Matthew Walker quotes

Matthew Walker is a renowned sleep scientist and author, known for his groundbreaking research on the impacts of sleep on human health. With a PhD in neurophysiology from the University of Nottingham, Walker has become a leading expert in the field of sleep science. He is the author of the best-selling book "Why We Sleep," which illuminates the critical importance of getting enough restorative sleep for overall well-being. As a sought-after speaker, Walker continues to educate audiences around the world on the science behind sleep and how it can improve our lives. Dive into his work to discover the secrets to a healthier, more productive life through better sleep habits.

The shorter your sleep, the shorter your life. The leading causes of disease and death in developed nations—diseases that are crippling health-care systems, such as heart disease, obesity, dementia, diabetes, and cancer—all have recognized causal links to a lack of sleep.

- Matthew Walker

The best bridge between despair and hope is a good night’s sleep.

- Matthew Walker

Sleep is the single most effective thing we can do to reset our brain and body health each day – Mother Nature's best effort yet at contra-death.

- Matthew Walker

Routinely sleeping less than six or seven hours a night demolishes your immune system, more than doubling your risk of cancer.

- Matthew Walker

REM-sleep dreaming offers a form of overnight therapy. That is, REM-sleep dreaming takes the painful sting out of difficult, even traumatic, emotional episodes you have experienced during the day, offering emotional resolution when you awake the next morning.

- Matthew Walker

Perhaps you have also noticed a desire to eat more when you’re tired? This is no coincidence. Too little sleep swells concentrations of a hormone that makes you feel hungry while suppressing a companion hormone that otherwise signals food satisfaction.

- Matthew Walker

Our children didn’t always go to school at this biologically unreasonable time. A century ago, schools in the US started at nine a.m. As a result, 95 percent of all children woke up without an alarm clock.

- Matthew Walker

Insufficient sleep robs most nations of more than 2 percent of their GDP — amounting to the entire cost of each country’s military.

- Matthew Walker

Human beings are the only species that deliberately deprive themselves of sleep for no apparent gain.

- Matthew Walker

Do you tend to sleep in during the weekends? That usually signals that you're trying to sleep off a debt you've accumulated during the week.

- Matthew Walker

Certain business leaders mistakenly believe that time on-task equates with task completion and productivity. Even in the industrial era of rote factory work, this was untrue. It is a misguided fallacy, and an expensive one, too.

- Matthew Walker

Caffeine is not a food supplement. Rather, caffeine is the most widely used (and abused) psychoactive stimulant in the world.

- Matthew Walker

Caffeine is a stimulant drug. Caffeine is also the only addictive substance that we readily give to our children and teens.

- Matthew Walker

Based on epidemiological data, any adult sleeping an average of 6.75 hours a night would be predicted to live only into their early sixties.

- Matthew Walker

Amazing breakthrough! Scientists have discovered a revolutionary new treatment that makes you live longer. It enhances your memory and makes you more creative. It makes you look more attractive. It keeps you slim and lowers food cravings. It protects you from cancer and dementia. It wards off colds and the flu. It lowers your risk of heart attacks and stroke, not to mention diabetes. You’ll even feel happier, less depressed, and less anxious. Are you interested?

- Matthew Walker

After ten days of just seven hours of sleep, the brain is as dysfunctional as it would be after going without sleep for twenty-four hours.

- Matthew Walker

After all, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

- Matthew Walker

Adults forty-five years or older who sleep fewer than six hours a night are 200 percent more likely to have a heart attack or stroke during their lifetime.

- Matthew Walker

A meaningful, psychologically healthy life is an examined one.

- Matthew Walker

A bedroom temperature of around 65 degrees Fahrenheit (18.3°C) is a reasonable goal for the sleep of most people, assuming standard bedding and clothing. This surprises many, as it sounds just a little too cold for comfort.

- Matthew Walker

1. Establish a regular bedtime and wake-up time, even on weekends. 2. Go to bed only when sleepy and avoid sleeping on the couch early/mid-evenings. 3. Never lie awake in bed for a significant time period; rather, get out of bed and do something quiet and relaxing until the urge to sleep returns. 4. Avoid daytime napping if you are having difficulty sleeping at night. 5. Reduce anxiety-provoking thoughts and worries by learning to mentally decelerate before bed. 6. Remove visible clockfaces from view in the bedroom, preventing clock-watching anxiety at night.

- Matthew Walker

I think many people walk through their lives in an under-slept state not realizing it. It's become this new natural baseline.

- Matthew Walker

Our lack of sleep is a slow form of self-euthanasia.

- Matthew Walker