Why do we sleep? | Russell Foster
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- čas přidán 13. 08. 2013
- Russell Foster is a circadian neuroscientist: He studies the sleep cycles of the brain. And he asks: What do we know about sleep? Not a lot, it turns out, for something we do with one-third of our lives. In this talk, Foster shares three popular theories about why we sleep, busts some myths about how much sleep we need at different ages -- and hints at some bold new uses of sleep as a predictor of mental health.
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Sleep is the most important part of life. As someone who has been doing it properly for a few months now, i can guarantee to anyone that its the easiest and most efficient way to becoming happier and healthier, in all aspects of life.
How did you get your sleep pattern to work?
Get a job! Pfft. Spoiled brat!
Space Giraffes I see what they mean im gonna try sleeping earlier because I’ve noticed I can’t sleep so my body has gotten used to me sleeping at 4am
You could say the same thing about eating or drinking or breathing.
I want to be able to sleep like a child again
This is what I call a TED talk - informative, structured, entertaining.
As a construction worker, waking up between 3-5am is completely normal. Addiction is a huge issue in this field of work. This talk is really making me wonder if lack of sleep is one of the most underlying issues.
P.S. I have to up for work in 5 hours lol
Construction is hard work, hard on your body & mind. You need your rest! & I appreciate skilled trades people like you. I wish that more high school kids would look into trades as a viable career.
Kostas Antes construction is wonderful, I am happier as a construction worker (union electrician) than I ever was doing any other job. I also make much more money than the average worker. It’s a great trade, I would encourage anyone to do it that can do it. The schooling and work is tough, the sacrifices you make will be big but it is worth it. Plus you get to build America, or wherever you live haha operate cool machines, go to amazing places, travel, have retirement, medical etc. it is heaven!!!
I do relate. Take care of selv.
mate when you work in construction you are basically getting paid to workout
I can totally relate. I have been drilling for almost 5 and a half years now at 25 years old. I'm coming to realize that the long, physically demanding days followed by an inadequate amount of sleep is finally taking a toll on my body and mind; I am simply not getting the rest my body needs. The grind is neverending and is just not worth it anymore; paycheque included. I am currently looking to move into another field to have more time outside of work. With the majority of that extra time going to SLEEP. 👍😴
Everything a TED talk should be. Erudite, entertaining and eloquent.
The non-english natives don't enderstand
@@harshpatel9487 i am latín and i do understand
Erudite?? What does that mean?
*too lazy to switch to Google*
@@caddy272 "having or showing great knowledge or learning"
@@DrewWalton Thank you my good man.
It's always so impressive when a speaker does not continually have to refer to notes all the time. That means they know their stuff... thank you for this very informative video!
Iv'e said for years that sleep is incredibly important and that A LOT of our problems stem from how busy our lives have become. We also work too much, many work WAY too much. We did not evolve to be this way! We did not evolve to spend our days toiling in mediocrity.
People wonder why some folks snap... place them in a cubicle they hate for 8-12 hours a day and watch how fast a percentage of them fall apart! Some areas in the world the work week and hours per day have been shortened.
I TRULY believe that going forward as a species, we need to reduce our work hours and improve our sleep. Essentially we should focus on doing more quality work, more resourcefully, while trimming the fat! Perhaps less of the monotonous work and more fulfilling to create less stress and depression within our bodies. (Think Star Trek for example, work isn't for monetary gain but for social status, most basic needs are free)
Perhaps as our tech advances we will be able to achieve this. But it could also swing radically in the opposite direction if we continue to deplete our Earths resources and throw off the balance of the ecosystem. Only time will tell.
EQOAnostalgia I fully agree with you. Really good comment right here :)
Yes, because stone age man had such a stress free life.
