Matthew Walker

Professor of Neuroscience at UC Berkeley, Sleep Scientist at Google and Author of Why We Sleep

Matthew Walker is a professor of neuroscience and psychology at UC Berkeley, the Director of its Sleep and Neuroimaging Lab, and a former professor of psychiatry at Harvard University. He has published over 100 scientific studies and has appeared on 60 Minutes, Nova, BBC News, and NPR’s Science Friday. Why We Sleep is his first book.

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Why We Sleep

Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams

by Matthew Walker PhD

Matthew Walker is one of the world’s leading neuroscientists and sleep experts. He’s a professor at UC Berkeley (and former professor at Harvard) who has spent decades studying why we sleep and how to, as per the sub-title of this book, unlock the power of sleep and dreams. As you know if you’ve been following along, I’m a HUGE advocate of Optimizing our sleep as a fundamental practice in Optimizing our lives. This book has made me EVEN MORE bullish about the power of sleep. The consequences of chronically depriving ourselves of the sleep we need? Well, they’re astonishingly devastating—dramatically increasing the odds of having everything from mood disorders to cancer (and everything else we don’t want). Big Ideas we explore include the fact that you're more likely to get struck by lightning than have the gene that let's you get by on less than the recommended sleep, the universality of sleep (even worms sleep!!), resetting baselines, the iPad effect (did you know how much using one before sleep messes w/your melatonin?), and some tips to Optimize your sleep TONIGHT!!!

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To Read on an iPad at Night
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Or To Read a Printed Book? ← That Is the Question

In our Optimize Coach certification program, we kick the party off by establishing the game we’re playing in Module I: Eudaimon-ology in which we connect ancient wisdom (Aristotle!) to modern science (Seligman!) to establish the fact that it’s all about flourishing/having a “goo...

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A: Not a Lot!

In our last +1, we talked about some fascinating research from Matthew Walker’s BRILLIANT (!) book Why We Sleep. Recall that reading via iPad at night suppressed melatonin released by over 50%. (Pri...

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Science Says: Think Again (Struck by Lightning Lately?)

In our last couple +1s, we’ve had some fun hanging out with our suprachiasmatic nuclei and chatting about how to Optimize our sleep. Let’s continue that theme for a bit longer, shall we? First, stepping back for a moment. Let’s make sure you’re properly introduced to our sleep genius,

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Your #1? (Tonight the Night?)

In our last several +1s, we’ve been having fun Optimizing our Z’s. Let’s continue. We wrapped up our last +1 with a quick inventory of our current sleep and simple question: What’s one thing you ALREADY know you could be doing to Optimize your sleep? To which we followed that up ...

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Plus: One-Eyed-/Half-Brained-Bird Sleep

We’re on a roll with Optimizing our sleep so I say we continue our little series. Today we’ll look at some fun facts about the idiosyncratic universality of sleep. But first, let’s step back and remind ourselves just how fundamental sleep is to our Optimizing and well-being. This p...

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Let’s Pop The Metaphorical Pills to Reduce the Real Ones

Why We Sleep is a life-changing kinda book. (You get it yet? Trust me, you’ll thank me!) We’re going to spend a few more days mining a few more of the many gems from Matthew Walker’s masterpiece....

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Baselines: Best vs. Meh
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Resetting vs Optimizing

One of the key themes we come back to in our Optimizing work together is the idea that we want to make our prior best our new baseline. Another key theme we revisit again and again is to MAKE THE CONNECTION between how very...

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Sleep: Crazy Stats
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To Make Your Heart Skip a Beat

Wrapping up our tour through world-class sleep scientist Matthew Walker’s brain (and book Why We Sleep), how about some sleep stats to knoc...

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Medium vs. High Heat (You?)

Today we will officially wrap up our Science of Sleep series. (Before moving on to some Food Rules for some micro wins on another core fundamental: Nutrition!!) So… A lot of people say that they’re just too busy to sleep more. But… Research shows that sleep-deprived p...

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Matthew Walker

Professor of Neuroscience at UC Berkeley, Sleep Scientist at Google and Author of Why We Sleep

PhilosophersNotes on Matthew Walker's Books All PhilosophersNotes

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To Read on an iPad at Night #740 Get instant access to all +1's! Join nearly 10,000 members in the 1,000-Day Epic Optimizing Challenge and start optimizing your life today. Join Now

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Sleep: Even Worms Do It #744 Get instant access to all +1's! Join nearly 10,000 members in the 1,000-Day Epic Optimizing Challenge and start optimizing your life today. Join Now

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Sleep: The Miracle Drug! #745 Get instant access to all +1's! Join nearly 10,000 members in the 1,000-Day Epic Optimizing Challenge and start optimizing your life today. Join Now

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Baselines: Best vs. Meh #746 Get instant access to all +1's! Join nearly 10,000 members in the 1,000-Day Epic Optimizing Challenge and start optimizing your life today. Join Now

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Sleep: Crazy Stats #747 Get instant access to all +1's! Join nearly 10,000 members in the 1,000-Day Epic Optimizing Challenge and start optimizing your life today. Join Now

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Sleep, Work, and Boiling Water #748 Get instant access to all +1's! Join nearly 10,000 members in the 1,000-Day Epic Optimizing Challenge and start optimizing your life today. Join Now

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To Read on an iPad at Night
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Sleep Q: How Little Light Is Too Much?
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Think You Can Get By on Little Sleep?
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Optimizing Z’s: 12 Tips
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Sleep: Even Worms Do It
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Sleep: The Miracle Drug!
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Baselines: Best vs. Meh
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Sleep: Crazy Stats
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Sleep, Work, and Boiling Water
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