Director of UC Berkeley’s Sleep and Neuroimaging Lab and professor of neuroscience with over 100 scientific studies to his credit, Matthew Walker, Ph....

As the Director of UC Berkeley’s Sleep and Neuroimaging Lab and professor of neuroscience with over 100 scientific studies to his credit, Matthew Walker, Ph.D. has devoted his career to understanding one of our most prevailing biological mysteries: sleep. In this brilliant exploration and the first of its kind by a leading expert in the field, WHY WE SLEEP: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams (Scribner, on sale October 3), Walker illuminates the scientific discoveries that he and fellow researchers have led in the past two decades to help us understand the vital importance of sleep and how it can change our lives for the better. Sleep is the ultimate health panacea. It enhances memory, makes you more creative; makes you look more attractive; keeps you slim and lowers food cravings; protects you from cancer and Alzheimer’s; wards off colds and the flu; lowers risk of heart attacks, stroke, and diabetes; abates depression and anxiety; and is one of the most important predictors of illness. Herein, Walker outlines how we have misunderstood and misused this powerful and necessary habit on both an individual and structural scale, offering straightforward advice on sleeping more and better. Charting the fascinating experiments and breakthroughs in sleep science—from the serendipitous drug breakthrough helping PTSD patients from reliving their worst nightmares to testing Nobel Laureate Francis Crick’s hypothesis on the function of REM-sleep—WHY WE SLEEP is a clear-eyed primer and illuminating guide on how exactly we can sleep our way to health, longevity, and wellness. More praise for WHY WE SLEEP: “Simply a must-read. World-renowned neuroscientist and sleep expert Matthew Walker takes us on a fascinating and indispensable journey into the latest understandings of the science of sleep. And the book goes way beyond satisfying intellectual curiosity, as it explores the cognitive, health, safety and business consequences of compromising the quality and quantity of our sleep; insights that may change the way you live your life. In these super-charged, distracting times it is hard to think of a book that is more important to read than this one.” —Adam Gazzaley, co-author of The Distracted Mind, founder and executive director of Neuroscape, and Professor of Neurology, Physiology, and Psychiatry at University of California, San Francisco “Most of us have no idea what we do with a third of our lives. In this lucid and engaging book, Matt Walker explains the new science that is rapidly solving this age-old mystery. Why We Sleep is a canny pleasure that will have you turning pages well past your bedtime.” —Daniel Gilbert, professor of psychology at Harvard and author of Stumbling on Happiness "In Why We Sleep, Dr. Matt Walker brilliantly illuminates the night, explaining how sleep can make us healthier, safer, smarter, and more productive. Clearly and definitively, he provides knowledge and strategies to overcome the life-threatening risks associated with our sleep-deprived society. Our universal need for sleep ensures that every reader will find value in Dr. Walker's insightful counsel." —Mark R. Rosekind, Ph.D., former NHTSA Administrator, NTSB member, and NASA scientist ABOUT MATTHEW WALKER, Ph.D. Matthew Walker, Ph.D. is an award-winning neuroscientist and a leading world expert on sleep. He has appeared in several Google Tech talks and radio features on the BBC and NPR, including “Science Friday.” Dr. Walker was the feature of a CBS “60 Minutes” special entitled “The Science of Sleep.” He contributed to the recent National Geographic documentary Sleepless in America; the PBS NOVA special “Memory Hackers”; and, most recently, the BBC Horizon documentary Curing Alzheimer’s. He is a frequent international public speaker and offers workshops of various kinds to business leaders and technology firms.