Home > Work > Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams

Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams QUOTES

Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams QUOTES

1 " Sleep is the single most effective thing we can do to reset our brain and body health each day -- Mother Nature's best effort yet at contra-death. "

― Matthew Walker , Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams

2 " When we are awake we are looking through the wrong end of the telescope if transformational creativity is our goal. We take a myopic, hyperfocused, and narrow view that cannot capture the full informational cosmos on offer in the cerebrum. When awake, we see only a narrow set of all possible memory interrelationships. The opposite is true, however, when we enter the dream state and start looking through the other (correct) end of the memory-surveying telescope. Using that wide-angle dream lens, we can apprehend the full constellation of stored information and their diverse combinatorial possibilities, all in creative servitude. "

― Matthew Walker , Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams

3 " There are many things that I hope readers take away from this book. This is one of the most important: if you are drowsy while driving, please, please stop. It is lethal. To carry the burden of another’s death on your shoulders is a terrible thing. "

― Matthew Walker , Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams

4 " REM sleep ushers you into a preposterous theater wherein you are treated to a bizarre, highly associative carnival of autobiographical themes. "

― Matthew Walker , Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams

5 " The natural peak of the human circadian rhythm is in the early afternoon. "

― Matthew Walker , Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams

6 " For every day you are in a different timezone, your suprachiasmatic nucleus can only readjust by about one hour. "

― Matthew Walker , Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams

7 " the shorter your sleep, the shorter your life span  "

― Matthew Walker , Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams

8 " Once, our dreams were our own. We got to decide whether or not to share them with others and, if we did, which parts to include and which parts to withhold. "

― Matthew Walker , Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams

9 " The best bridge between despair and hope is a good night’s sleep. "

― Matthew Walker , Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams

10 " Practice does not make perfect. It is practice, followed by a night of sleep, that leads to perfection. "

― Matthew Walker , Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams

11 " After thirty years of intensive research, we can now answer many of the questions posed earlier. The recycle rate of a human being is around sixteen hours. After sixteen hours of being awake, the brain begins to fail. Humans need more than seven hours of sleep each night to maintain cognitive performance. After ten days of just seven hours of sleep, the brain is as dysfunctional as it would be after going without sleep for twenty-four hours. Three full nights of recovery sleep (i.e., more nights than a weekend) are insufficient to restore performance back to normal levels after a week of short sleeping. Finally, the human mind cannot accurately sense how sleep-deprived it is when sleep-deprived. "

― Matthew Walker , Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams

12 " Humans are not sleeping the way nature intended. The number of sleep bouts, the duration of sleep, and when sleep occurs has all been comprehensively distorted by modernity. "

― Matthew Walker , Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams

13 " Inadequate sleep—even moderate reductions for just one week—disrupts blood sugar levels so profoundly that you would be classified as pre-diabetic. "

― Matthew Walker , Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams

14 " the shorter your sleep, the shorter your life. The leading causes of disease and death in developed nations—diseases that are crippling health-care systems, such as heart disease, obesity, dementia, diabetes, and cancer—all have recognized causal links to a lack of sleep. "

― Matthew Walker , Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams

15 " After all, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. "

― Matthew Walker , Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams

16 " Routinely sleeping less than six or seven hours a night demolishes your immune system, more than doubling your risk of cancer. "

― Matthew Walker , Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams

17 " Caffeine has an average half-life of five to seven hours. Let’s say that you have a cup of coffee after your evening dinner, around 7:30 p.m. This means that by 1:30 a.m., 50 percent of that caffeine may still be active and circulating throughout your brain tissue. In other words, by 1:30 a.m., you’re only halfway to completing the job of cleansing your brain of the caffeine you drank after dinner. "

― Matthew Walker , Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams

18 " if you don’t sleep the very first night after learning, you lose the chance to consolidate those memories, even if you get lots of “catch-up” sleep thereafter. In terms of memory, then, sleep is not like the bank. You cannot accumulate a debt and hope to pay it off at a later point in time. Sleep for memory consolidation is an all-or-nothing event. "

― Matthew Walker , Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams

19 " It is disquieting to learn that vehicular accidents caused by drowsy driving exceed those caused by alcohol and drugs combined. "

― Matthew Walker , Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams

20 " AMAZING BREAKTHROUGH! Scientists have discovered a revolutionary new treatment that makes you live longer. It enhances your memory and makes you more creative. It makes you look more attractive. It keeps you slim and lowers food cravings. It protects you from cancer and dementia. It wards off colds and the flu. It lowers your risk of heart attacks and stroke, not to mention diabetes. You’ll even feel happier, less depressed, and less anxious. Are you interested? "

― Matthew Walker , Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams