How much sleep do we actually need?

Welcome to the first instalment of Book Review by Zack. These blog posts will primarily focus on the things that I’ve learnt from reading books, and how I’ve tried to implement them into in my life. Today, I'll be talking about 'Why We Sleep' by Matthew Walker. On to the review.

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Sleep is inevitable. We do it every night, sometimes even depriving ourselves of it to do other activities, like work tasks. This idea of a lack of sleep being an honourable action is especially prevalent in the ‘hustle culture’ most of us are familiar with. Waking up at 5am to get to work, and staying there until 6 or even 7pm to get the job done. It shows dedication and commitment to the work we do. But does sleeping less to do more work actually increase productivity? Well, the short answer is no. The long answer is absolutely, definitely, utterly certainly, no.

The things I’ve learnt from reading this book:

1. Sleep isn’t just important, it’s vital.

A full, restorative night of sleep isn’t a nice to have, its a must have. It’s importance is up there with food, water and shelter. there isn’t just one reason why sleep is important, there are several dozen. Just like being awake, there are many other reasons why we wake up other than to find food. There are a myriad of processes that are happening when we’re asleep, which are essential to giving us the tools we need to wake up with a fresh mind.

A good nights’ sleep (7-9 hours) will improve mental clarity, emotional regulation, improve memory retention, and can even ward off cancer. Sleep isn’t just the absence of wakefulness, it helps us to function throughout the day. People need to realise that sleep isn’t counterproductive to our waking lives, it actually helps us tremendously.

2. There are several types of insomnia.

“Being sleep deprived is not insomnia. Sleep deprivation is considered as (i) having adequate ability to sleep; yet (ii) giving oneself an inadequate opportunity to sleep”.

“Insomnia is the opposite: (i) suffering from an inadequate ability to generate good sleep quality or quantity, despite (ii) allowing oneself the adequate opportunity to sleep”.

I didn’t realise that I fit into this category. I kept waking up every hour after 4-5 am every night for some odd reason, and I always thought that it was my fault that I wasn’t winding down before bed (even though I was). There’s a name for this: maintenance insomnia. My body was finding it easy to fall asleep, but difficult to stay asleep.

Next time you think you have insomnia, look at your habits. Are you using your phone right before bed? Or feeling extreme emotions, or not giving yourself more than an 8 hour window to fall asleep (it takes the average person 15 minutes to fall asleep). If you are allowing yourself to sleep and wind down in a suitable environment, then look into the different types of insomnia and the possible causes of them.

3. Everyone, even old people, need good quality sleep.

The problem with getting older is our urge to sleep becomes stronger earlier in the day as we age. Coupled with the fact that our circadian rhythm is pulled earlier into the day makes it difficult for older people to sleep at the same time as their younger selves.

The main misconception comes from the fact that older people aren’t as active as younger people. We can’t measure the effects of sleep deprivation in the elderly because most of them have already retired and live a relaxed, slow life. Thus, the effects of sleep deprivation and impairment aren’t as apparent or even measurable in daily life.

4. A lack of sleep makes us detrimental to society.

From being more irritable and unethical, to getting into more car accidents and inadvertently killing healthcare patients, a lack of sleep can affect us and the people around us greatly. The factor that is affected the most from sleep deprivation is our levels of concentration.

This is why a doctor who is qualified in every way to perform surgery is far more likely (up to 36%) to leave a surgical implement inside of a patient inside a patient when sleep deprived, an obvious but careless mistake. Imagine having a scalpel still inside you after the doctors stitch you up, a little scary in my opinion.

5. Hitting the snooze button is one of the worst things you can do to your sleep schedule, brain, and body.

Hitting the snooze button may feel good in the moment, but it puts a massive strain on your central nervous system. When we fall asleep, our brains go into a deep sleeping phase called Non-rapid eye movement sleep (or NREM sleep).

When you hit the snooze button in the morning and eventually get woken up by the alarm 5 minutes later, your body is being shocked into wakefulness from deep sleep in a matter of seconds. It’s similar to cold starting your car’s engine and then immediately stepping on the accelerator. Do it enough times throughout your life, and you’ll definitely see health consequences later on.

Not only that, but your circadian rhythm (natural body clock) gets thrown off, which will delay the time your body will be getting ready to wake up, causing poorer sleep quality and quantity.

6. Dreams are mostly powered by emotion.

Most of the time anyway. When we go about our day, we experience different emotions due to our reactions of events that occur. If we go to bed without resolving any of these extreme emotions, they may fester and manifest themselves into our dreams. Feeling extremely anxious and worried about something before you sleep? You’ll probably feel those emotions too while you’re dreaming, and will probably cause you to wake up during the night.

This is the reason so many sleep doctors will emphasise the importance of winding down and reducing stress before your head hits the pillow. Exercise helps too.

7. Sleep debt is a myth.

Sleep isn’t like a bank. You can’t sleep in more to prepare for an all nighter, and you can’t sleep in more to rest from one. You get one chance of good sleep every night, so you need to make the most of it. Your brain will never fully be able to obtain those lost hours of sleep, Thus it is important to get a good nights’ sleep, every night if you can.

8. The idea of sleep in our culture needs to change, and soon.

The final and most important point that I learnt. It was the most important one because of the sheer number of people it affects, and I was one of them growing up.

When I was a teenager going to school, I’d need to wake up at 6am to get ready for the commute to school, for a 7:30 start. What I didn’t know was 1) teenagers are not adults yet, meaning their brains are still developing and thus need sleep to grow and repair properly, and 2) teenagers’ circadian rhythms are pushed back later into the night. This means they usually have the urge to sleep one to three hours after their parents have, feeling sleepy usually around eleven or even one in the morning.

So when you look at this information, it’s no wonder why teenagers are extremely annoyed and slow in the early morning hours. It’s similar to waking up an adult at 4am every morning and asking them to learn new information, conduct themselves with respect, tolerance, and a pleasant demeanour, and also expect them to get along with their peers and parents.

What’s most frustrating is the social views of teenagers and their sleep. We chastise, and even think lesser of them when they complain about insufficient sleep, or expressing feelings of tiredness. I understand that it is difficult to operate your life with a teenager that sleeps longer compared to you, but at the bare minimum have some compassion.

Teenagers can benefit greatly from even 30 minutes more sleep each night. By delaying school start times by 30 minutes (insert time), teen road accidents in Minnesota were reduced by 60 percent. To put that into perspective, the creation of the Anti-braking system (or ABS) in cars reduced traffic accidents by 25 percent. And to think, the only tool these (under slept) teens need is just a couple more minutes of shut eye.

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Thanks for reading, as you can probably tell, I am now quite passionate about sleep. So I hope that I have inspired you into taking better care of your nighttime slumber.