Matt Walker, PhD, founder and director of the Center for Human Sleep Science at the University of California, Berkeley, argues that it’s time to replace the “mortally unwise advice” of “you can sleep when you’re dead” with a new adage: “The shorter your sleep, the shorter your life.”
Walker provides a sweeping overview of the “alarmingly bad things” that can happen when you don’t get enough shut-eye, including a significant drop in your brain’s ability to learn, a greater risk of heart attacks and car crashes, zapped immunity, and an uptick in genetic activity linked to cancer, stress, and cardiovascular disease.
The fix for “one of the greatest public health challenges we face,” he says, is to “reclaim our right to a full night of sleep.” Stick with a regular sleep schedule—even over the weekends—and keep your sleep space cool for optimal Z’s, he suggests.
The takeaway: “Sleep is a non-negotiable biological necessity...There is simply no aspect of your wellness that can retreat at the sign of sleep deprivation and get away unscathed.”
