Best book on sleep and dreams

[mccoy]

Since I saw you guys are interested in dreams, the very best book I read on sleep and dreams, written by a Harvard professor in a very clear yet scientific style is the following.
I strongly suggest its reading, I've been amazed.

Why we sleep, by Matthew Walker
If you guys enter 'matthew walker' in youtube, you'll come across many podcasts with interviews with professor walker, such podcasts are extremely interesting themselves.

[guest587]

Thank you mccoy for the contribution.

What do you remember learning from Matthew Walker that you found interesting?

[mccoy]

Thank you mccoy for the contribution.

What do you remember learning from Matthew Walker that you found interesting?

Eric, too many things to remember!

But, non REM (without dreams) sleep has four stages, from the most shallow to the deepest slumber. During deep sleep there is a general maintenance of the immune system, the cardiovascular system and a cleanup of the amyloid plaques in the brain.

REM sleep, the sleep with dreams, is necessary for a healthy mental balance. People who forcedly deprive themselves from sleep have typically hallucinations, since the brain reclaims what's needed in the wakeful state.

Many other details on what happens during deep and REM sleep, like the mysterious 'spindles' in stage 4 sleep and the data transfer from the USB key of short-term memory, in REM sleep, to the hard-disk archives dedicated to long-term memory.

The author defends an optimal sleep length of 8-9 hours, with various motivations, first and foremost according to me the risk of fatal car accidents for those who drive, but also lesser mental efficiency, less focus, and unawareness of such drawbacks..

The early birds and the late owls as different genotypes. The owls are usually disadvantaged in modern society.

Dreams as a problem-solver mechanism, lucid dreams are present in a certain percentage of people, the serious problem of insomnia.

And much more, all extremely fascinating and full of take-home lessons, supported by technical literature.

Also, to be critical, I think maybe there are times when you can sleep less and with relatively small disadvantages, although not for long...

[guest587]

Thanks mccoy I am glad to hear of your interest. I learned similar years ago. That REM is the deepest state for rest. That 8 hours is typically considered healthy. That means 2 cycles of REM. Also interesting to hear you say that REM which is the most restful state is when dreams occur. So I am actually resting despite remembering some of my dreams, no? I understood it that you progress through the four stages to REM the final stage. And it happens twice in a 8-9 hour cycle. I remember learning that we actually have something like 6 dreams on average and most people have a hard time remembering 1. I look forward to diving into this at a later time!

Kind regards~

[mccoy]

Eric, as far as I understood, both states are necessary, if you suppress dreams, then the brain will claim them back by hallucinations but the risk for depression, mental instability and suicide will increase. If you suppress deep sleep, then you are at risk of heart failure, infection, dementia.

Typical substances which alter the natural cycle and tend to decrease REM stages durations are alcohol and marijuana. Alcoholics often have hallucinations (often scary ones) because of the lack of enough REM sleep.

Yogananda 80+ years ago told things a little differently but as a whole coherent with modern research. That deep slumber is more resting and dreams are a reflection of the waking consciousness. That is true, deep sleep provides rest to the cardiovascular system and brain and dreams seem to be recollections of our experiences haphazardly reassembled by the brain in a semi-coherent scenario.

[mccoy]

I'll tell you what though, if I can spare the time I'm going to reread the book and post the most interesting aspects. That reading changed some of my habits, especially so during the SARSCOV2 pandemic, I tried to sleep as long as I could to boost my immune system. In Italy and elsewhere many doctors and nurses died because of two main reasons:
1-being directly exposed to infected individuals
2-being sleep-deprived, which probably worsened the reaction of the immune system.