right about everything he says (anecdotally I'm extremely aware of how important sleep is day-to-day), I found his book to be very poor evidence of what he's trying to persuade us of. His writing is that of one who has bought unquestioningly into a cult. The evo-psych digressions about "wise Mother Nature" are nothing short of ridiculous; the one that sticks in my memory is that he seriously considers the possibility that Nature gave teenagers an offset sleep cycle from adults so that they could start exploring the world on their own for a few hours each night. (One much simpler possible explanation is that it gave the tribe someone who was naturally on guard duty for more of the night, but of course this is testable by looking at non-tribal animals and I haven't tested it.)

[kashyapc]

As alecco says in this thread, it is indeed a hardcore scientist who studied sleep for twenty years trying to communicate to a wider audience. I'll cut him a lot of slack.

Also, not sure if you've seen Walker speak (do check out on YouTube), he's one of the most brilliant public speakers. Very few scientists can manage to hold your concentration like Prof. Walker does.

[alecco]

I think that was a hardcore scientist trying to reach out to the wider audience.