What is the biggest challenge you encounter that prevents you from getting enough sleep?

I remember when I was a kid, my mom always told me that sleep was when your body does most of its healing and that's always stuck with me.

“A good laugh and a long sleep are two best cures for anything.” - Irish proverb

One thing not mentioned here that cured my sleep maintenance insomnia - practicing gratitude before going to sleep. Sounds corny but reminding myself of a few things I'm grateful for before falling asleep stops me from waking up randomly at 3-4am and not being able to go back to sleep. I tried a lot of other sleep hygiene recommendations first and none worked, but this simple corny thing of practicing gratitude did work.

My theory on post-partum depression: new mothers become extremely sleep deprived , which influences their mental and physical health.

Simply put, sleep repairs the mind, body, soul, and spirit.

I want to sleep so badly but this video is too interesting to stop.

For most people, it is likely agitation. They bombard their minds with information until the minute they go to bed and the transition to "not thinking" is very difficult

Whoever disliked this didn’t get enough sleep

Ever since hearing Matthew on the joe Rogan podcast I have completed fixed my sleep habits. So much great knowledge

First time I've heard Dr. Mathew and I gotta say the guy is just all heart and such a kind compassionate soul. The way he explains these complex subjects and breaks it down into layman terms is just incredible. I didn't think I'd spend 5 mins on this video but was surprised when it got to the end. Great video

Man, Matthew is awesome. So affluent in sleep knowledge and incredibly open, relatable and easily digestible. A legendary Gem.

I love his advice on how to scream loudly at the wall for 35 min before sleep each night. Helped increase my REM.

I was told, "When you have a problem, sleep on it". Makes sense.

What helped my sleep the most is routine, early blue-light exposure (sunrise) and eating low carb + more meat and less plants. Don't forget to cut out inflammatory foods, this will vary on an individual-basis, for me that was dairy. I own Matthew Walkers' book, it's good and you should read it for a wake-up call ;P

Holy hell this guy was my Professor at Cal. And is literally the reason why I freak out about not sleeping, while not being able to sleep ironically. Thanks Professor Walker yet again (awesome teacher though for real)

Einstein was known to over sleep well his sleep is perfect 10 hrs while we are under sleeping at so called 8 hrs. He even took naps on top of those 10 hrs.

After reading Mathew Walker’s book, I had completely modified my sleep pattern. Thanks Tom for bringing him, to throw some light on this much needed topic.

too modest of a guest. both are true gentlemen, scholars and (possibly) drinkers of fine wine. you both are making the world a better place. thank you so much.

I have experienced dreaming while I was awake driving. I had to pull over. Literally the dream state takes over your vision. I had gotten use to doing it in high school doing math. Teacher would ask me a question and I would answer correctly without out doing the problem. My eyes were open but not open. So I recognized it when driving at night long distance. Anyway, yeah a veil just washes over you. You have to know it's happening to you to pull yourself out of that state.

Audio books are my trick too for falling back asleep in the middle of the night. Previously, I was wide awake with a racing mind for hours on end. Using the audio book, I usually fall back asleep before my 35 min sleep timer turns off the book. Also, I purchased sleep headphone and don't even notice them any more.

I use a sleep meditation from Michael Sealey or Jason Stephenson on UKposts to help me wind down and get to sleep. I also restart it if I wake up in the middle of the night. They really help!

Thank you for validating my experience! For decades i tried to explain what happened when I was working 3 jobs around age 27. I would go 36 hours without sleep and said my body defied me and dreamed while I was awake! “If you’re not going to sleep, I’m going to dream anyway”. The pictures unfolding in front of me were just like my dream movies. So I KNOW this is true. But some people thought I was confabulating. How obvious it was once I went through it a few times. Makes me begin thinking about what’s happening with the brains of regular hallucinators, like schizophrenics.

WATCHING from KENYA 🇰🇪

This dialogue got me so hooked that I couldn't turn it off. I learned a lot and loved how he answered all questions even those that he wasn't asked.

