Sleep Is Your Superpower | Matt Walker | TED
Aug 08, 2026 06:31
· 19:04
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0:00
Thank you very much.
0:02
Well, I would like to start with testicles.
0:06
(Laughter)
0:09
Men who sleep five hours a night
0:11
have significantly smaller testicles than those who sleep seven hours or more.
0:17
(Laughter)
0:20
In addition, men who routinely sleep just four to five hours a night
0:25
will have a level of testosterone
0:27
which is that of someone 10 years their senior.
0:33
So a lack of sleep will age a man by a decade
0:36
in terms of that critical aspect of wellness.
0:41
And we see equivalent impairments in female reproductive health
0:46
caused by a lack of sleep.
0:51
This is the best news that I have for you today.
0:53
(Laughter)
0:56
From this point, it may only get worse.
0:58
Not only will I tell you about the wonderfully good things
1:01
that happen when you get sleep,
1:03
but the alarmingly bad things that happen when you don't get enough,
1:08
both for your brain and for your body.
1:11
Let me start with the brain
1:13
and the functions of learning and memory,
1:16
because what we've discovered over the past 10 or so years
1:20
is that you need sleep after learning
1:23
to essentially hit the save button on those new memories
1:26
so that you don't forget.
1:28
But recently, we discovered that you also need sleep before learning
1:34
to actually prepare your brain,
1:37
almost like a dry sponge
1:39
ready to initially soak up new information.
1:43
And without sleep, the memory circuits of the brain
1:46
essentially become waterlogged, as it were,
1:49
and you can't absorb new memories.
1:52
So let me show you the data.
1:54
Here in this study, we decided to test the hypothesis
1:58
that pulling the all-nighter was a good idea.
2:02
So we took a group of individuals
2:04
and we assigned them to one of two experimental groups:
2:08
a sleep group and a sleep deprivation group.
2:11
Now the sleep group, they're going to get a full eight hours of slumber,
2:16
but the deprivation group, we're going to keep them awake
2:18
in the laboratory, under full supervision.
2:21
There's no naps or caffeine, by the way, so it's miserable for everyone involved.
2:26
And then the next day,
2:28
we're going to place those participants inside an MRI scanner
2:32
and we're going to have them try and learn a whole list of new facts
2:36
as we're taking snapshots of brain activity.
2:39
And then we're going to test them
2:41
to see how effective that learning has been.
2:44
And that's what you're looking at here on the vertical axis.
2:48
And when you put those two groups head to head,
2:51
what you find is a quite significant, 40-percent deficit
2:56
in the ability of the brain to make new memories without sleep.
3:01
I think this should be concerning,
3:02
considering what we know is happening to sleep
3:05
in our education populations right now.
3:08
In fact, to put that in context,
3:10
it would be the difference in a child acing an exam
3:13
versus failing it miserably -- 40 percent.
3:18
And we've gone on to discover what goes wrong within your brain
3:22
to produce these types of learning disabilities.
3:26
And there's a structure that sits
3:28
on the left and the right side of your brain, called the hippocampus.
3:32
And you can think of the hippocampus
3:34
almost like the informational inbox of your brain.
3:38
It's very good at receiving new memory files
3:41
and then holding on to them.
3:44
And when you look at this structure
3:46
in those people who'd had a full night of sleep,
3:49
we saw lots of healthy learning-related activity.
3:54
Yet in those people who were sleep-deprived,
3:57
we actually couldn't find any significant signal whatsoever.
4:02
So it's almost as though sleep deprivation had shut down your memory inbox,
4:07
and any new incoming files -- they were just being bounced.
4:11
You couldn't effectively commit new experiences to memory.
4:18
So that's the bad that can happen if I were to take sleep away from you,
4:22
but let me just come back to that control group for a second.
4:26
Do you remember those folks that got a full eight hours of sleep?
4:30
Well, we can ask a very different question:
4:32
What is it about the physiological quality of your sleep
4:36
when you do get it
4:38
that restores and enhances your memory and learning ability
4:41
each and every day?
