Up All Night? You May Have Actually Been Asleep
Let’s say that you go to bed this evening at midnight. But instead of waking up at eight a.m., getting a full eight hours of sleep, you must wake up at six a.m. because of an early-morning meeting or because you are an athlete whose coach demands early-morning practices. What percent of sleep will you lose? The logical answer is 25 percent, since w... See more
Matthew Walker • Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams
Since your brain desires most of its REM sleep in the last part of the night, which is to say the late-morning hours, you will lose 60 to 90 percent of all your REM sleep, even though you are losing 25 percent of your total sleep time. It works both ways. If you wake up at eight a.m., but don’t go to bed until two a.m., then you lose a significant
... See moreMatthew Walker • Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams
We discovered that different deep emotional centers in the brain just above and behind the amygdala, called the striatum—associated with impulsivity and reward, and bathed by the chemical dopamine—had become hyperactive in sleep-deprived individuals in response to the rewarding, pleasurable experiences. As with the amygdala, the heightened sensitiv
... See moreMatthew Walker • Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams
Sleep is lurking in the background, even behind such tension.