Very interesting, I struggle with chronic pain etc and it majorly effects my sleep...then the lack of sleep leads to more health issues. Finding ways to improve the quality of my sleep is constant journey.

Such a powerful episode with so many answers for mental or body “issues”. Easy to understand and apply in daily basis. Thank you for sharing this message, hopefully will help hundreds to improve their mental state.

Matthew Walker, Texas Ranger. The geeky Chuck Norris. Sorry, I had to. I love this guy!

Matt Walker is awesome. So passionate, knowledgeable, fascinating and accessible. Couldn't recommend his book more highly!

Walker talks with such clarity and deep content.. why, I would be happy to buy a first-hand copy of his book. Thoroughly enjoyed this educative talk ♡

Really appreciate this podcast and all your guests Tom. Your a great man. Your helping more than you know my brother.

Yup audiobook’s has made the biggest affect on my sleep. I’ve been a brutal sleeper my for as long as I can remember. Now at 45, the last year and a 1/2 has been a game changer in sleeping just because of audiobooks. First it started with books of Movies that I’ve seen and instead of the TV on, listen to the book and play the movie in my mind. Now it’s endless books and loving it.

This is a great interview. I know that I need to get more sleep -- which for me I need to get to sleep earlier, as when I go to sleep late (2am or 3am, I do work until about midnight), once I wake up and see daylight, I don't want to keep sleeping. Great message here for me about doing that. I have found a couple of good ways to fall asleep -- Marisa Peer's UKposts vids have been helpful with language I tell myself to go to sleep. I also have an exercise I do where I imagine I'm sitting in a warm room completely surrounded by windows, and I place my racing thoughts outside the room, where they can zoom around outside the windows and leave me in peace and quiet. Surprisingly it helps me get to sleep even when my mind has been racing along at bed time. Another good way is to find a nice boring UKposts topic (in my case, day trading) and play a video on my phone (which I leave upside down, so I can hear it, not see it) -- then I find I drop off quickly -- like Tom's Audio book idea. When needed, I also had an app that kept my screen brightness super low. And yes -- bedroom just for sleeping, not watching TV or working on a laptop etc.

A medal Of humility for the guest who just wants you to read the book without buying! 🙏

Great guest! Gratitude brings peace and helps a lot for a good sleep! Thank you for sharing with us 🌟

The most helpful and information-packed interview in a long time.

I love these interviews. So many great guests. Also really appreciate the tabs you have created at the bottom of the screen. 😄👍🏻Excellent!!

"Being awake is low level brain damage" LOL OMG . I loved this interview, found it fascinating, thank you.

I have this book; have had it for over 2 years. Definitely revisiting it again. 🙏🏾

As a life-long insomniac -- even as a small child I cannot recall simply lying down and falling asleep -- and one who is medicated for it, I listened to the audiobook of Why We Sleep with fascination and growing concern. I have recommended it to many. I need to get a sleep study.

I love how every discussion about sleep goes on about the horrible health risks of not sleeping well when a big part of the solution to insomnia is supposed to be.eliminating anxiety about not sleeping well.

I’m 21 with quite a good life but have been suffering from chronic insomnia for 6 months now. All these facts freak me out but all this info and Matt’s book I hope will be helpful over time. Please, You folks who willingly sleep deprive yourselves, set up your routine and try to find a balance among all the things you have to do throughout the day. Think of the privilege of going to bed and actually falling asleep a whole night. You have no idea how priceless it is!

Read his book - Why We Sleep. It was a life changer and I've improved my life SO much since reading it and putting it's recommendations into practice

what a humble man. Thank you!

Amazing podcast, one of the very best so far! Thank you!

