Sleep: The Key to Healthy Brain Function, Appetite, Physical & Emot...

Last night, @TheLynx and I watched one of the most life-changing episodes of The Joe Rogan Experience that I'd ever seen, featuring Dr. Matthew Walker, a neuroscientist specializing in studying sleep.

I watched this episode just over a year ago, and since have made sleep my #1 priority (since I've already put enough time & energy into my diet that it's all habit now), and I've felt great improvement in my life as a result. I wanted to share the information with her, as well as re-watch it myself. Even having seen it already, I was mind-blown all over again.

If you are currently residing in a human body, I highly recommend watching/listening to this podcast.

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Some Key Details

One hour of phone/tablet use will delay the onset of melatonin production by about 3 hours
We need 7-9 hours of sleep per night
- Once you get below 7, there are measurable impairments in the brain
- There is a small fraction of <1% of the population, that has a certain gene that allows them to survive on 5 hours of sleep (You are more likely to be struck by lighting than have this gene)
Men who sleep 5-6 hours a night will have a level of testosterone 6-10 years normal for someone 10 years older
After 20 hours of being awake, you are as physically and cognitively impaired as you would be if legally drunk
One study found that, with one week of 6 hours of sleep per night, 711 genes were distorted in their activity
- Half of those genes experienced an increase in activity – these were genes related to the promotion of tumors, genes related to chronic inflammation, and genes associated with stress (and therefore cardiovascular disease)
- Half of these genes were suppressed – many of these were genes related to immune response, so we become immune deficient with a lack of sleep
1 in 5 medical residents will make an error due to insufficient sleep, 1 in 20 medical residents will kill a patient due to a fatigue related error
When Jackson Hole, Wyoming changed school start times from 7:35am to 8:55am, car collisions involving teen drivers decreased by 70%