This is a fascinating read and has had a real impact on the way I approach sleep – a real game-changer in the realm of health and wellbeing. ‘Why We Sleep’ is well worth all the praise it has already received, and I recommend it to anybody.

Oh dear, what a self defeating book! The first chapters labour the point so heavily that we need sleep or must succumb to a range of health issues that the wretched thing stopped me sleeping, I was so worried! I decided to give up. I get it, sleep is important, just don't scare me witless!

This is an interesting exploration of the science of sleep - why we do it, what it does for the brain and the body, and what happens when we don’t get enough. That aspect tends to dominate, and there are times when the reader might feel downright alarmed at all the health problems they seem to be facing when they get anything less than 8 hours sleep. The writing style is engaging and the author works hard to make it interesting to non-scientists, but there are times when I found it a little dry. It definitely gave me a lot to think about, though, and the chapters on dreaming are fascinating.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest and independent review.

I’m usually only interested in reading fiction books in my spare time, but due to having sleep issues as I suffer mildly from M.E where the main symptom is chronic fatigue, I felt this book would be an ideal book for me and to learn something to help with my health.

I did find the book a little scary; it was shocking to read the health issues associated with sleeping less than 7-8 hours a night. There was so much in the book that made sense, such as the circadian rhythm, which is your own internal clock determining the natural times of day you feel awake and sleepy. An example of this that Walker gives is with jet lag and how travellers can take a while to settle into their new time zone, as their circadian rhythm is now in sync with that of their new location. Another example given was that of teenagers. The circadian rhythm can change during puberty, making it more difficult for teens to get out of bed, which makes them appear more lazy. Their circadian rhythm then gets back to sync with that of an adult’s in their late teens. Schools are now realising this and allowing teens to start school later, around the time of their natural circadian rhythm once they are awake.

As someone who has M.E and struggles with going to sleep and waking up, it did make me wonder if my circadian rhythm is, well, screwed!

At times, I did find some of the chapters went a bit to ‘sciency’ in their explanation, but after reading the odd paragraph again, it would sink in.

While reading the book, I have been trying to improve my sleep hygiene, in the hope I can approve my health.

I’d be interested in reading more of Walker’s research and future books on sleep.

Really interesting read and very well written. I find some science-y books can be a little dry but this flowed really nicely. Very interesting for anyone who has battled with sleep throughout their life.

Why we sleep is an interesting and engaging read. Filled with interesting facts and in depth research, it makes one view sleep in a whole new light.

I found it interesting to find out that one is either a morning lark or an owl and how we are biased towards the lark. In our fast paced society, it shows we are ignoring the benefits of good sleep to the detrimental affect of our own health and this is resulting in disease.

I enjoyed this book and thank Netgalley and the publisher for letting me review it.

If like me you’re a chronic insomniac, or if you’re the parent of a young child or a carer or a shift worker, you may initially be put off by the tone of Why We Sleep. The author’s premise is that we are, as a society and as individuals, joyfully squandering our sleep time with terrible consequences – which he outlines, at length.

Like most people, there may have been a brief period in my teens and twenties when I wilfully deprived myself of sleep through a combination of alcohol and late nights, but I have spent many more years desperately trying to sleep through the night and feeling like a ghost in my own life as I struggle through the day. Still, I gave the book a chance and there is some interesting stuff in here.

The health benefits of sleep for physical and mental health are so great that he suggests, not entirely frivolously, that the question should be not why do we sleep, but why do we wake up? We need NREM (non-rapid eye movement) sleep to file away everything we’ve learnt during the day, to process it and move it from short-term to long-term memory. This is why cramming the night before an exam won’t work, because it’s sleep that allows you to properly integrate and retain what you’ve learnt.

I found what he said about REM sleep (where we dream) most interesting. This is where we make odd connections, have creative thoughts, gain a fresh perspective. Anyone involved in any kind of artistic project will know that feeling. You hit what seems like an insoluble problem, you go to bed and wake up the next morning with a solution that is not just feasible but feels inevitable. This applies as much in daily life – we talk about ‘sleeping on’ a decision all the time.

He’s a big fan of siestas (as am I) and talks about the genesis of the term ‘power nap’ which came from research on the optimum time for airline pilots to rest. It was found that a short sleep at the beginning of a long period of sleep deprivation (eg during a long-haul flight) was the most effective. The FAA decided to institute this as policy but rejected the suggested terms ‘prophylactic napping’ or ‘planned napping’ (the second was considered too managerial, the first, well you can guess). The trouble with the term ‘power napping’ is that it is now colloquially used to suggest a macho alternative to sleep, rather than a short-term expedient when a full-night’s sleep isn’t possible.

The book covers the body clock and circadian rhythms and even sleep in other species. The author also shares exhaustive evidence on the dangers of sleep deprivation, both immediate – such as driving while tired – and long-term, through poor health outcomes.