Fascinating, I loved this video. What an amazing human being,I loved when he said, read the book, you don't have to buy it, I didn't do it for the money, really shows how good of a person he is, bless him and bless you Tom, you're an amazing interviewer and always bring us fascinating and interesting wisdom. I'm very grateful, I wish I could afford to support your channel but I'm unemployed at the moment. Much love from Portugal and thank you so much.

“Sleep that knits up the raveled sleeve of care.” I’m pretty unraveled according to my Fitbit.

This was a fascinating interview. I've just ordered the book and cannot wait until I can read it. Thank you for introducing me to this person!

When I was 21 years old I had two jobs I was sleeping only 2 hours a night actually a 30 minute nap at home and other time on the train. Also to add I wasn’t eating healthy at all after 3 weeks I contracted a bacterial infection. I had to go to the hospital and the doctor told me if I would’ve waited two days I would’ve died. From that day I made healthy eating and sleep a priority in my life. Sleep is very important!

several times now i've gotten solutions to coding problems from dreams

Wow! Such eye opening info (no pun intended) on how to understand sleep and improve our sleep habits! Thank you both so much! I am excited to learn more from the book!

@TomBilyeu I'am so very excited that you got Matthew Walker on your show, I just got done with his master class. It's amazing and should be mandatory viewing world wide.

Fantastic episode!! Thank you! My cardiologist, Dr Stanley Rockson, also at Stanford Hospital in Palo Alto, told me that my pulmonary hypertension is mostly caused from sleep apnea!!!! I have lymphedema and it is all tied together. Soooo sleep is priority…it’s the first thing on my bucket list ! 😊⭐️⭐️⭐️

Absolutely great dialogue between the two people. Love the questions and the perspectives.

@Tom Bilyeu Thank you for bringing this information to us much appreciated the both of you! And this 50 min video was perfect enough for me to order the audiobook! So I’m very excited to get busy listening to 13 plus hours of so much amazing information! #muchlove 💕👌🏽

I watched this video and am extremely discouraged. Right about at the 42:00 mark, Mr. Walker begins talking about sleep inertia. I have never heard of that before, but it is exactly how I feel upon waking, no matter when I go to bed or how much sleep I get. I've always thought this meant I wasn't sleeping well, but when the sleep expert here says he suffers from it as well, I feel hopeless. To hear that it is, "normal and real" doesn't solve any problems for me. Now I feel fated to never feeling refreshed when I wake up. Great. Thanks for the good news.

Eating whole foods...kicking high carb foods, junk food, industrial seed oils, grains, sugar to the curb, cured my 40+ years of insomnia. I'm 62, and never felt better. Getting a good night's sleep is of utmost importance to me, along with a proper human diet.

I've been dying for years feeling like a zombie not knowing I was having 105 episodes an hour while sleeping...now on C-PAP starting to slowly feel better. Thanks God.

The longest I ever went without a full night sleep was 86 hours. He is not joking about the hallucinations. There are serious and terrifying.

Love your show, and the multitude of different people and subjects and information you cover. Thank you so much Tom. And thank you for the Blueblox advertising, I've been searching for exactly that. Listening to Matthew Walker is like swallowing an encyclopedia on sleepinformation in one sitting. I always see them several times after eachother, so my brain can suck up and understand the incredible amount of information. I am DEFINITELY going to buy and read that book.

Fantastic episode, thanks Tom! I'm definitely going to try your audiobook tip.

Thank you God for sleep 😊

omg, great podcast!! and ME TOO!!! I wake up ever night at 3-4 am... so annoying! So the ONLY THING that puts me back to sleep is a audiobook, OR A REALLY LONG PODCAST, like a university lecture on something, and hopefully someone who doesn't yell. WORKS LIKE A CHARM every time, no visuals please. Talking. I have so much anxiety and existential dread at 3am, I cant be thinking about my life at that time of day. I just will never sleep. One foot in tomorrow, (fear) and one in yesterday (regret etc) over the past is like pissing all over today (or the morning, cuz my day is trash without sleep! lol

Absolutely fascinatin' 👊. Thank you both. 💙

Matt Walker, what a cool and modest person!! I love to listen to him, and I love Tom Bilyeu as well. Hats off for both of you!!

