Midnight is the time when we think, 'Well, we should probably send our last email; let me just check Facebook one more time.'

Matthew Walker

Categorized in : Me Think Time Midnight

Sleep is the Swiss army knife of health. When sleep is deficient, there is sickness and disease. And when sleep is abundant, there is vitality and health.

sickness army health sleep

No aspect of our biology is left unscathed by sleep deprivation. It sinks down into every possible nook and cranny. And yet no one is doing anything about it.

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People dramatically underestimate how much sleep is linked to all the diseases killing us. We know a lack of sleep is linked to numerous forms of cancer - bowel, prostate, breast cancer.

know underestimate sleep people

Stay away from screens, especially those LED screens. Those blue-light emitting devices fool your brain into thinking that it's still daytime, even though it's night-time and you want to get to sleep.

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It's during dream sleep where we start to actually take the sting out of difficult, even traumatic, emotional experiences that we've been having. And sleep almost divorces that emotional, bitter rind from the memory experiences that we've had during the day.

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I think the first general point to make from epidemiological studies across millions of people is the following - that short sleep predicts a shorter life. It predicts all cause mortality.

think sleep life people

Back in the 1940s, people were sleeping on average just a little bit over eight hours a night, and now, in the modern age, we're down to around 6.7, 6.8 hours a night.

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I have long been puzzled by the entrenched mentality, and often enforced practice, of longer work hours and less sleep. Innumerable policies exist within the workplace regarding smoking, substance abuse, ethical behaviour, and injury and disease prevention.

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I just tell people I'm a dolphin trainer. It's better for everyone.

everyone trainer better people

We have stigmatised sleep with the label of laziness.

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You should not actually stay in bed for very long awake, because your brain is this remarkably associative device, and it quickly learns that the bed is about being awake. So you should go to another room - a room that's dim. Just read a book - no screens, no phones - and, only when you're sleepy, return to the bed.

you brain long book

I think many people walk through their lives in an under-slept state not realizing it. It's become this new natural baseline.

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If you were not to set an alarm clock, would you sleep past it? If the answer is yes, then there is clearly more sleep that is needed.

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Sleep is Mother Nature's best effort yet to counter death.

best nature mother death

Sleep-deprived individuals also generate fewer and less accurate solutions to problems.

less also problems solutions

Creativity is, after all, lauded as the engine of business innovation.

engine innovation creativity business

I think sleep is probably the neglected stepsister in the health conversation today. I think we've done a good job regarding physical activity and diet, but sleep has remained out there in the cold, and that's surprising to me.

good me health today

When did a doctor prescribe, not sleeping pills, but sleep itself? It needs to be prioritised, even incentivised.

sleeping doctor even sleep

You're trying to sleep off a debt that you've lumbered your brain and body with during the week, and wouldn't it be lovely if sleep worked like that? Sadly, it doesn't. Sleep is not like the bank, so you can't accumulate a debt and then try and pay it off at a later point in time.

you brain sleep time

Do you tend to sleep in during the weekends? That usually signals that you're trying to sleep off a debt you've accumulated during the week.

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