4:43
And by placing electrodes all over the head,
4:46
what we've discovered is that there are big, powerful brainwaves
4:51
that happen during the very deepest stages of sleep
4:54
that have riding on top of them
4:57
these spectacular bursts of electrical activity
5:00
that we call sleep spindles.
5:03
And it's the combined quality of these deep-sleep brainwaves
5:07
that acts like a file-transfer mechanism at night,
5:11
shifting memories from a short-term vulnerable reservoir
5:16
to a more permanent long-term storage site within the brain,
5:20
and therefore protecting them, making them safe.
5:25
And it is important that we understand
5:27
what during sleep actually transacts these memory benefits,
5:32
because there are real medical and societal implications.
5:36
And let me just tell you about one area
5:38
that we've moved this work out into, clinically,
5:42
which is the context of aging and dementia.
5:46
Because it's of course no secret that, as we get older,
5:50
our learning and memory abilities begin to fade and decline.
5:55
But what we've also discovered
5:56
is that a physiological signature of aging is that your sleep gets worse,
6:03
especially that deep quality of sleep that I was just discussing.
6:08
And only last year, we finally published evidence
6:11
that these two things, they're not simply co-occurring,
6:14
they are significantly interrelated.
6:18
And it suggests that the disruption of deep sleep
6:22
is an underappreciated factor
6:24
that is contributing to cognitive decline or memory decline
6:28
in aging, and most recently we've discovered,
6:31
in Alzheimer's disease as well.
6:36
Now, I know this is remarkably depressing news.
6:40
It's in the mail. It's coming at you.
6:42
But there's a potential silver lining here.
6:45
Unlike many of the other factors that we know are associated with aging,
6:50
for example changes in the physical structure of the brain,
6:54
that's fiendishly difficult to treat.
6:57
But that sleep is a missing piece in the explanatory puzzle
7:01
of aging and Alzheimer's is exciting
7:04
because we may be able to do something about it.
7:08
And one way that we are approaching this at my sleep center
7:12
is not by using sleeping pills, by the way.
7:15
Unfortunately, they are blunt instruments that do not produce naturalistic sleep.
7:21
Instead, we're actually developing a method based on this.
7:24
It's called direct current brain stimulation.
7:28
You insert a small amount of voltage into the brain,
7:31
so small you typically don't feel it,
7:33
but it has a measurable impact.
7:36
Now if you apply this stimulation during sleep in young, healthy adults,
7:43
as if you're sort of singing in time with those deep-sleep brainwaves,
7:47
not only can you amplify the size of those deep-sleep brainwaves,
7:52
but in doing so, we can almost double the amount of memory benefit
7:57
that you get from sleep.
7:59
The question now is whether we can translate
8:01
this same affordable, potentially portable piece of technology
8:06
into older adults and those with dementia.
8:10
Can we restore back some healthy quality of deep sleep,
8:15
and in doing so, can we salvage aspects of their learning
8:19
and memory function?
8:21
That is my real hope now.
8:24
That's one of our moon-shot goals, as it were.
8:29
So that's an example of sleep for your brain,
8:32
but sleep is just as essential for your body.
8:37
We've already spoken about sleep loss and your reproductive system.
8:41
Or I could tell you about sleep loss and your cardiovascular system,
8:46
and that all it takes is one hour.
8:49
Because there is a global experiment performed on 1.6 billion people
8:55
across 70 countries twice a year,
8:59
and it's called daylight saving time.
9:02
Now, in the spring, when we lose one hour of sleep,
9:06
we see a subsequent 24-percent increase in heart attacks that following day.
9:14
In the autumn, when we gain an hour of sleep,
9:18
we see a 21-percent reduction in heart attacks.
9:23
Isn't that incredible?
9:26
And you see exactly the same profile for car crashes, road traffic accidents,
9:32
even suicide rates.
9:36
But as a deeper dive, I want to focus on this:
9:39
sleep loss and your immune system.