Vitamin D3/K2 during the day time, Magnesium Glycinate L-Threonate Taurate combination, Valerian Root and cup of Camomile tea before the bed time helps me stay asleep. Also keep your bedroom as dark as possible, to help your pineal gland release melatonin.

2/2 REM: - It’s during dream sleep that we take all the existing information and start to collide it with new information we’ve learned. - Dimitri Mandalea (inventor periodic table) couldn’t figure it out without dream inspired insights. - ‘Sleep on it’ exists in all languages and cultures. - Edison -> Creativity -> steel balls in hands -> wake up due to noise and then write down creative ideas - In REM sleep some parts of the brain becomes 30% more active than when you’re awake. Visual, motor, memory, emotional parts increase..... One goes in the opposite direction: prefrontal cortex gets shut of (rational logical thinking) - REM: cardiovascular system goes through periods of dramatic acceleration and the other way around. Brain also paralyses your body. DRUGS: - Marihuana and alcohol are very good at blocking REM sleep. The need for dream sleep gets build up. When you get a night of sleep without -> crazy dreams (REM sleep rebound effect) - Alcohol is sedation. Not sleep. - Delirium Trems: alcoholics get dreams while being awake because they never get REM sleep. They get delirious. LIGHT AND DARKNESS - We are a dark deprived society at the moment. - Light can suppress the hormone melatonin that tells your brain when it’s dark and time to sleep - One hour of iPad reading before bed vs dimmed light and real book: delayed the release of melatonin by three hours. It’s also 50% less in terms of its peak. And furthermore you don’t get the same amount of REM sleep and feel less rested the next day. STRATEGIES GOING TO SLEEP - Regularity (go to bed and wake up same time) - Last hour before bed: reduce half of all the light in your house and avoid screens - Make it cold! Faster sleep and deeper REM. Paradox: warm feet and hands to charm the blood away from the core out to the surface and radiate that heat. Or take hot bath: vasodilation. All the blood rushes to the surface so your core body temperature plumates and makes you fall asleep sooner. (Hunter gatherer tribes wake up because of temperature and not because of the sun coming up) - Don’t go to bed too full or too hungry. - Diets that are high in sugar and low in fiber tend not to be good for sleep. You tend to have less deep sleep and more fragmented throughout the night. - Melatonin is useful when you’re travelling between time zones. Your internal clock is out of synch. You can fool your brain by making it think it’s dark. Once people are stable within a new time zone melatonin does not seem to help with sleep. That said: if people think it helps they should keep taking it -> placebo effect is the most reliable effect in all of pharmacology. Older people might benefit from nightly melatonine use. BEING AWAKE FOR A LONG TIME - After 20 hours of being awake you are as impaired cognitively as you would be if you were legally druk - Every 30 seconds there is a car accident linked to sleeplessness. Drowsy driving, it seems, kills more people on the roads then either alcohol or drugs combined. They are so deadly because when you are under slept you suffer from micro sleeps. With alcohol or drugs it’s a problem of later reaction. With sleep it’s NO reaction. - Amongst teenagers it’s the leading cause of death in most first world nations. Suicide is second. In Wyoming they shifted the school start times from 7:45 in the morning to 8:55 in the morning. There was a 70% reduction in car crashes the following year. The invention of ABS dropped it by 20-25%... KNOWLEDGEABLE FACTS: - Wakefulness causes low level brain damage and it’s sleep that offers a