EQOAnostalgia robotics and AI will replace our jobs anyway most of us will be unemployed in the future
Experiments have proven than working 5 hours a day creates more productivity than 8-12 hours a day. Too bad our society and culture looks down on this as lazy. Until that changes majority of us will waste away life on work and stress
Watching this at 2am lol
+Shark jaws lol me too
Almost same
+MashedPotatoes haha 02:19 :)
2:15 am here too xD
1.56 am here
That is why i take naps and go to sleep when i need to. Not getting enough sleep is a terrible feeling. It makes me not want to be productive i just lay in my bed the whole day.
aren't you a special snowflake
Muhammad Abdullah aren't you salty smh
Napping doesn't provide you with the necessary deep sleep, it tricks your brain into thinking it slept enough, but its just simply outside of the normal healthy pattern. My economy teacher recommended napping because it made it easier to sleep less and work more.
I feel the same way, almost robbed if I don't get to sleep. Deeeeep breathes....🐞
who watches Ted talks before they sleep ?
Me
If you have to Explain what an contrast is : Yung snoop
Just make sure you don't watch the Episodes from the other side
ME
I've fallen asleep many time while watching this video, while ignoring his advice about not drinking alcohol.
"TEENAGERS ARE NOT LAZY"
like honey for my ears... I knew it😏
Even if we all have passed/passing/going to pass the teenage/childhood years. We actually don't understand most aspects of human behaviour in those years. We do a lot of things instinctively, hence we have no memory of 'why we did certain things'. So passing judgements like teenagers are lazy/crazy etc.....is certainly criminal. But as parenthood changes all of that perspective...lol
don’t you mean music to your ears. tf is honey on your ears good for. love you
they said honey for your my ears
what they mean is honey is sweet, hearing that is sweet
#1 comment
Yo, don't you have some homework to do instead of watching youtube videos all day you lazy teenager?! ;p
I think of wakefulness as a necessary evil. Sleep is the natural state. Ask any cat.
awww hello cat
Maybe we should learn something from cats. By the way, sleep is necessary, period.
Or any baby.
They need many months to bear this world lol.
I asked my cat. He didn't comment.
Bob, your cat might've been thinking; "well duh , of course, I don't think you need an answer to that"
As an inventor I have been aware of the connection between sleep and problem solving for many years. I consume the essential elements of a problem when awake and then "sleep on it". By consciously engaging in this process I have been able to consistently arrive at answers to problems that escaped intense deliberate cogitation. I was also fortunate enough to retire at age 55. I haven't used an alarm clock for years and get up in the morning when I damn well feel like it.
I worked 12 hour night shifts for nearly 4 years. Have always been a night owl and my body didn't resist very much trying to sleep during the day. The problem was all the loud people during the day. People cutting grass, honking horns, construction...and during the summer children running around screaming constantly. I miss my night shift (and the $8/hr shift differential!) but it does feel nice to be up and awake when the rest of the world is now.
He is so adorable😭
Joel? Lol.
Same though.
You need to get out more.
He seems like a nice guy
call jhonny sins
Watching this while drinking caffeine in a well lit room at 2:30 AM
Ryan Smith you Little rebel
Damn it feels good to be a gangsta ...
ok, you are a hero!!
what a mad lad
@@nepraos3151 Lock him up and throw away the key. 🔑
Fascinating. As a depression-sufferer from a family of mentally ill, the information you offer is eye-opening. Thank you.
TED is finally getting better at showing the charts.
People say I look very young for my age and at 40 I appreciate this and have always attributed to my respect for proper sleep, a respect I learned in the military due to the misery and downright violent behavior I displayed after going long periods with little or no sleep
Lots of information packed in a single 20 min video. That's what we need
one of the very few ted talks that has "wowed" me throughout the whole time. I mean the majority of ted talks is great, but talks like this one I consider the icing on the cake. Great job Mr Foster!
Wow! One of the most informative talks on TED! So much to learn, and I'm glad I almost always sleep very well, albeit pretty long. Much obliged, Professor Forster.
This video is depriving me of sleep
That was one of the best TED Talks I've heard. It seems like so many presenters are talking but nothing is being said. This guy was on point every single sentence and it resonated immensely!
