Matthew Walker

a strong case can already be made for defending sleep time in our adolescent youth, rather than denigrating sleep as a sign of laziness

That older adults simply need less sleep is a myth. Older adults appear to need just as much sleep as they do in midlife, but are simply less able to generate that (still necessary) sleep.

beta-amyloid that is a key cause of Alzheimer’s disease:

the preliminary results of our brain stimulation studies suggest that older adults, may, in fact, need more sleep than they themselves can naturally generate,

the more sleep spindles an individual has at night, the greater the restoration of overnight learning ability come the next morning.

NREM-sleep spindles is especially rich in the late-morning hours, sandwiched between long periods of REM sleep.

Sleep six hours or less and you are shortchanging the brain of a learning restoration benefit that is normally performed by sleep spindles.

whether early school start times, which throttle precisely this spindle-rich phase of sleep, are optimal for the teaching of young minds.

he more deep NREM sleep, the more information an individual remembered the next day.

The Sound of Silence.” Perhaps you know the song and lyrics. Simon and Garfunkel describe greeting their old friend, darkness (sleep).