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 “good soul” via living...

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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%. (Print books for the win!!) That data kinda begs the question as to WHY iPads have that effect. The very shor...

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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, Matthew Wal...

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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 with another simp...

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Sleep: Even Worms Do It
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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 passage from Matth...

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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. Today we’re going to flip open our virtual Optimize magazine to the kind of ad we’d allow in there....

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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 simple micro-lifestyle choices aggregate and compound into very significant gains...

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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 knock your socks off and get you under the sheets a little earlier tonight?! Get this. Matthew says: “When communicating science to the general public in lectures or ...

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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 people have to work way harder t...

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Foundation vs. Pillars
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Our #1 Fundie? Sleep!

As we’ve discussed, in the Mastery phase of our Optimize Coach program, we recently marched through our fundamentals: Eat + Move + Sleep + Breathe + Be Present + Prosper. Technically, we probably should have made it SLEEP + Eat + Move + Breathe + Be Present + Prosper. Why? Well, as our beloved sleep-re...

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Why We DON’T Sleep
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The Top 10 Sleep Kryptonites

In our last +1, we talked about Why We Sleep. (Again.) And, I made (yet) another strong recommendation to buy that potentially life-changing book. (Again.) Today we’re going to talk about Why We DON’T Sleep. We’ll take a quick look at the Top 10 Sleep Kryptonites. But, first, here’s another gem f...

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Want 8 Hours? Be in Bed for 9!

In our last +1, we took a (very) quick look at our Top 10 Sleep Kryptonites. You Optimize one last night? (High fives!) I want to revisit the wisdom gem I shared from Matthew Walker. He tells us: “Two thirds of adults throughout all developed nations fail to obtain the recommended eight hours of nightl...

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vs. Reasons to STAY Up

In our last +1, we had a quick chat about sleep efficiency as we shined a (night) light on how much sleep you’re ACTUALLY getting. In bed for 7 hours a night and think you’re rockin’ it? Well, I hate to break the news to you, but… uh… a) Being in bed for 7 (or 8) hours a night does NOT mean you...

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A Brief History of (Blue) Light
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Save It for the Daytime

Continuing our 80/20 Look at Why We Sleep, Why We Don’t, and How to Optimize Our #1 Fundie, Today we’re going to chat about A Brief History of (Night) Light. Here’s the very quick take. For millions of years, the only light at night consisted of light from the stars and the moon. (Think about that ...

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Today for TONIGHT for Tomorrow

In our +1 on the Top 10 Sleep Kryptonites, we briefly discussed the fact that “Anxiety” is one of the top reasons people give for Why We DON’T Sleep. In our Mastery series, we refer to this semi-burned-out state we all experience way too often as “Enervated Anxiety.” (We talk about this a lot.)...

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Sleep Curfews
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Caffeine + Exercise + Eating + Screens + Work

Continuing our (second!) trip through Sleep Optimizing, let’s talk about some important curfews. Remember our Top 10 Sleep Kryptonites? Well, several them can be resolved with some pretty straight forward curfews. We briefly touched on some of them in that recent +1, but these are some super-important,...

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When's Yours?

Not too long ago, we talked about Sleep Curfews. Five of them, to be precise. One for Caffeine. Another for Exercise. Plus Eating. Plus Screens. Plus Work. As you may recall, Caffeine has a half-life of 5 to 6 hours so try to cut back on that by around noon or 2 or whatever you find works best for you. E...

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Despair --> Hope
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The Best Bridge?

In our last +1, we put on our Optimizing nerd glasses ( 🤓 !!!) and explored the etymological (and psychological) opposites: prosper and despair. We reminded ourselves that prosper literally means “to go forward with hope” while despair literally means “without hope.” Then we channeled the heal...

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PM Counts Twice
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PM → AM + DAY + PM = #carpediem

The other day I was revisiting my Masterpiece Day. I’m pretty much constantly tweaking it on a micro +1 level and, when needed, revisiting it for a deeper architectural analysis of what’s working and what can use some work. 🤓 Usually I sketch out my day as a tall rectangle with an AM Bookend at th...

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Building an Epic Bridge
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I Hereby Challenge You to Have a Series of Really Bad Days

In our last +1, we talked about the Big 2 Virtues. Do you recall what science says are the two most important virtues for flourishing?! (Well, do you?) Hope + Zest. Or, in our lingo: Hope + Energy. We’ve gotta believe our future will be better than our present and that we have the ability to make it so...

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In Your Brain (Quit Shaking It!)

In the last couple +1s, we talked about The Shattered Vase (and the power of taking those pieces and making a beautiful new mosaic) then we practiced The Art of Precious Scars (as we chatted about “golden repairs”). Let’s imagine that art sitting on a desk in our dojo-studio. We’v...

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“Shut-Down COMPLETE!”
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Not “Shut-Down ALMOST Complete!”

In our last +1, we spent some time with our snow globe and, if we’re practicing our shared philosophy, we DIDN’T shake it in the hour before we went to bed last night. (Aka, we honored a Digital Sunset by shutting down all electronics at least an hour before bed.) And… Quick check in: I...

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Matthew Walker

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

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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 Q: How Little Light Is Too Much? #741 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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Think You Can Get By on Little Sleep? #742 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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Optimizing Z’s: 12 Tips #743 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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Foundation vs. Pillars #911 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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Why We DON’T Sleep #912 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 Efficiency #913 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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Reasons to GET UP #914 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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A Brief History of (Blue) Light #915 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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Training Tranquility #916 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 Curfews #917 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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Stress Curfews #940 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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Despair --> Hope #948 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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PM Counts Twice #1007 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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Building an Epic Bridge #1033

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The Snow Globe #1170 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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“Shut-Down COMPLETE!” #1171 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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Foundation vs. Pillars
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Why We DON’T Sleep
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Sleep Efficiency
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Reasons to GET UP
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A Brief History of (Blue) Light
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Training Tranquility
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Sleep Curfews
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Stress Curfews
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Despair --> Hope
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PM Counts Twice
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Building an Epic Bridge
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The Snow Globe
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“Shut-Down COMPLETE!”
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