Great presentation, really good advice. Sleep is more than rest for the body and brain. The brain works all night, figuring out things from the day before. When faced with a big decision, often the best thing to do is "sleep on it," and the answer will come in the morning. I have heard of scientists working on complicated problems for months, and the answer comes to them in a dream.
This videos reveals how important sleep is for us. We have come to know a lot of reasons why we need sleep and what are the consequences of an inadequate sleep. Inspite of this if we think actually what happens to our body that we sleep and why we cannot control sleep, we find no answers.
Ironically, I'm currently watching this video when I should be sleeping haha
I know that feeling bro
yung meme boi extraordinaire metoo.
Maybe your a psycho .... lol
Mee too, though it's 5PM :)
Me too it’s 3:49 am, I think I’ve always viewed sleep as a waste of time. There are so many things I’d like to do instead.
This is perhaps the best talk I've ever seen on the internet. Finding this gem makes social media worth it.
We sleep so we can download the universe update. thats why when you dont sleep, your consciousness starts to break down and senses start misfiring. Gotta get that update bro.
#underratedcomment
Livin in the year 10000
Bismith N #underratedcomment
daily firmware update
I'm watching this at 2 in the morning
Miguel Martinez 3:46 here. I win.
4
Gill 8:40
5:03am
this is not a contest you know?
Mr. Foster really delivered a well constructed and instructive talk! I very much enjoyed it!
I feel like the most important change we as a society need to make in regards to this topic is flexible scheduling of our daily tasks based around one's natural biological rhythm. I've spent decades trying to adjust to the demands of early risers to no avail. I've tried everything I've ever read of heard of. My body does not work with that schedule. I see no reason my job could not be done from 12-8 instead of 9-5, no reason at all. The only thing preventing that is lack of awareness on this very important topic.
This was GREAT & very informative. You had my attention and thank you Mr. Russell Foster for this clip and presentation.
Thank you so much Russel and TED. I slept very poorly for the last 30 years. It is truly a daily fight to get some good hours of sleep. Good luck to you all.
I think your situation is absolutely threatening. Maybe you are sufferring from a kind of mental illness such as depression. So visitting a doctor, I think, is a good thing you should do.
I use to work 10:30 Pm to 8-9:00 Am as a shelf stocker at a local grocery store. While doing that work I also attended the local community college. Needless to say it didn't go well. I was forced to decide between sleep and homework/studying. I only managed to pass 3 out of 4 classes, chemistry being the one I failed to complete because so much studying was required and I just fell behind. I have since quit that job and continue to take classes and quitting that job was one of the best decisions I've made in some time.
what is interesting is that if you took the chem class again, you would probably pass. Sleep is important for studying. I told another commenter on here that sleeping is the best way to study for an exam. It is the most important activity you can do. If you had to choose between studying a lot and getting 5 hours of sleep, or studying a little and getting 8-9 hours of sleep, the 8-9 hour option would be the best option. And this is for everybody who has ever taken a test. EVER. Humans are the exact same in the sense that sleep is vital to our cognitive functions.
***** thats why im becoming a doctor; working my butt off for 8 years, then relax for the rest! My friends have done it recently. Booking patients all in 2 days a week for 12 hours both days then taking it easy the rest. Just the way im gonna follow up on it;already half way there :D
Fantastic, eloquently delivered.
Been watching TED talks for a while now but. Hurray! for this one. Thank you Sr. Greetings from El Sañvador.
Sleep is probably my favorite thing to do
Adore dreaming, and getting 100% comfortable. Sweet Dreams to You All 🐞
Now makes sense why most of the people act really stupid, 5 hrs of sleep, alcohol and tabaco.
In third world countries like Mexico the 50 hrs shift per week is really bad because they want you work more but in reality you do less since most of the time you think about sleeping and actually not being there.
