

This also means making our work environments more conducive to sleep. People should be able to sleep like they’re able to get healthcare. What other differences are there between deep sleep and REM sleep? What deep sleep does is all the neural processing, and what REM sleep and light sleep do is basically integrate that into your long-term personality and understanding of the world. Then during the nighttime when we sleep, we have a downregulating process where the things that didn’t really matter to your survival sink to the bottom, and the things that are most relevant to your survival rise to the top. It used to be like, “Don’t go over there-the lions live there now.” Now it’s like, “What did Barbara say to me in the office?” These excitatory connections we make during the day result in the neurons in our brains getting overall higher activation. The “ synaptic homeostasis hypothesis” is this idea that during the day, we make all these connections with the world around us. What makes sleep so essential for our wellbeing comes down to three main things: to save our energy, to help our cells recover, and to help us process and understand our environment.

This interview has been lightly condensed and edited for clarity.ĭaniel Gartenberg: Every organism on the planet sleeps in some fashion, to some degree-even the basic fruit fly. You can also read Gartenberg’s comments on “sleep inertia”-the scientific reason why you feel so groggy when you wake up- here.
Must sleep now how to#
and tips on how to get a better night’s rest (hint: it’s not your Fitbit).why sleep should be the new worker’s rights.how sleep deprivation can be a tool to fight depression.why you should take a nap instead of meditating.the genes that dictate if you’re a morning person or a night owl.why 8.5 hours of sleep is the new eight hours.All that with 8.5 hours of sleep a night. (Watch his talk on deep sleep here.) He’s also an entrepreneur who has launched several cognitive-behavioral-therapy apps, including the Sonic Sleep Coach alarm clock. Daniel Gartenberg is currently working on research funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Aging and is also a TED resident. To set the record straight about being horizontal, Quartz spoke to one of the world’s most-talked-about sleep scientists. Even that eating cheese before snoozing causes nightmares. That a nip of whiskey before bed helps you sleep better. That you can get by on four hours’ sleep a night. There are also many, many misconceptions about sleep: that you can “ catch up” on the weekend for lost hours of shuteye.