9:43
And here, I'll introduce these delightful blue elements in the image.
9:47
They are called natural killer cells,
9:51
and you can think of natural killer cells almost like the secret service agents
9:56
of your immune system.
9:57
They are very good at identifying dangerous, unwanted elements
10:02
and eliminating them.
10:05
In fact, what they're doing here is destroying a cancerous tumor mass.
10:10
So what you wish for is a virile set of these immune assassins
10:16
at all times,
10:18
and tragically, that's what you don't have if you're not sleeping enough.
10:23
So here in this experiment,
10:25
you're not going to have your sleep deprived for an entire night,
10:29
you're simply going to have your sleep restricted to four hours
10:32
for one single night,
10:34
and then we're going to look to see what's the percent reduction
10:37
in immune cell activity that you suffer.
10:40
And it's not small -- it's not 10 percent,
10:43
it's not 20 percent.
10:45
There was a 70-percent drop in natural killer cell activity.
10:51
That's a concerning state of immune deficiency,
10:57
and you can perhaps understand why we're now finding
11:00
significant links between short sleep duration
11:04
and your risk for the development of numerous forms of cancer.
11:09
Currently, that list includes cancer of the bowel,
11:12
cancer of the prostate and cancer of the breast.
11:17
In fact, the link between a lack of sleep and cancer is now so strong
11:23
that the World Health Organization
11:25
has classified any form of nighttime shift work
11:29
as a probable carcinogen,
11:33
because of a disruption of your sleep-wake rhythms.
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So you may have heard of that old maxim
11:40
that you can sleep when you're dead.
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Well, I'm being quite serious now --
11:44
it is mortally unwise advice.
11:48
We know this from epidemiological studies across millions of individuals.
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There's a simple truth:
11:55
the shorter your sleep, the shorter your life.
11:58
Short sleep predicts all-cause mortality.
12:04
And if increasing your risk for the development of cancer
12:09
or even Alzheimer's disease
12:11
were not sufficiently disquieting,
12:15
we have since discovered that a lack of sleep will even erode
12:19
the very fabric of biological life itself,
12:24
your DNA genetic code.
12:28
So here in this study, they took a group of healthy adults
12:31
and they limited them to six hours of sleep a night
12:35
for one week,
12:37
and then they measured the change in their gene activity profile
12:41
relative to when those same individuals
12:43
were getting a full eight hours of sleep a night.
12:47
And there were two critical findings.
12:50
First, a sizable and significant 711 genes
12:55
were distorted in their activity,
12:57
caused by a lack of sleep.
12:59
The second result was that about half of those genes
13:03
were actually increased in their activity.
13:05
The other half were decreased.
13:08
Now those genes that were switched off by a lack of sleep
13:11
were genes associated with your immune system,
13:15
so once again, you can see that immune deficiency.
13:19
In contrast, those genes that were actually upregulated
13:22
or increased by way of a lack of sleep,
13:24
were genes associated with the promotion of tumors,
13:28
genes associated with long-term chronic inflammation within the body,
13:33
and genes associated with stress,
13:36
and, as a consequence, cardiovascular disease.
13:41
There is simply no aspect of your wellness
13:44
that can retreat at the sign of sleep deprivation
13:48
and get away unscathed.
13:50
It's rather like a broken water pipe in your home.
13:53
Sleep loss will leak down into every nook and cranny
13:57
of your physiology,
14:00
even tampering with the very DNA nucleic alphabet
14:03
that spells out your daily health narrative.
14:09
And at this point, you may be thinking,
14:12
"Oh my goodness, how do I start to get better sleep?
14:15
What are you tips for good sleep?"
14:18
Well, beyond avoiding the damaging and harmful impact
14:22
of alcohol and caffeine on sleep,
14:25
and if you're struggling with sleep at night,
14:27
avoiding naps during the day,
14:30
I have two pieces of advice for you.
14:33
The first is regularity.
