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Why we sleep : unlocking the power of sleep and dreams

Walker, Matthew P.2017
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This book reveals the author's groundbreaking exploration of sleep, explaining how we can harness its transformative power to change our lives for the better. Sleep is one of the most important but least understood aspects of our life, wellness, and longevity. Until very recently, science had no answer to the question of why we sleep, or what good it served, or why we suffer such devastating health consequences when we don't sleep. Compared to the other basic drives in life--eating, drinking, and reproducing--the purpose of sleep remained elusive. An explosion of scientific discoveries in the last twenty years has shed new light on this fundamental aspect of our lives. Now, preeminent neuroscientist and sleep expert Matthew Walker gives us a new understanding of the vital importance of sleep and dreaming. Within the brain, sleep enriches our ability to learn, memorize, and make logical decisions. It recalibrates our emotions, restocks our immune system, fine-tunes our metabolism, and regulates our appetite. Dreaming mollifies painful memories and creates a virtual reality space in which the brain melds past and present knowledge to inspire creativity. Walker answers important questions about sleep: how do caffeine and alcohol affect sleep? What really happens during REM sleep? Why do our sleep patterns change across a lifetime? How do common sleep aids affect us and can they do long-term damage? Charting cutting-edge scientific breakthroughs, and synthesizing decades of research and clinical practice, Walker explains how we can harness sleep to improve learning, mood, and energy levels; regulate hormones; prevent cancer, Alzheimer's, and diabetes; slow the effects of aging; increase longevity; enhance the education and lifespan of our children, and boost the efficiency, success, and productivity of our businesses.
Main title:
Why we sleep : unlocking the power of sleep and dreams / Matthew Walker, PhD.
Author:
Walker, Matthew P., author
Work:
Why we sleep : unlocking the power of sleep and dreams
Edition:
First Scribner hardcover edition.
Imprint:
New York : Scribner, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc., [2017]©2017.
Collation:
viii, 360 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Notes:
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents:
Part 1. This thing called sleepTo sleep ...Caffeine, jet lag, and melatonin: losing and gaining control of your sleep rhythmDefining and generating sleep: time dilation and what we learned from a baby in 1952Ape beds, dinosaurs, and napping with half a brain: who sleeps, how do we sleep, and how much?Part 2. Why should you sleep?Your mother and Shakespeare knew: the benefits of sleep for the brainToo extreme for the Guinness Book of World Records: sleep deprivation and the brainCancer, heart attacks, and a shorter life: sleep deprivation and the bodyPart 3. How and why we dreamRoutinely psychotic: REM-sleep dreamingDreaming as overnight therapyDream creativity and dream controlPart 4. From sleeping pills to society transformedThings that go bump in the night: sleep disorders and death caused by no sleepiPads, factory whistles, and nightcaps: what's stopping you from sleeping?Hurting and helping your sleep: pills vs. therapySleep and society: what medicine and education are doing wrong; what Google and NASA are doing rightA new vision for sleep in the twenty-first centuryConclusion: To sleep or not to sleepAppendix: Twelve tips for healthy sleep.
ISBN:
9781501144318 (hardback)9781501144325 (paperback)
Dewey class:
612.821
Language:
English
Subject:
Sleep -- Physiological aspectsSleepDreams -- Physiological aspects
BRN:
513491
Bookmark link:
https://librarysearch.melbourne.vic.gov.au/cgi-bin/spydus.exe/ENQ/OPAC/BIBENQ?SETLVL=&BRN=513491
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