Matthew Walker

Matthew Walker, Ph.D., is a professor of neuroscience and psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, and serves as the Director of the Center for Human Sleep Science. Walker's research examines the impact of sleep on human health and disease. One area of interest focuses on identifying "vulnerability windows" during a person's life that make them more susceptible to amyloid-beta deposition from loss of slow wave sleep and, subsequently, Alzheimer's disease later in life. Dr. Walker earned his undergraduate degree in neuroscience from the University of Nottingham, UK, and his Ph.D. in neurophysiology from the Medical Research Council, London, UK. He is the author of the New York Times best-selling book Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams.

In this episode, we discuss:

(00:00) Introduction
(08:47) Sleep boosts learning
(21:21) Manipulating sleep to enhance learning
(26:28) REM sleep, dreams, and memory encoding
(34:46) Sleep deprivation causes loneliness
(46:36) Sleep is disturbed in all neuropsychiatric conditions
(52:30) Bright light exposure
(01:00:02) How much sleep is enough?
(01:10:21) Inflammation triggers sleep
(01:26:16) Bidirectional relationship between poor sleep and Alzheimer's disease
(01:35:12) Deep sleep deprivation increases beta-amyloid
(01:41:40) Preventing dementia
(01:48:44) Sleep tracking technology
(01:56:25) Four Pillars of Sleep
(02:06:02) Metabolism and microbiome
(02:23:34) Tips for better sleep

If you’re interested in learning more, you can read the full show notes here.

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