repair-arty function. - One half of your brain doesn’t sleep when sleeping in a foreign environment (threat detection system) - Non REM and REM (dream) sleep. Non REM consists of 4 stages. Three and four are most beneficial for health. - Dip after lunch: brain wave activity shows physiological alertness drop between 14 to 16 pm. Doesn’t depend on diet. Even if you don’t have lunch or a big lunch. - Took mother nature 3.6 million years to put the 8-hour necessity in place. - Sleep finds problem points in your motor skill (e.g. a part of a sequence on the piano that doesn’t flow nicely yet) - Practice with a night of sleep makes perfect! Rats -> Maze -> Motor skills. After a night of sleep you are 20/30% better in terms of your skilled performance than at the end of your training session the night before. - You can’t keep using naps to self medicate short sleep of 4/5 hours each night. Your brain has no capacity to regain all of the sleep it has lost. We discovered that you only get 4/5 hours back if you missed like 8 hours of sleep. - One out of two adults are not getting the recommended 8 hours of sleep. Almost one out of every three people are trying to survive on 6 hours or less. In 1942 average 7,9 hours of sleep. Now it is down to 6 hours and 31 minutes on average (adult in North America). - Under slept employees take on fewer work challenges overall. They end up taking the simple ones. Produces fewer creative solutions. They also slack of when they work in groups. Less sleep does not equal more productivity… Kinda strange that we overvalue employees that undervalue sleep. - Prefrontal cortex region (ration / logical) is one of the first to go when sleep deprived. Deep emotional part of the brain which is normally kept in control by that prefrontal cortex erupts in terms of the activity. - Your biological rhythm moves forward in time in the later stages of adolescences and adulthood. You want to go to bed later and wake up later. Biological impossible to fall asleep very early for example. - There’s a small fraction of 1% of the population that has a gene that allows them to survive on five hours of sleep. The chance to get struck by lighting is bigger. - Margret Thatches and Ronald Reagan -> heroic statements about how little sleep they got (4-5 hours) -> Both ended up developing Alzheimers... - We haven’t found counter measures for a lack of sleep. - ADHD has the same kind of features similar to sleep deprivation. That’s why some paediatricians diagnose certain kids with ADHD who are actually under slept. They also might just be suffering from sleep disordered breathing (tonsils). - On average doctors get about TWO hours of sleep education in the medical curriculum. While it’s a third of their patients lives. - Residents in medical industry itself: Why do we accept treatments from people who have been awake for more than twenty hours? Unfortunately we place our residents in this position of acting, operating and decision making under conditions of insufficient sleep. One in five medical residents will make a serious medical error due to insufficient sleep. One in twenty will kill a patient because of a fatigue related error… At this moment there well over 20.000 medical residents. The data is very clear about this. - When they changed the constant bright light in the neonatal intensive care unit those infants ended up having higher levels of oxygen regulation (they were sleeping better), there weight gain was dramatically increased and they ended up exiting the ICU five weeks earlier. - Sleep is the elixer of life - We are with sleep where we were with smoking 50 years ago. We have all of the evidence but the public is not aware of the science. - Independent research: A lack of sleep costs nations about 2% of their GDP (Gross Domestic Product)

