Matthew Walker’s intro to REM Sleep & Non-Rem Sleep:20%-25% in REM sleep20%-30% in deep non-REM sleepThe rest in light non-REM sleepSeven to nine hours of sleep covers the vast distribution of human sleep needGenetic short sleepers (6 hours or less) are incredibly rare – you may be resilient but lack of sleep can lead to hypertension, impaired cognitive ability, immune system deficiencies.The best REM sleep doesn’t enter the cycle until the last couple of hours of the night, you need a minimum amount of sleep to access itDifferent stages of sleep have different benefits for your mind and body

Intro to Sleep Stages

The snooze button is the perennial expression of the human frustration of chronic lingering sleep debt

Experiment: If you regularly set an alarm clock, would you wake up at that same relative time without the alarm clock?If the answer is no, you’re not listening to your body’s needs and are probably running on a sleep deficit.Don’t force sleep, it’s dangerous to stay awake in bed for long periods of time.﻿Pavlov’s Classical Conditioning: your brain will begin to bond a negative association with your bed and being awake“You’d never sit at the dinner table waiting to get hungry, so why would you lie in bed waiting to get sleepy?”

Sleeping Tips 1/2

Drinking coffee is objectively good, the timing and dosage is the problem<ul><li>Due to common diet deficiencies, the coffee bean often serves as a main provider of antioxidants</li><li>Caffeine has a half-life of five to six hours</li><li>If you have a cup of coffee at midday, 50% will be in your system at 6 pm and still 25% at midnight</li><li>Caffeine in the late day can reduce the amount of deep sleep you get by 20%-40% (stage three & four non-REM)</li><li>Cut off caffeine consumption 10 hours before bed</li></ul>Alcohol can activate the fight or flight response system even while you sleeping–causing sleep fragmentation

Coffee, Caffeine & Alcohol

The harder you try to sleep, the harder it becomes<ul><li>Don’t count sheep, take yourself on a long mental journey. Take your mind off of itself.</li><li>Matthew loves racing cars, he guides himself through this activity as he falls asleep</li></ul>Don’t try to catch up on sleep. If you’ve had a bad night of sleep, do not adjust your personal sleep schedule to compensate.<ul><li>Don’t let one bad night of sleep compound into another</li><li>If you’re going to nap, make them brief (10-15min) and before 1 pm</li></ul>Have a wind-down routine before you go to bed, sleeping is not like a light switch<ul><li>This could be stretching, meditating,shower etc</li></ul>

Sleeping Tips 2/2

<ul><li>Sleep-onset insomnia: the inability to fall asleep</li><li>Sleep-maintenance insomnia: the ability to fall asleep but difficulty staying asleep</li><li>Nonrestorative sleep: following normal sleep patterns but still feeling insufficiently refreshed</li><li>Insomnia is about 30% genetically inheritable, but mental distress is one of the greatest drivers of insomnia</li><li>Hyperarousal: over-active neurobiological and psychological systems contribute to difficulty sleeping</li><li>Matthew references Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) as a potential long-term treatment for insomnia</li></ul>

Insomnia & How to Sleep Better

Metrics that Matthew uses for sleep tracking:<ul><li>Sleep efficiency: the percentage of time in bed that you are sleeping. Target is 85%-90%.</li><li>Sleep latency: how long it takes to fall asleep. Falling asleep too quickly can imply a sleep debt.</li><li>REM/Non-REM sleep cycles</li></ul>Orthosomnia: the anxiety of perfecting your sleep routine ends up being counterproductive<ul><li>Sleep tracking can distort your psychology–what if you feel like you slept well, but your tracker says otherwise?</li><li>Gamifying your sleep can make you lose sight of the intrinsic benefits</li></ul>

Sleep Tracking

Renowned sleep scientist Matthew Walker discusses everything you need to know about what a better night’s sleep can do for your life, and how to prioritize and perfect the way you sleep. Walker breaks down how to identify when you need more sleep, how to deal with insomnia, the best devices to track your sleep, and some unconventional sleep hygiene tips, including why it’s never a good idea to count sheep.  Walker is a Professor of Neuroscience and Psychology at the University of California-Berkeley, and is also the founder and director of the Center for Human Sleep Science. He has published over 100 scientific research studies on the impact of sleep on human brain function, and he is the author of the 2017 book, Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams.   --  Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish 

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Master the best of what other people have already figured out so you can use their lessons in your life to create an unstoppable advantage.   Shane Parrish is an entrepreneur and sought-after speaker. His newsletter (https://fs.blog/podcast) offers timeless insights you can use to change your life.    In The Knowledge Project, Shane interviews people at the top of their game. Every episode is packed with hard-earned lessons that you can use in your life. Tune in to create an unstoppable advantage.   Sit down and learn from the best. Previous guests include Reid Hoffman, Esther Perel, Daniel Kahneman, Tobi Lutke, Marshall Goldsmith, Kunal Shah, Ander Huberman, David Sinclair, Ret. General Stanley McChrystal, Marc Andreessen, Patrick Collison, Robert Cialdini, Walter Isaacson, Chris Bosh, Kat Cole, Adam Grant, Angela Duckworth, Seth Godin, Matt Mullenweg, Lisa Feldman Barrett, Maria Konnikova, Bill Ackman, Annie Duke, Derek Sivers, Jim Collins, Naval Ravikant, and many others. They reveal hard-earned lessons on leadership, decision-making, hiring and firing, productivity, habits, and more.   New episodes are released every second Tuesday.   Learn more at https://fs.blog/podcast