In my opinion, this is one of the most timely and important science books ever.
In our modern post-industrialized society, we’ve dedicated more and more time for work, personal learning and development, and sometimes our 1 or 2 start-ups as well. Hence, it’s quite understandable that sleeping has been gradually turned into wasted time, and of course, the famous “you can sleep when you’re dead” quote effectively emphasizes this whole trend.
But, this book will show you why sleep is extremely important to almost every single aspect of your life: from your ability to learn and put new things into your long-term memory, to your immune system and the prevention of dementia and the scary Alzheimer’s.
However, what is even more crucial, is that it shows how our society are designed to force people to have less sleep in some of the most important occupations and area of their lives: the 24 or even 36 hours shift of doctors in hospital; the early school starting time; etc.
I totally agree with the author and sincerely think the science of sleep should be taught early in life, so, hopefully, we can reverse this trend in the near future.
Some of the interesting details in the book:
· How rapid eye-movement (REM) sleep helps us to overcome the strong emotions that seem to be unbearable, by replaying them during the night, but in different scenario in our dream. It’s also when our body is completely paralyzed, so we can’t react to these hard-to-cope-with emotions.
· How, even after 2 nights, our brain still processes the new information/learning. This digestion of learning I’ve never thought of, so it’s really eye-opening for me. And I guess it somewhat reminds me of why consistency is truly the key, as each day will affect not only the next, but the progress of the last few days as well.
· And finally, well, Nature never fails to amaze me:
Central to the goal of adolescent development is the transition from parental dependence to independence, all the while learning to navigate the complexities of peer-group relationships and interactions. One way in which Mother Nature has perhaps helped adolescents unbuckle themselves from their parents is to march their circadian rhythms forward in time, past that of their adult mothers and fathers. This ingenious biological solution selectively shifts teenagers to a later phase when they can, for several hours, operate independently—and do so as a peer-group collective. It is not a permanent or full dislocation from parental care, but as safe an attempt at partially separating soon-to-be adults from the eyes of Mother and Father. There is risk, of course. But the transition must happen.
