Dr. Matthew Walker

And when we've mapped that, what we call brain atrophy, and you can almost play a movie now where you look at it across decades and you can see these beautiful morphological changes in the brain, The two areas that, or at least one of the main areas that generates your deep non-REM sleep is right here in the frontal lobe, right in the middle, called the medial prefrontal cortex.

And when we've mapped that, what we call brain atrophy, and you can almost play a movie now where you look at it across decades and you can see these beautiful morphological changes in the brain, The two areas that, or at least one of the main areas that generates your deep non-REM sleep is right here in the frontal lobe, right in the middle, called the medial prefrontal cortex.

And when we've mapped that, what we call brain atrophy, and you can almost play a movie now where you look at it across decades and you can see these beautiful morphological changes in the brain, The two areas that, or at least one of the main areas that generates your deep non-REM sleep is right here in the frontal lobe, right in the middle, called the medial prefrontal cortex.

That area is the epicenter for the generation of deep sleep. And that degrades most rapidly when we get older. So unfortunately, the aging brain is a sleep-dependent aging brain. It's especially... sort of ravaged by the process of chronology relative to other parts of the brain. So that's the first issue. The second is quality.

That area is the epicenter for the generation of deep sleep. And that degrades most rapidly when we get older. So unfortunately, the aging brain is a sleep-dependent aging brain. It's especially... sort of ravaged by the process of chronology relative to other parts of the brain. So that's the first issue. The second is quality.

That area is the epicenter for the generation of deep sleep. And that degrades most rapidly when we get older. So unfortunately, the aging brain is a sleep-dependent aging brain. It's especially... sort of ravaged by the process of chronology relative to other parts of the brain. So that's the first issue. The second is quality.

And quality is here coming back to you are nice and continuously asleep for most of the night versus you're awake, you're asleep, you're awake, you're asleep, or you're awake for long periods of time. That is much more like age-related sleep. If I were to show you Sort of the, what we call the hypnogram of sleep, which is what you see on your sleep trackers.

And quality is here coming back to you are nice and continuously asleep for most of the night versus you're awake, you're asleep, you're awake, you're asleep, or you're awake for long periods of time. That is much more like age-related sleep. If I were to show you Sort of the, what we call the hypnogram of sleep, which is what you see on your sleep trackers.

And quality is here coming back to you are nice and continuously asleep for most of the night versus you're awake, you're asleep, you're awake, you're asleep, or you're awake for long periods of time. That is much more like age-related sleep. If I were to show you Sort of the, what we call the hypnogram of sleep, which is what you see on your sleep trackers.

It looks time of night along the horizontal axis. You've got this different sleep stages and you go on this beautiful rollercoaster ride, REM, non-REM. But then if you look at the aging brain, you've just got all of these kind of like a dolphin going up, surfacing for wakefulness all the time. It's fragmented sleep, poor quality of sleep.

It looks time of night along the horizontal axis. You've got this different sleep stages and you go on this beautiful rollercoaster ride, REM, non-REM. But then if you look at the aging brain, you've just got all of these kind of like a dolphin going up, surfacing for wakefulness all the time. It's fragmented sleep, poor quality of sleep.

It looks time of night along the horizontal axis. You've got this different sleep stages and you go on this beautiful rollercoaster ride, REM, non-REM. But then if you look at the aging brain, you've just got all of these kind of like a dolphin going up, surfacing for wakefulness all the time. It's fragmented sleep, poor quality of sleep.

Part of the reason is because the release of melatonin is not in the standard beautiful where melatonin peaks just before you go to sleep, stays high and then drops down low. You just get this really flat profile of melatonin as you get older. Secondly, you've got the sleep generating, the deep sleep generating brain regions deteriorating. So you can't stay in deep sleep.

Part of the reason is because the release of melatonin is not in the standard beautiful where melatonin peaks just before you go to sleep, stays high and then drops down low. You just get this really flat profile of melatonin as you get older. Secondly, you've got the sleep generating, the deep sleep generating brain regions deteriorating. So you can't stay in deep sleep.

Part of the reason is because the release of melatonin is not in the standard beautiful where melatonin peaks just before you go to sleep, stays high and then drops down low. You just get this really flat profile of melatonin as you get older. Secondly, you've got the sleep generating, the deep sleep generating brain regions deteriorating. So you can't stay in deep sleep.

You surface in these lighter stages where you're more vulnerable to being woken up. And then the other sort of component of age-related sleep decline comes on to the aspect of your chronotype decline. You are given your chronotype at birth, but it's highly age dependent in terms of where you're sleeping on the clock face.

You surface in these lighter stages where you're more vulnerable to being woken up. And then the other sort of component of age-related sleep decline comes on to the aspect of your chronotype decline. You are given your chronotype at birth, but it's highly age dependent in terms of where you're sleeping on the clock face.

You surface in these lighter stages where you're more vulnerable to being woken up. And then the other sort of component of age-related sleep decline comes on to the aspect of your chronotype decline. You are given your chronotype at birth, but it's highly age dependent in terms of where you're sleeping on the clock face.

So as, let's say, a six-year-old, we all wanted to be awake with the adults at the weekend and try to stay awake. And we would try and try. But, you know, I just remember at nine o'clock being kind of like lifted up to bed because I'd fallen asleep. It used to annoy the living daylights out of me.

So as, let's say, a six-year-old, we all wanted to be awake with the adults at the weekend and try to stay awake. And we would try and try. But, you know, I just remember at nine o'clock being kind of like lifted up to bed because I'd fallen asleep. It used to annoy the living daylights out of me.