#267 - The Kingdom of Sleep

<div class="entry-content"> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In this episode of the podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Matthew Walker about the nature and importance of sleep. They discuss sleep and consciousness, the stages of sleep, sleep regularity, light and temperature, the evolutionary origins of sleep, reducing sleep, the connection between poor sleep and all-cause mortality (as well as Alzheimer&rsquo;s disease, diabetes, obesity, and heart disease), sleep across species, learning and memory, mental health, dreams as therapy, lucid dreaming, heart-rate variability, REM-sleep behavior disorder and parasomnias, meditation and sleep, sleep hygiene, different types of insomnia, caffeine and alcohol, sleep efficiency, bedtime restriction, cognitive-behavioral therapy, napping, sleep tracking, and other topics.</span></p> <p><strong>Matthew Walker</strong><span style="font-weight: 400;"> earned his PhD in neuroscience from the Medical Research Council in the UK, and subsequently became a Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. He is currently Professor of Neuroscience and Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, and director of the </span><a href="https://www.humansleepscience.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Center for Human Sleep Science</span></em></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. Matt&rsquo;s research focuses on the effect of sleep on human health and disease, brain, and body. Walker has published more than 100 scientific research studies and has received numerous funding awards from the </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">National Science Foundation</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;"> and the </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">National Institutes of Health,</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;"> and is a Kavli Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences. He was recently awarded the </span><a href="https://news.berkeley.edu/story_jump/sleep-researcher-matthew-walker-wins-carl-sagan-science-prize/" target="_blank" r