47 pages • 1 hour read
Matthew WalkerWhy We Sleep
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2017A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 4, Chapter 15-ConclusionChapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 4: “From Sleeping Pills to Society Transformed”
Chapter 15 Summary: “Sleep and Society: What Medicine and Education Are Doing Wrong; What Google and NASA Are Doing Right”
Chapter 15 shifts the focus from the negative impacts of insufficient sleep on the individual to society. The author focuses on four examples. The first is on the workplace. Employers often “overvalue employees who undervalue sleep” (297) thinking they are more productive. However, one study found that insufficient sleep costs most nations 2% of their gross domestic product (GDP). Walker attributes these costs to the fact that sleep-deprived individuals work less, are slower to complete tasks, generate less innovation, and are more unethical. Walker points to several organizations, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Nike, NASA, and Google, who have changed their work policies and practices to value well-rested employees. For example, NASA adopted a nap culture after seeing the benefits naps had on astronauts’ task performance and alertness.
The second is “the inhumane use of sleep loss in society” (305). To Walker, one of the worst uses of sleep deprivation is as a form of government sanctioned torture. He strongly argues for its abolition on two grounds. First, sleep deprivation results in emotional instability, inaccurate memory recall, and higher rates of lying. As such, it “places an individual into the least useful brain state for the purpose of credible intelligence gathering” (306). Second, sleep deprivation results in permanent physical and mental harm (as discussed throughout the book).
Sleep deprivation also negatively impacts education. During adolescents, the circadian rhythm “shifts forward dramatically by one to three hours” (308). Despite this shift, most teenagers have early start time for schools, resulting in chronic sleep deprivation. This is particularly concerning because teenagers are more susceptible to the development of chronic mental illnesses. As Chapter 7 discusses, there are links between sleep loss and lifelong psychiatric illnesses.
Sleep deprivation also impacts health care. Walker provides evidence proving that sleep deprivation “cripples the learning, health, and safety of young doctors” (322) and correlates to greater number of medical errors. For example, if a physician did not have at least a six-hour sleep opportunity the night prior to surgery, there is a 170% increased risk that they will inflict a serious and potentially fatal surgical mistake. Walker ends this chapter by suggesting humans could avoid most of the sleep-loss statistics presented in the chapter by “dismantling our negative and counterproductive attitude toward sleep” (322).
Chapter 16 Summary: “A New Vision for Sleep in the Twenty-First Century”
Walker presents his “new vision for sleep” (324) in our modern world, which includes four levels of sleep intervention. The first intervention opportunity is with the individual. He suggests that individuals can use sleep trackers—once available and affordable—which are devices that track their sleep and circadian rhythm. Walker sees value in these devices because they will expose individuals to their own data. Individuals will see how their own sleep habits predict their mental and physical health. These individual-level data will increase the likelihood that people create permanent changes to their sleep habits.
Individuals also need to start receiving educational materials on sleep. These materials can take many forms and be age-specific. Walker’s central goal with this intervention is to “begin a familial transmission of sleep appreciation from one generation to the next” (332). Walker also argues for organizational interventions, including tying rewards to employees who get more sleep based on sleep tracker data, making work shifts flexible to accommodate larks and owls sleep schedules, and use sleep rather than prescriptions as a form of medicine. Public policy represents the final intervention opportunity. As one example, Walker argues for better public campaigns to educate the populace about the importance of healthy sleeping habits.
Conclusion Summary: “To Sleep or Not to Sleep”
In this short concluding chapter to Why We Sleep, Walker reiterates his main thesis: “this silent sleep loss epidemic is the greatest public health challenge we face in the twenty-first century in developed nations” (340). Walker invites all readers to shift their negative and counterproductive attitudes toward sleep, and reunite with this powerful elixir that produces countless health and wellness benefits. Only by doing so will we know what it feels like to truly be awake during daytime hours.
Part 4, Chapter 15-Conclusion Analysis
The concluding chapters of Part 4 transition “from bedside up to the level of sleep in society” (11), presenting the costs of a sleep-deprived society. One of the most sobering examples in Chapter 15 is the impact of sleep deprivation on the intellectual growth of children, especially children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. In contrast to children from affluent families, low-income children often must rely on buses for transit to school because their parents often have jobs in the service-industry and cannot drive them. As such, they are more chronically sleep-deprived than their wealthier peers. An under-rested brain “is little more than a leaky memory sieve, in no state to receive, absorb, or efficiently retain an education” (312). To Walker, early school start times continue to disadvantage the already most vulnerable of school-age children.
Early school start times might also explain the prevalence of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The symptoms associated with ADHD are remarkably similar to those caused by lack of sleep. Rather than doctors recommending more sleep, they instead prescribe Adderall or Ritalin, both of which are stimulants. These two stimulants “are two of the most powerful drugs we know of to prevent sleep and keep the brain of an adult (or a child, in this case) wide awake” (315). This is the last thing any child needs, especially those already suffering from lack of sleep. Walker does not contest the reality of ADHD but suggests that undiagnosed sleep disorders might also masquerade as this disorder. He strongly encourages policy changes that delay school start time to ensure that children are equitably reaping the full health and learning benefits of a good night’s sleep.
By the end of the Conclusion, Walker states, “this silent sleep loss epidemic is the greatest public health challenge we face in the twenty-first century” (340). Despite this sobering Conclusion, Walker projects a message of optimism. He presents a “road map of ideas” (11) that individuals, industry and education leaders, and policymakers can implement to reconnect humanity with the sleep it desperately needs. As one example, organizations should consider flexible work shifts. As discussed earlier, the traditional employment models favor larks over owls, with disastrous health consequences for the latter. Employees would be present during a core window for important meetings and interactions, but the start and end time would be flexible to accommodate individual variations in circadian rhythms. Flexible work shifts might also result in indirect individual and societal savings of time, stress, and money due to decreases in rush-hour traffic.
Walker also criticizes individuals and organizations who hold the “we-suffered-through-sleep-deprivation-and-you-should-too mentality” (321) or equate good sleep quality/quantity as signs of laziness. The data presented reaffirm that there are no benefits to sleep deprivation. Moreover, the sleep-loss related harm we cause our body and brain are preventable. Walker closes by encouraging readers “to reclaim our right to a full night sleep” (340) and its associated health and wellness benefits.