wow! mind blown! I have learned so much about sleeping and the bad things I am currently doing... 1000 Thank yous feels not enough! Thank you for sharing your knowledge Matt. Awesome questions Tom!

What a great interview! I really enjoyed the content and I enjoyed this man. He’s lovely!

I can not thank you enough for this episode Tom. I won’t bore you with the details but you have reconfirmed everything I knew was right and which someone was trying to tell me wasn’t the case. Thank you again.🙏🏻 its not a stretch to say you’ve saved my sanity.

Tom, I know it sounds crazy but a cold shower often helps me to go back to sleep when I wake up in the middle of the night. The reason I think is that it lowers your body temperature to sleeping temperature and I've read it pulls blood away from your brain and slows down your thinking. Anyway, just thought you might want to try it. I learned it one weekend on a prayer retreat and it probably accounts for an extra 3-4 hours of sleep a week for me.

My 20 yr old son and I have always believed that sleep is just a waste. This video was tremendously informative and made a lot of sense. Though we both don't have a problem falling asleep we always avoid it till it gets overpowering. No more! Thanks a lot.

I watch all toms posts. This is by far the best. We all have sleep in common. Ups and downs in our sleep journey. Gonna buy book.

Who else got this recommended to them at 2am in the morning?? Hahah!

So, if we know heart attacks increase because of the time change, why have we not stopped changing the clock?

What a beautiful validation of "the royal road to the unconscious" (dreaming, dream condensations. etc) described by Freud!

I love ypur guest! This episode is awesome thank you! I've listened Nd relistened to Andrew's book on audio books 📚 😍 now I think of and care for my brain and my sleep pattern as essential.

Lots of love from South Africa 🥳❤️🇿🇦

It’s so synchronicitious to come across this, thanks to Uncle Al(gorithm) after just wondering today, following a particularly rejuvenating sleep, why I seem to need so much sleep and what I’m doing during all those “lost” hours. Brilliant podcast to listen to while I do yoga🙏

Great segment! Thank you so much for covering this important subject! Dr. Walker, you are the guy I'd go to for a sleeping or any cognitive therapy advice!

I was on SSRI antidepressants for a while for anxiety and they really messed up my sleep. I'm sleeping so much better now that I'm off them. Check online that your medication isn't causing your insomnia, it's not always listed as a side effect on the pamphlet that comes with the tablets.

For the past 8 years I've gotten about 4 hrs of sleep. Sometimes I get 8 on weekends. The last 3 months I've only been able to get maybe 2 or 3 hrs a night. No wonder I'm depressed

I’ve been waiting for this episode this guy is Amazing. I read his book it just changed my whole perception about sleep and just as I expected Tom did a great job as well. Loved the episode 😍😍

great presentation Tom and Matthew.....and a humble man with all his expertise.....aloha from Hawaii ....Dean

what a brilliant and kind man

I’ve read his book and it IS truly life changing. (Tom, your interviews are always excellent, but they seem to be getting even more impressive with each new one! )

ive had 12 hrs sleep the last 4 nights, everything feels smooth n well coordinated n its quite a buzz actually, I'm extremely interested in the timings. i often get 12 hrs actually but it starts at around 1am I've felt like crap for months and very low creativity, but the last 4 nights i was so bored i went to bed at 11 and i swear its made way more impact, im rested, focused and full of spunk, im going to try and create something today, maybe some music, this podcast was so unique, the timing is hilarious, thank you everyone

Just about to start CBT, thank you so much for this fantastic info. Thank you, hopefully I’ll be able to implement without thought. Off all medications for almost 2 years except asthma, trying to eliminate and breathe better.

Fascinating, Coherent, Generous and sooo Helpful! Ever so grateful 🙏

Even if I sleep 6 hours (my max), it's always in increments, sometimes as many as 4, with hour long waking periods in between. I really believe that disrupted sleep plays the largest role in my health issues.

Dream is an art by itself.

Mr Walker very genuine person..Thanks Tom

Too Good, absolutely convincing. Can't thank you enough 🙏

Daylight savings time is a sham. Just gotta get that off my chest

This video is so well done. The questions are excellent, Matthew does an excellent job using metaphors to help us understand the content better and seems so excited to talk about each question, and the time bar on the bottom makes the video feel so organized and easier to learn from. My only issue is that I'm staying awake longer than planned because this is so interesting haha :)

Currently reading the book. Almost finished. Amazing Scienze and New Research from Matthew Walker. Ten out of Ten!

Really excellent discussion on sleep Thank you so much for sharing !

Tom Bilyeu is such a great interviewer. That's Amazing!

No wonder I'm a mess. I sleep less than 3 hours a night for the last twenty years. This explains my suicidal tendencies. I need to start drinking heavily at night. Liquid kosch.

Brilliant information! Thank you so very much for some great information that everyone can use ... actually, change that from can use, to should use! Maybe our schools should also be listening to and learning from this man.