Dr. Matthew Walker

And then I can walk you through, I won't bore you, but we can go down to the level of the individual and look at their brain and their brain networks will start to disintegrate when you are sleep deprived. You

lose what's called your prefrontal executive control, which is a very fancy way of saying you go from an evolved homo sapien to essentially regressing back to your impulsive emotional tendencies because you lose that regulatory break. from your high level executive frontal lobe. You're not making good choices. You're starting to become more reward sensitive.

lose what's called your prefrontal executive control, which is a very fancy way of saying you go from an evolved homo sapien to essentially regressing back to your impulsive emotional tendencies because you lose that regulatory break. from your high level executive frontal lobe. You're not making good choices. You're starting to become more reward sensitive.

lose what's called your prefrontal executive control, which is a very fancy way of saying you go from an evolved homo sapien to essentially regressing back to your impulsive emotional tendencies because you lose that regulatory break. from your high level executive frontal lobe. You're not making good choices. You're starting to become more reward sensitive.

You're more risk taking and sensation seeking. You are emotionally unstable. You have pendulum like swings because your brain has lost the emotional break to its accelerated gas pedal. And you're learning in memory. Take a nosedive like a dart into the ground. And performance. And then your performance in terms of your cognitive speed, your speed of processing, all of those things degrade.

You're more risk taking and sensation seeking. You are emotionally unstable. You have pendulum like swings because your brain has lost the emotional break to its accelerated gas pedal. And you're learning in memory. Take a nosedive like a dart into the ground. And performance. And then your performance in terms of your cognitive speed, your speed of processing, all of those things degrade.

You're more risk taking and sensation seeking. You are emotionally unstable. You have pendulum like swings because your brain has lost the emotional break to its accelerated gas pedal. And you're learning in memory. Take a nosedive like a dart into the ground. And performance. And then your performance in terms of your cognitive speed, your speed of processing, all of those things degrade.

And then you can also look at what happens for brain clearance. This has been a stunning, I think, finding. It's one that we've been doing a lot of work on, aging Alzheimer's disease. At night, when we sleep, if we are allowed to get enough of it or we give ourselves the chance to get it, your brain cleanses itself of the metabolic detritus that's been building up during the day.

And then you can also look at what happens for brain clearance. This has been a stunning, I think, finding. It's one that we've been doing a lot of work on, aging Alzheimer's disease. At night, when we sleep, if we are allowed to get enough of it or we give ourselves the chance to get it, your brain cleanses itself of the metabolic detritus that's been building up during the day.

And then you can also look at what happens for brain clearance. This has been a stunning, I think, finding. It's one that we've been doing a lot of work on, aging Alzheimer's disease. At night, when we sleep, if we are allowed to get enough of it or we give ourselves the chance to get it, your brain cleanses itself of the metabolic detritus that's been building up during the day.

And it's, it's hubris. I mean, it's, well, it's hype. I should say it's hyperbolic in the sense to say that wakefulness from a brain perspective is low level brain damage biochemically, but sleep is your sanitary salvation. And two of the pieces of toxic metabolic byproducts that are washed away by sleep at night, beta amyloid and tau protein, two protein culprits underlying Alzheimer's disease.

And it's, it's hubris. I mean, it's, well, it's hype. I should say it's hyperbolic in the sense to say that wakefulness from a brain perspective is low level brain damage biochemically, but sleep is your sanitary salvation. And two of the pieces of toxic metabolic byproducts that are washed away by sleep at night, beta amyloid and tau protein, two protein culprits underlying Alzheimer's disease.

And it's, it's hubris. I mean, it's, well, it's hype. I should say it's hyperbolic in the sense to say that wakefulness from a brain perspective is low level brain damage biochemically, but sleep is your sanitary salvation. And two of the pieces of toxic metabolic byproducts that are washed away by sleep at night, beta amyloid and tau protein, two protein culprits underlying Alzheimer's disease.

This is why we see that short sleep across the lifespan is predictive of high risk of Alzheimer's disease. So your brain is affected. Downstairs in the body, we can speak about every major organ system from your metabolic system, your reproductive system, your cardiovascular system, your thermoregulatory system, your immune system.

This is why we see that short sleep across the lifespan is predictive of high risk of Alzheimer's disease. So your brain is affected. Downstairs in the body, we can speak about every major organ system from your metabolic system, your reproductive system, your cardiovascular system, your thermoregulatory system, your immune system.

This is why we see that short sleep across the lifespan is predictive of high risk of Alzheimer's disease. So your brain is affected. Downstairs in the body, we can speak about every major organ system from your metabolic system, your reproductive system, your cardiovascular system, your thermoregulatory system, your immune system.

Every one of those, we can experimentally just tweak your sleep and we can measure marked changes in those systems. But then the article went on to demonstrate that it's not just organ systems, it's individual cells. And even when you go inside of a cell, the specific componentry of a cell, even the nucleus itself is affected. There was a great study from the UK.

Every one of those, we can experimentally just tweak your sleep and we can measure marked changes in those systems. But then the article went on to demonstrate that it's not just organ systems, it's individual cells. And even when you go inside of a cell, the specific componentry of a cell, even the nucleus itself is affected. There was a great study from the UK.

Every one of those, we can experimentally just tweak your sleep and we can measure marked changes in those systems. But then the article went on to demonstrate that it's not just organ systems, it's individual cells. And even when you go inside of a cell, the specific componentry of a cell, even the nucleus itself is affected. There was a great study from the UK.

They took people, healthy people, limited them to six hours of sleep a night for one week. Now, for most people, they're thinking six hours of sleep, that sounds almost luxurious. This was their version of sleep restriction.