My slight qualm about the book is that the author is so evangelical about his position. You are left thinking that all the world’s problems could be solved if only we all got a regular eight hours sleep. He cites lots of research backing up his case but a general reader has no context. It’s a bit like watching a courtroom drama and being totally convinced by the prosecution’s case but not getting to hear the defence.

If you do have problems sleeping you are likely to be so frightened by this book that it will keep you awake at night. When was this golden age when everybody got their eight hours? How can we make the comparison? Maybe in past centuries people spent more time in bed (what he calls sleep opportunity) but unless you were wealthy you probably shared a room with several family members (and possibly other fauna). How much quality sleep would you have got in a room where a baby was teething or siblings were fighting or mice were scuttling?

The bit I was really excited about getting to was the chapter on insomnia treatments but all the author offered (after much fanfare) was the old cognitive-behavioural chestnut, which among other things insists on no napping (despite his earlier waxing lyrical on the benefits) and, more seriously, no reading in bed.

There’s a lot in Why We Sleep and overall I found it an interesting and informative read, albeit one without a miracle cure at the end of it.

Matthew Walker's book is full of new discoveries for me. Of course sleep is an important part of our life, but it's one that, unless we suffer from some kind of sleeping disorder, most of us tend to take for granted. Walker wants to emphasise the importance of sleeping 8 hours a day and he seems to have the scientific evidence to support it.

The book can be read by anyone as it doesn't use scientific jargon and I think it will change your life, or at least will challenge your perceptions about the significance of a good night's sleep.

I’ve suffered from insomnia for most of my life so this definitely interested me. There is a line in the introduction where the author says if you’re feeling tired when you’re reading this, please go sleep! I was reading this at about 3AM and thought.. yeah I’ll try to sleep. It’s incredibly interesting and the writing was accessible and easy to understand. Really good and thought provoking

A really interesting read. Quite detailed and scientific in places. Easy to skim and to jump in and out of chapters.

This book has enlighted me in so many different ways!
Matthew Walker is now my favourite scientist.

While non-fiction is not my go to, for pleasure, this was a delight to read. Walker made everything understandable, palatable and easy to relate to in modern day life. I gradually came to realise how important sleep was in my day-to-day life and how much I can do to help myself gain more enhance and better quality sleep.

The section on lucid dreaming was a revelation!

Everyone should read this!

Such a interesting read and so different from my usual genre.
I found it fascinating and the pages flowed well.

Let's face it sleep gets in the way of work. It's down time we're supposed to have because it's good for us, but we can't get anything done while we're out cold.
Or do we?
The brain is actually very busy and productive while we sleep, remodelling and updating neural circuits. Non-rapid eye movement (NREM) removes any unnecessary neural connections. Rapid eye movement (REM), the time when we usually dream, strengthens the connections that have been made. We spend our whole time asleep shuttling between the two processes. That is if we are getting proper sleep. Start messing with this vital part of your life and the outcome is not good. Most of us are aware of the problems of being tired through not having proper sleep, but do not fully understand the long-term consequences of this. They are alarming.
Matthew Walker is a researcher in the field of sleep with a myriad of connections to like-minded colleagues, all with their own subtle takes on what sleep might be and how it affects someone physiologically and psychologically. This all lends to his depth of knowledge on an elusive and mysterious subject which few people give a second thought to.
His writing is plain and straightforward, frequently making analogies to everyday concepts, which make it possible to quickly grasp some quite complex neurological mechanisms.
What comes out of this book is both alarming, riveting and, if you're paying attention, life changing.
Not only does the author piece together this extensive patchwork of research from the many different aspects of sleep, but also reminds us that when it comes to reported research, to carefully consider what the article is saying and how research and facts have been interpreted, unfortunately often with sensationalist and inaccurate interpretations.
Why We Sleep is not a "How To" book, but something which enables a reader to think about why sleep should be treated with great respect and how they might develop their own means of improving it.
This book is a must buy. Since reading Why We Sleep for review, I have bought it as a present for someone close to me who has problems sleeping. So far, they have been riveted. With a better understanding of the findings of the research and what it might mean to them personally in their everyday life, they have begun to address their problem.

A fascinating and knowledgeable look at why we sleep and why it's so necessary, despite being somewhat undervalued in health terms. Personally I would have liked some more detailed science and I felt some of the conclusions might be slightly swayed by confirmation bias. That said this definitely provides food for thought.

Fascinating book from an expert in the field. Sleep is so important to ensure that we are able to face the many trials and tribulations of life; this book has made me realise that a) I don’t get enough and b) I’m not functioning as effectively as I could be because of it.
Not an easy read before bed, at least a couple of nights I actually lay awake worrying about my lack of sleep...

