Céline’s Reflections: Why We Sleep & How Not to Die
Titles and Authors: Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker & How Not to Die by Michael Greger
Medium: Audiobook
Motivation for reading: One of my friends recommended the book and lent me her copy of Why We Sleep. How Not to Die was on my wish list and was available at the library, though unfortunately I don’t remember who recommended it to me.
Reflections & Takeaways:
I read these books one after the other, and decided this was worth a “double feature” post because the topics are related. Both books focus on the few things in our life that we actually have control over to maintain our good health: sleep and what we eat.
In a recent conversation, my friend brought up a good point, and I thought her point was particularly important as we are living through a pandemic. She remarked that the American government and leadership have been promoting wearing masks and reminding people to clean their hands. However, these officals have neglected taking advantage of the situation to promote healthier lifestyles through good eating habits, taking the time to sleep, and exercise. All these things strengthening and make us healthier to fight COVID-19. I agree with my friend. And funny enough we had this conversation right after I read these books and I thought it would be worth discussing this together.
After reading these books, I think that there are three important pillars to a healthy lifestyle and I’ve listed them in order of importance: (1) sleep, (2) what we eat, and (3) exercise.
I do believe the most important is sleep — and Matthew Walker does a great job in convincing and proving that in Why We Sleep. I think that sleep is number one and once you have that part controlled, everything else falls into place. I was actually surprised and impressed that my brother told me he’s committed to getting at least eight hours a night. I’ve realized that I’ve neglected that over the years, and seeing him doing it reminded me that I had strayed on the path towards a healthier lifestyle. We live in a world today, especially in the United States and in competitive environments, where people brag about how little sleep they get and wear it almost as a badge of honor. I will say, relative to a lot of my peers over the years, I think I’ve been better about sleep, but they have set a low bar.
One of the positive outcomes of this pandemic for me is having my time back from commuting and having more control over my schedule and sleep. I hope to maintain this habit even after life returns to “normal”. I don’t enjoy the feeling of not being well-rested. Feeling well-rested allows one to be present and alert and fully engage life when awake. The days that I’m tired and neglect my sleep, I feel like a zombie whatever kept me up the night before was not worth it. It’s so important to me to be alert and present — and I find that this is more possible when I’ve been consistently having a good night’s sleep. It’s so easy to give up sleep in exchange to do something else, but sleep is something that you can’t have in “reserves”. It’s a tank that needs to be refilled everyday. But if you need more convincing, I’ll let Matthew Walker do that. (He also has a MasterClass on sleep!)
Second to sleep, what we eat and our dietary habits are the other important keys to a healthy lifestyle. Michael Gregor supports the argument of a vegetable based diet in, what I actually think is a morbid title and personally turned me off, How Not to Die. But once I got past the title, the content was enlightening. I would say I was a pretty healthy eater before I read this book, but there is always room for improvement. The author’s approach to describing the studies and data for what he was advocating in the book — which, to my pleasant surprise, were some habits I already had — were compelling. I’m not vegetarian and probably will never go fully vegetarian, but I this books has encouraged me to consider eating more vegetarian based meals.
I also love his approach on how to making lifestyle changes by taking little steps. Something as simple as throwing an extra handful of spinach in a smoothie here or flax seeds in a recipe there can make a huge difference in the long-term. I think we underestimate how the small daily habits can make a noticeable impact. It really encouraged me to be more creative and find opportunities to take little steps to becoming healthier.
Gregor also made a good argument that diet is relative. The closest he makes to prescribing a diet is his list of “daily dozen” and describes as something we should strive for. I’m not going to be militant to try and hit the list everyday, but for me the value was in the awareness. I take it as a recommendation, which he even says. For example, if you only like to eat carrots with ranch dressing, his recommendation is to eat the carrots with the ranch dressing because the alternative is you don’t eat them at all, and eating them with ranch is better than not eating them. (I personally can’t stand ranch dressing!) I think this is a realistic solution and encouragement. Who knows if over time someone may learn to love carrots alone, but not eating them at all will not get you closer to eating them.
Everyday presents an opportunity to do your best. Take it slow, and you find ways to add a healthy ingredient to your meal or snack or discover a new recipe. Be compassionate with yourself, and you don’t need to beat yourself up to find the “ultimate” or perfect diet. Many can take these changes to an extreme and unknowingly hurt themselves in the process.
But after reading the book, I’ve even made a few changes and adjustments to my approach to food and diet in small ways. I would say that Michael Gregor is crazy for turmeric in the book, which I found pretty funny and probably one of the top takeaways I took from this book! My friend also gave me a good recipe for a homemade turmeric latte [https://minimalistbaker.com/4-ingredient-golden-milk-mix/], which I’ve enjoyed. The other positive outcome of this pandemic for me is having the time to build confidence in my cooking. I found that I have been exploring more vegetarian dishes especially after having read this book.
Another big theme that I took out of his Gregor’s book, and similar to other claims that I have heard, is that the cheapest and most effective way to get your daily dose of vitamins and other benefits whole foods provide is by eating the whole foods themselves. If you eat a well balanced diet, you shouldn’t need supplements since everything will be in your food. Your food should be your richest source!
In conclusion, these two books reminded me that sleep and what we eat are the foundation for a healthy lifestyle. (Exercise is important, and my personal piece of advice is to find something active that you enjoy doing and get your body moving on a daily basis. Doing it with friends also makes it less of a chore and doubles as social time!) We have to deal with both sleep and food on a daily basis, and we make choices for these everyday. We can take control of our health through positive daily choices.
