"Sleep is your superpower" TedTalk

Name of Presenter/Organizer: Matt Walker

Title of Presentation/Talk/Event: Sleep is your superpower

Name of Series: Ted Talk

URL of Online Presentation/Lecture OR Production Company of Documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MuIMqhT8DM

If there's a really interesting way of beginning a TedTalk, saying the word 'testicles' is one way of drawing their attention. Surprisingly, Matt Walker transitions from genitals to the fact that the lack of enough sleep leads to less growth of them, for male and for female. Matt spends the duration of his TedTalk discussing the reasons why we need enough sleep everyday and the consequences of when we do not get enough. He first starts with the topic of memory, which most people know that sleeping after learning will let you retain the knowledge. However, he brings up the point that getting sleep before learning allows you to actually soak in that initial knowledge, supporting the claim with an experiment. The experiment involved teaching two groups: a set of those who got 8 hours of sleep and a sleep-deprived set, and the results showed a 40% worse performance by the sleep deprived group; he compares this percentage with scoring 40% worse on an exam to show the impact of a lack of sleep. With the same two groups, the subjects' hippocampi, where memories are stored, were observed; the rested set had lots of recorded brain activity, while the tired set was found to actually have no significant activity. He then talks about how the lack of adequate sleep could lead to up to 70% of natural killer cell (NKC) activity. These NKC's are responsible for killing off unwanted elements in the body, like tumor cells. After giving multiple examples of why we need more sleep, Matt offers two criteria that should be practiced to have good sleep. These criteria are regularity, the ability to keep a consistent sleep schedule, and coolness of the sleep environment.

I agreed with Matt Walker's arguments based on the arguments stated in his TedTalk and my own premonitions before even watching. For starters, Matt comes off as a relatable and knowledgeable speaker based on his many realistic examples and relevant statistics, which strengthen his arguments. He makes a great start by clearing up some misconceptions about not sleeping enough. From my personal experience, the student-college environment seems to view "late night schoolwork" as something to brag about, while in reality it's only a detriment to those who choose to do so. Matt showed through his experiments that not sleeping enough acts negatively to school performance. Many of my peers have argued against this claim, and they state that you can "train your body to stay up later," which is actually false. Sleep is genetically hardwired in our DNA, and no matter what, our bodies will want to get the right amount of sleep no matter what. I think that the TedTalk does a good job addressing this too; "Well, I think it may be this: sleep, unfortunately, is not an optional lifestyle luxury. Sleep is a nonnegotiable biological necessity. It is your life-support system, and it is Mother Nature's best effort yet at immortality. And the decimation of sleep throughout industrialized nations is having a catastrophic impact on our health, our wellness, even the safety and the education of our children. It's a silent sleep loss epidemic, and it's fast becoming one of the greatest public health challenges that we face in the 21st century." (Walker) Matt's provision of information on the direct health impacts of sleep deprivation really shocked me, and I'm sure others who do not share the same opinion on sleep would be shocked as well. The fact that short-sleep is a cause to earlier death is a horrible reality, especially with the fact that many choose to without knowing the repercussions. Matt provides data on the increase of deaths gaining an hour due to something as simple as daylight savings and vice versa; "Now, in the spring, when we lose one hour of sleep, we see a subsequent 24-percent increase in heart attacks that following day. In the autumn, when we gain an hour of sleep, we see a 21-percent reduction in heart attacks. Isn't that incredible? And you see exactly the same profile for car crashes, road traffic accidents, even suicide rates." (Walker) As well, the loss of the natural killer cells leads to exposure to many types of cancer (bowel, prostrate, breast, etc). It is a troubling thing to take in, but that is why I agree that this should be common knowledge. I believe Matt does an excellent job addressing the problem directly, and in doing so he makes a convincing argument without creating any logical fallacies.

Last modified: 14 December 2020