Helpful Score: 2
This book is truly lifechanging in that it drastically - and I believe permanently - changed something in my life: sleep. I haven't seen 11pm in weeks. I wish I could say it's truly made a dramatic difference for me in metabolism or mood or some other measurable area but it hasn't that I can tell. What I have felt is less yawning/exhaustion, better concentration and focus (Multitasking? What's that?), and I don't have a desire to eat nasty foods.
Ironically this kept me up at night worrying that I wasn't getting enough sleep and waking up too much and not getting good "quality" sleep. But I stuck with it. It's been about four weeks now that I've been insistent on getting my eight hours in and it just feels better to me to wake up refreshed. It's not painful anymore. Totally worth it.
I appreciated the beautiful prose Walker used when describing the beneficial and restorative advantages of sleep. I found myself actually enjoying reading about it and greeting sunset with alacrity. For an academic he is a lyrical writer.
Some of the chapters on the less interesting things (animal sleep habits, etc.) bored me. I'm coming around to the way of thinking that knowledge is worth nothing unless it has practical uses. Anyway, that's my only real problem with the book.
I liked his sage advice about sleeping aids (basically, don't use them). My favorite part, though, was the illustrations of the spider webs that spiders on different drugs (cocaine, speed, LSD, etc.) wove juxtaposed with the web one wove while on caffeine. Look it up; it will surprise you.
The practical advice he gives to changing society, government, and schools is fantastic. I doubt anyone would get on board with it but I stand firmly in the "sleep more" camp. I've long believed it's harmful to children (and adults) to wake up to an alarm clock. And I've known about the adolescent change in circadian rhythm for years now. It kills me that the kids have to wake up early for school now but they're going to bed WAY early nowadays to make up for that. We'll revisit homeschooling in a few years when they hit high school.
The informative parts were sobering in their specificity; what even minor sleep deprivation does to one, and potentially others, is frightening. I won't give spoilers because you'll have to discover this stuff for yourself for it to have the greatest impact on you but make yourself get some sleep. Just do it. Make yourself.
Ironically this kept me up at night worrying that I wasn't getting enough sleep and waking up too much and not getting good "quality" sleep. But I stuck with it. It's been about four weeks now that I've been insistent on getting my eight hours in and it just feels better to me to wake up refreshed. It's not painful anymore. Totally worth it.
I appreciated the beautiful prose Walker used when describing the beneficial and restorative advantages of sleep. I found myself actually enjoying reading about it and greeting sunset with alacrity. For an academic he is a lyrical writer.
Some of the chapters on the less interesting things (animal sleep habits, etc.) bored me. I'm coming around to the way of thinking that knowledge is worth nothing unless it has practical uses. Anyway, that's my only real problem with the book.
I liked his sage advice about sleeping aids (basically, don't use them). My favorite part, though, was the illustrations of the spider webs that spiders on different drugs (cocaine, speed, LSD, etc.) wove juxtaposed with the web one wove while on caffeine. Look it up; it will surprise you.
The practical advice he gives to changing society, government, and schools is fantastic. I doubt anyone would get on board with it but I stand firmly in the "sleep more" camp. I've long believed it's harmful to children (and adults) to wake up to an alarm clock. And I've known about the adolescent change in circadian rhythm for years now. It kills me that the kids have to wake up early for school now but they're going to bed WAY early nowadays to make up for that. We'll revisit homeschooling in a few years when they hit high school.
The informative parts were sobering in their specificity; what even minor sleep deprivation does to one, and potentially others, is frightening. I won't give spoilers because you'll have to discover this stuff for yourself for it to have the greatest impact on you but make yourself get some sleep. Just do it. Make yourself.
