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A review by watermelleon
Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker
Did not finish book. Stopped at 91%.
This book wins the record for the highest percentage read before I put it to rest. Woo.
91 percent in, I gave up the ghost. This has been an up and down read, the positive parts being excellent. I have learned so much about sleep science, which has reconsolidated and improved lessons learned during my psychology degree. This book has convinced me fully of the importance of sleep and has convinced me it is something I really need to work on within my own life. How to do that however, is still a question that needs answering elsewhere.
Why I dnf'd - two things
1) How do we have better sleep?
The author talks of cutting age techniques, but in describing who lack of sleep affects most (people in short who are heaviest affected by the plight of capitalism) he touches on societal causes but not the importance of dismantling of capitalism as a solution. In fact, many solutions are probably not accessible to the groups he is describing as most in need of them.
2) Neurodiversity and sleep
There was a section mid way where the author talked about how Neurodiversity was impacted by sleep. He took care to not outright say lack of sleep caused adhd and autism, but pointed out that some studies suggested as such.
91% in, I hear him refer to adhd as a rising epidemic. I honestly don't care for what is next, what devil's advocate reasonings he may have for this not actually being the case. Others likely could read this and add further fuel to the difficulties neurodiverse people are having to be heard right now. He is clearly not an expert on Neurodiversity and it showed.
Oh I'll add a third:
Weird use of accents when talking as people from other countries left a weird taste in my mouth as well.
Tldr:; I feel a teetering around topics of things he wishes to say but others would find too controversial (adhd probably caused by sleep deprivation), or doesn't want to (capitalism is the problem). Learned a lot but have very few answers due to the issue being so systemic (which he refuses to acknowledge)
If I met this author in life, I feel we would not get along, despite his clear passion in the subject and some very intriguing information that he presents.
91 percent in, I gave up the ghost. This has been an up and down read, the positive parts being excellent. I have learned so much about sleep science, which has reconsolidated and improved lessons learned during my psychology degree. This book has convinced me fully of the importance of sleep and has convinced me it is something I really need to work on within my own life. How to do that however, is still a question that needs answering elsewhere.
Why I dnf'd - two things
1) How do we have better sleep?
The author talks of cutting age techniques, but in describing who lack of sleep affects most (people in short who are heaviest affected by the plight of capitalism) he touches on societal causes but not the importance of dismantling of capitalism as a solution. In fact, many solutions are probably not accessible to the groups he is describing as most in need of them.
2) Neurodiversity and sleep
There was a section mid way where the author talked about how Neurodiversity was impacted by sleep. He took care to not outright say lack of sleep caused adhd and autism, but pointed out that some studies suggested as such.
91% in, I hear him refer to adhd as a rising epidemic. I honestly don't care for what is next, what devil's advocate reasonings he may have for this not actually being the case. Others likely could read this and add further fuel to the difficulties neurodiverse people are having to be heard right now. He is clearly not an expert on Neurodiversity and it showed.
Oh I'll add a third:
Weird use of accents when talking as people from other countries left a weird taste in my mouth as well.
Tldr:; I feel a teetering around topics of things he wishes to say but others would find too controversial (adhd probably caused by sleep deprivation), or doesn't want to (capitalism is the problem). Learned a lot but have very few answers due to the issue being so systemic (which he refuses to acknowledge)
If I met this author in life, I feel we would not get along, despite his clear passion in the subject and some very intriguing information that he presents.