Why We Sleep

Template:Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker/random quote

Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker
Full title	Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams
Author	Matthew Walker
Language	English
Subject	Sleep; Dreams; Circadian rhythms; Health
Genre	Nonfiction; Popular science
Publisher	Scribner
Publication date	3 October 2017
Publication place	United States
Media type	Print (hardcover, paperback); e-book; audiobook
Pages	368
ISBN	978-1-5011-4431-8
Goodreads rating	4.4/5  (as of 19 October 2025)
Website	simonandschuster.com

Chapter summary

This outline follows the Scribner hardcover first edition (3 October 2017; ISBN 978-1-5011-4431-8).

I – This Thing Called Sleep

😴 1 – To Sleep….

☕ 2 – Caffeine, Jet Lag, and Melatonin: Losing and Gaining Control of Your Sleep Rhythm.

⏳ 3 – Defining and Generating Sleep: Time Dilation and What We Learned from a Baby in 1952.

🦍 4 – Ape Beds, Dinosaurs, and Napping with Half a Brain: Who Sleeps, How Do We Sleep, and How Much?.

👶 5 – Changes in Sleep Across the Life Span.

II – Why Should You Sleep?

🧠 6 – Your Mother and Shakespeare Knew: The Benefits of Sleep for the Brain.

🏆 7 – Too Extreme for the Guinness Book of World Records: Sleep Deprivation and the Brain.

❤️ 8 – Cancer, Heart Attacks, and a Shorter Life: Sleep Deprivation and the Body.

III – How and Why We Dream

🌙 9 – Routinely Psychotic: REM-Sleep Dreaming.

🛋️ 10 – Dreaming as Overnight Therapy.

🎨 11 – Dream Creativity and Dream Control.

IV – From Sleeping Pills to Society Transformed

👻 12 – Things That Go Bump in the Night: Sleep Disorders and Death Caused by No Sleep.

📱 13 – iPads, Factory Whistles, and Nightcaps: What’s Stopping You from Sleeping?.

💊 14 – Hurting and Helping Your Sleep: Pills vs. Therapy.

🏛️ 15 – Sleep and Society: What Medicine and Education Are Doing Wrong; What Google and NASA Are Doing Right.

🔭 16 – A New Vision for Sleep in the Twenty-First Century.