May 31, 2025

Three Talks on the Science of Sleep

Learn more about the science of sleep with these three talks from three different sleep experts! These talks will dive into why we sleep, how to get healthy sleep, and what happens when you don’t get enough sleep. We’ll start the list off with a talk from Dr. William Dement, who was a pioneer in sleep research. He passed away in 2020, but gave this excellent talk at Google back in 2008.

1. Dr. William Dement on Healthy Sleep and Optimal Performance

Dr. William Dement was one of the leading authorities on sleep, sleep deprivation, and sleep disorders. In the 1950s he was part of the sleep research team that discovered REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep and connected it to dreaming. Since then he founded the Sleep Research Center at Stanford University and authored numerous papers and books on sleep, and he taught one of Stanford’s most popular courses called “Sleep and Dreams”.

In this one-hour talk at Google, Dr. Dement presents many of the findings he has made throughout his career. He talks about studies that reveal that healthy sleep is key to high-level performance and productivity and that the sleep debt of numerous nights without enough sleep causes a significant reduction in the quality of performance of physical and mental activities. Dr. Dement also speaks about sleep disorders such as sleep apnea and narcolepsy. Learn more about something you do every day with this enjoyable talk on sleep. If you liked his talk, check out his audio book: The Promise of Sleep.

2. Shawn Stevenson on Sleep Smarter

Shawn Stevenson is the host of the popular Model Health Show Podcast and the author of the book Sleep Smarter: 21 Essential Strategies to Sleep Your Way to a Better Body, Better Health, and Bigger Success. In this talk that Stevenson gave at Google, he offers a bunch of practical ways to improve the quality of your sleep which in turn will improve your overall health. He starts by explaining how getting enough sleep will help you burn fat to look better. He also emphasizes the importance of getting good sleep for improving your productivity by citing many studies. Stevenson then lists a variety of ways to improve sleep, from managing alcohol and caffeine consumption to reducing screen time right before bed. It’s an informative talk that will at least get you thinking about sleep, which the average person spends about one-third of their life doing.

3. Matthew Walker on Why We Sleep

Bad news for those of us who get less than 7 hours of sleep per night! Professor Matthew Walker is the Director of UC Berkeley’s Sleep and Neuroimaging Lab, and in this talk at Google he shares his findings from his book Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams. Basically, his findings are sleep deprivation leads to shorter lifespans, more cancer, less reproductive health, reduced ability to learn and remember, more mental illness, and a whole lot more disadvantages in life. The adage “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead” never sounded more foolish than after listening to this talk. Walker answers many questions about sleep-related topics towards the end of the talk. And if you enjoy this talk you might want to check out his podcast, which is all about sleep: The Matt Walker Podcast.

Hopefully, these talks will give you some science-based tips for how to get healthier sleep!