It took me so long to get to this book (which I also requested late, it didn’t help), and I’m wondering why! Although it *was* definitely scary, it was really interesting—and anyway, the ‘scare’ makes a lot of sense, so I wouldn’t be inclined as to consider it ‘alarmist stuff I can probably safely ignore because all these doctors and scientists write alarming stuff anyway’. I’ve had trouble to sleep for decades—while not a full night own, I’m clearly not a lark either, and this is part of my problems—and let’s be honest, it doesn’t take a genius to realise that on periods when I sleep less than 6-7 hours/night, I feel sluggiosh, fall sick more easily, stay sick longer, and am less focused in general. Considering my natural chronic lack-of-attention-span disorder, you can guess what it looks like.

(And now I’m wondering how much of this attention problem was really related to my Tourette’s, and how much was actually due to not sleeping enough... considering that when tics are flaring while in bed, well, falling asleep becomes an issue, too!)

Mostly what the author mentioned makes sense to me from a layman standpoint. Not enough sleep leads to increased risks of car crashes, due to microsleep attacks: yes, definitely, I almost went through that, and when I had to assess the risk of falling asleep at the wheel on a French motorway vs. stopping in a parking lot along that same motorway at 4 am to catch a couple of hours of shut-eye... Let me tell you, no argument about ‘it’s dangerous to be a female being alone at night in a deserted place’ would have made me keep driving. That was a scary, scary moment: feeling that I was falling asleep, and having those two or three seconds of complete inability to react, before I regained control of my body and managed to pull out. Yes, it was that bad. And I was extremely lucky that time. So I was definitely willing to consider Walker’s research in earnest, and not with my usual rolling-of-eyes at ‘alarmist books’.

Now, I also understand why my ageing parents are chronically tired, to the point of crashing on the sofa for a long nap every afternoon, yet can’t sleep most of the night. And why I’m going the same way, with the difference that for now I can’t afford to nap due to being at work. Naps reset the build-up of ‘sleep pressure’, and this affects in turn the moment when you’d get naturally tired in the evening, pushing it back by a few hours. (Also, now I get why melatonin pills don’t work for me: apparently I’m not old enough yet. XD)

In short, I finally got to understand a lot of things about sleep, which in turn will help me—I’m the kind of person who needs to ‘do’ and ‘understand’ in order to acquire and retain knowledge and act upon it, so this was actually perfect for me. Now I now what happens while we sleep, all the waste it helps our bodies get rid of, why sleep deprivation affects our emotions and moods, and many more things. It’s not a self-help book—while it does have an appendix with a few ‘tips and tricks’ about how to sleep better, don’t expect to see only that for two hundred pages or to find miracle cures—but it’s already doing a lot for me, just thinking about it. I can’t change my work hours, and society is not going to rearrange itself around me to give me more sleep time; but I can do little things like filtering out blue lights from my screens, not drinking so much caffeine (the old saying ‘coffee is OK as long as it’s before 5pm’ isn’t good enough, so slowly does one’s body processes caffeine), and stop begging my GP for sleeping pills.

Bonus point for the book’s accessibility. You don’t need to have medical knowledge or master its jargon to understand the author’s points. There’s even a bit of humour thrown now and then (that part about the women’s fashion magazine that was delighted to hear confirmed that ‘yes, sleep deprivation favours weight loss’... before the interviewed researcher went on to talk about the loss being mostly muscle mass and not fatty tissue, and let’s not forget the skin sores and generally awful look one develops).

Conclusion: If you do have sleeping troubles, read this, it should help with at least a few things. If you don’t, read it anyway, because it’s interesting.

This book gives the reader an interesting insight into the reasons why the body needs sleep . Matthew Walker discusses informatively the effects sleep and lack of sleep has on the human body and how this can it effect are every waking moment. If you're looking for a book on sleep this is a must read Walker has written it in a way that everyone can understand what he is talking about no science degree needed. Thank you Mr Walker

Everything you ever want to know about sleep is packed into this informative book by Professor Matthew Walker who has specialised this subject with over twenty years of research.
I was especially interested in the research into the link between poor sleep and alzheimer's and the author gives an understanding as to possible causes. There is also hope in this book that one day in the not to distant future that there are things that will be done to halt this disease's progress.
Why We Sleep covers everything from animals sleep behavior to human babies still in the womb and why teenagers sleep so late and the elderly who do not need so much sleep which after reading this book i found is the opposite as they need just as much as they ever did. A book which would benefit every one of us as poor sleep has a definite link to illness,disease and mental illness and it has really opened my eyes to how caffeine and alcohol and not following a proper sleep pattern has a negative effect to sleep quality. I received this book in exchange for my honest review #WhyWeSleep #NetGalley

I really enjoyed this book. I'm not a big non-fiction reader, and some things went a bit over my head, but I learned a lot of things.

An interesting book which i found to be full of information, some things i knew already but as an insomniac i was really interested in learning more about the subject in the hope of improving the quality of my sleep. i found this book knowledgeable, and extremely helpful. Matthew Walker obviously knows his stuff and i really enjoyed his writing style, i found it a little hard at times but friendly all the same.
thank you to Netgalley, the author and publisher for allowing me to read in return for an honest review.