An increasing number of inspiring stories crammed into our lives, like the libraries of Harvard University overstuffed with diligent students at 3 a.m.. Even numerous chicken-soup articles claim that you are squandering time sleeping while others are striving for a better future. People, especially the young are convinced of the creed-there is no need to sleep since sleeping is mainly designed for the dead. Everywhere you go, sleep deprivation is glamourized and celebrated. The highrocketing development of economy has seen labor work croaching into our personal lives, with the growing depression and sleep-deprivation. It seems that you snooze, than you lose.

The book the Sleep Revolution, as the name suggests, expounds elaborately the significance of sleep. Everyone may have his or her understanding of sleep, but this book’s analysis about the essentiality of sleep really has profound effect on the reader.

Sleep, like the cleanser liver, is a necessary tool to dispose of  harmful wastes in our brain. It has been proved that human’s brain can release poisonous substances while working. Human’s brain has to cope with mountains of  information while people are awake, so it leaves no time and space for it to clean up the hazardous matter released in the meantime. Only when humans go to sleep, can their brains serve perfectly as a cleanser and operate at their best. Sleep deprivation is closely linked to increased risks of diabetes, heart attack, stroke, cancer, obesity and Alzheimer’s disease. People now are faced with increasing sleep disorders, from sleep apnea to insomnia to something called “exploding head syndrome”. The startling truth is that long-time lack of sleep is equal to suicide.

According to the author, long-time sleep-deprivation will be very likely to cause the decline of  one’s cognition, alertness and concentration. A child suffering from lack of  sleep will be overexcited during the daytime but get absent-minded easily. Actually, 8-hour sleep per day should be guaranteed for an adult. Not only does adequate sleep ensure the proper functioning of brain, but it will also alter one’s physical appearance over time, which is in common with the old saying in Chinese “one’s face reflects his state of mind”.

       The necessity of  adequate sleep has long been sacrificed to the values of progress and productivity. Not only your body but also your brain has  become feverishly occupied.  But long time of neglection of sleep has caused shocking consequences, among which SCD (sudden cardiac death) is now more frequently heard than ever before. It is high time that we should take actions and slow down. Otherwise, you are staking your life on it. It is commonly believed that you are what you eat. That is true, but you should also be aware that you are how you sleep.