Matthew Walker

Matthew Walker is dead serious about the dangers of sleep deprivation. Sleep is one of the most important but least understood aspects of our lives. It affects our wellness and longevity, and yet questions about why we sleep and its purpose have only recently been answered.

In his book Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams (2017) neuroscientist and sleep expert Matthew Walker provides a new understanding of sleep. Walker is in love with sleep and wants us to fall in love with sleep, too. He makes the argument, persuasively, that we are in the midst of a silent sleep loss epidemic that poses the greatest public health challenge we face in the 21st century. Matthew Walker is a professor of Neuroscience and Psychology at University of California Berkeley, the Director of its Sleep and Neuroimaging Lab, and a former professor of psychiatry at Harvard University. He has published over 100 scientific studies and has appeared on 60 Minutes, Nova, BBC News, and NPR’s Science Friday. Why We Sleep is his first book.