14:35
Go to bed at the same time, wake up at the same time,
14:39
no matter whether it's the weekday or the weekend.
14:42
Regularity is king,
14:45
and it will anchor your sleep
14:47
and improve the quantity and the quality of that sleep.
14:52
The second is keep it cool.
14:56
Your body needs to drop its core temperature
14:58
by about two to three degrees Fahrenheit to initiate sleep
15:02
and then to stay asleep,
15:04
and it's the reason you will always find it easier
15:07
to fall asleep in a room that's too cold
15:09
than too hot.
15:11
So aim for a bedroom temperature of around 65 degrees,
15:15
or about 18 degrees Celsius.
15:17
That's going to be optimal for the sleep of most people.
15:22
And then finally, in taking a step back, then,
15:25
what is the mission-critical statement here?
15:30
Well, I think it may be this:
15:32
sleep, unfortunately, is not an optional lifestyle luxury.
15:39
Sleep is a nonnegotiable biological necessity.
15:44
It is your life-support system,
15:48
and it is Mother Nature's best effort yet at immortality.
15:54
And the decimation of sleep throughout industrialized nations
15:59
is having a catastrophic impact on our health, our wellness,
16:04
even the safety and the education of our children.
16:08
It's a silent sleep loss epidemic,
16:11
and it's fast becoming one of the greatest public health challenges
16:14
that we face in the 21st century.
16:20
I believe it is now time for us to reclaim our right
16:25
to a full night of sleep,
16:27
and without embarrassment
16:30
or that unfortunate stigma of laziness.
16:34
And in doing so, we can be reunited with the most powerful elixir of life,
16:42
the Swiss Army knife of health, as it were.
16:46
And with that soapbox rant over,
16:49
I will simply say, good night, good luck,
16:51
and above all ...
16:54
I do hope you sleep well.
16:56
Thank you very much indeed.
16:58
(Applause)
17:02
Thank you.
17:03
(Applause)
17:06
Thank you so much.
17:08
David Biello: No, no, no. Stay there for a second.
17:10
Good job not running away, though. I appreciate that.
17:13
So that was terrifying.
17:14
Matt Walker: You're welcome. DB: Yes, thank you, thank you.
17:18
Since we can't catch up on sleep, what are we supposed to do?
17:23
What do we do when we're, like, tossing and turning in bed late at night
17:27
or doing shift work or whatever else?
17:30
MW: So you're right, we can't catch up on sleep.
17:32
Sleep is not like the bank.
17:33
You can't accumulate a debt
17:35
and then hope to pay it off at a later point in time.
17:38
I should also note the reason that it's so catastrophic
17:41
and that our health deteriorates so quickly,
17:44
first, it's because human beings are the only species
17:47
that deliberately deprive themselves of sleep
17:50
for no apparent reason.
17:52
DB: Because we're smart.
17:53
MW: And I make that point because it means that Mother Nature,
17:58
throughout the course of evolution,
18:00
has never had to face the challenge of this thing called sleep deprivation.
18:05
So she's never developed a safety net,
18:08
and that's why when you undersleep,
18:10
things just sort of implode so quickly, both within the brain and the body.
18:15
So you just have to prioritize.
18:18
DB: OK, but tossing and turning in bed,
18:21
what do I do?
18:22
MW: So if you are staying in bed awake for too long,
18:27
you should get out of bed and go to a different room
18:30
and do something different.
18:32
The reason is because your brain will very quickly associate your bedroom
18:36
with the place of wakefulness,
18:38
and you need to break that association.
18:41
So only return to bed when you are sleepy,
18:44
and that way you will relearn the association that you once had,
18:47
which is your bed is the place of sleep.
18:50
So the analogy would be,
18:52
you'd never sit at the dinner table, waiting to get hungry,
18:55
so why would you lie in bed, waiting to get sleepy?
18:59
DB: Well, thank you for that wake-up call.
19:01
Great job, Matt.
19:02
MW: You're very welcome. Thank you very much.
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