Book club
First rule of book club ....
In this section we will be reviewing all things books, focusing on the burgeoning wellbeing genre. This quarter we have reviewed 'Why We Sleep?' by Matthew Walker
On the surface, it may seem like a very obvious question; ‘Why do we sleep?’ Surely, we go to sleep when we’re tired at night time and we wake up in the morning hoping to feel refreshed so that we can function well during the day. Simple, isn’t it?
Well, it turns out that the answer to that question is anything but simple and the reasons for this are explained in ‘Why We Sleep’. Written by Matthew Walker, a highly regarded neuroscientist, ‘Why We Sleep’ is an all-encompassing review on the importance of sleep both at an individual and societal level. The book begins by discussing how we as a society today have started to devalue sleep, mainly because it takes up too much time, time that could be better spent doing something else. Why waste time sleeping if you can work longer hours in order to justify that promotion you’ve been working towards for the last year? Or socialise with some friends that you haven’t seen for ages? If I lose out on sleep tonight then I can just catch up tomorrow, right?
As the book shows, the attitudes that we hold about sleep in today’s world in terms of it being dispensable and something that can just be caught up on couldn’t be further from the truth, and this is something that could prove very damaging to an individual’s long term health and to society as a whole. The book provides a wealth of examples of how not getting enough sleep each night could lead to serious health conditions in the future. As a way of enticing readers, the book’s author claims to have found a revolutionary new treatment that makes you live longer, enhances your memory, makes you more attractive and protects you from serious health conditions, such as cancer and dementia, with the revolutionary treatment being revealed simply as sleep.
Rather than trying to scare you into getting more sleep, the aim of the book is to increase the value that an individual places on sleep, which should then lead to better health outcomes for society as a whole. It is also littered with examples of real life scenarios that demonstrate the importance of sleep and how we as a species are programmed to get more sleep than we currently believe we need! Did you know that in the few regions of the world where siestas are still part of everyday life, the individuals within these regions have a higher life expectancy than in areas where they aren’t? Who knew an afternoon nap could be so powerful?
To summarise, ‘Why We Sleep’ is an extremely comprehensive book all about the importance of sleep and how we as a species benefit from regularly getting an adequate amount of good quality sleep, and conversely how we may suffer if we don’t. It’s written in a way that is both interesting and informative whilst also being a very enjoyable read. If you aren’t a great lover of sleep currently, then your relationship with sleep should start to blossom after reading this book. If you are already great lover of sleep, then your conviction of the power of sleep will be made even stronger by reading ‘Why We Sleep’!