Oh okay, whatever you say dude. 50 hour work week ain't only in Mexico. Do you live in the US? We work 60 hours here in the states sometimes. Thats how a person gets ahead. The ot builds up and makes a huge difference in your check. It's called work. And it pays off. Try it some time when you fall into the reality realm. It has nothing to do with 3rd world countries, where they barely work at all. Where do you come up with these theories. Have you ever worked more than 40 hrs in a week? I have. For months at a time. It's called being a man and putting effort into your profession. Try it some time. It pays off. I know, i do it all the time. But you can't be a weak-minded lazy libtart and expect everything to be handed to you without putting in the effort and time. People like that are parasites to society. Period. I hope you ain't one of them?
This guy is awesone, love his approach and demeanor.
This talk was outstanding. Very much appreciated.
Watching this at 5am... I haven't been to bed yet :(
how are you now ?
salar amir haha...they fell asleep...whoot whoot
+Ruth E. naughty
Your DP says how you may be looking at 5am... 😅
Watching this video in 2019. I recently watched Matt Walker's TED talk, as well -- and yikes! Both are great and really get me (well, scared to be honest) thinking. I think we need a follow up TED talk about not just how to get to sleep (e.g.cool temperature -- which literally never works for me BTW -- dark room, no lights before bedtime, etc.) because the scope of the problem is so much bigger. "No tech 30 minutes before bedtime " is not typically an option for me.... when I am often falling asleep in bed, on my couch, or at my desk, doing work for classes or my job at my computer or on my phone. What about those of us who take our jobs home with us and have professional development we are required to maintain? Our education and our work never ends. What about parents? Their jobs never end. How can these people possibly get enough sleep? It's not as simple as turning out the lights and creating that perfect environment, even though we know we need 8 ish hours (plus or minus). How are we supposed to get all of our responsibilities done AND get adequate sleep....? Both are just not possible in today's society, unfortunately. I think that's the larger problem we need to address.
The professor is way more eloquent and his content is absolutely to wow on! Amazingly explained!
What an excellent and thought provoking presentation!
I blame the high demand either Work , School , Social or technology. too much of either one of them or more will reduce sleep. for me personally i spend to much time on technology :/
school is my problem
ought to watch this through the end but as suggested I better off to sleep since it's 2am now...
What a charming man. Seems to be really witty and warm at heart. I'd love to have him in the family, as an uncle or something.
In the early eighties when I was a young adult I could not pay my electric bill and spent 2 months without electricity. I began to go to sleep at dusk and awake shortly before sunrise every day.
That was almost the only time in my life I slept so perfectly.
Although as a small child I had very good sleeping habits that changed. The stability in my life in general was also disrupted.
I went from top of class to bottom.
I did not sleep properly and it affected my life in profound ways.
I have learned to manage myself a bit. But I still do not sleep properly much of the time. I believe it is due to a combination of a rebellious nature, life instability and finally the stress of working odd hours because my position does not allow for selective work hours. I am thankful just to be employed.
very informative, thanks for rejecting the philosophy of early to bed early to rise ;) and the quote at the last was amazing
What a great thing to watch at 12:30 to then sleep 6 hours and realize I should have slept longer.
Great talk. I needed reminding of that. Thank you.
brilliant speech thank you so much dr foster
Great talk. It'd be interesting to hear if there is any science about afternoon naps. Like whether it's better to nap in the middle of the day or try to stay awake and then go to bed earlier.
Reminds me of Stephen Fry for some reason!
Glad that I'm not alone on this one! I almost begged that he say CAPABLE like fry LOL
Posh accent of course
some great points and spoken very well
I'm watching this falling asleep and those cuts to the bright white diagrams are blasting my eyes. Can't even look at them. Well heck.
Reality is a nice place to visit but I wouldnt want to live there 24/7 - yay sleep.
Lol. They used to say you loose 35%of your life sleeping but they forgot dreaming is sometimes better than reality. Some dreams give you feelings you can never achieve in life, at least for me :)
Just a decent example there are places from childhood that I dream about , in the dream although they don't look the same the feeling of nostalgia gets off the scale. But if I visit the real place that looks the same it's still nice but the feelings are not so intense.
Z3R0 G805T by that rule virtual reality is reality as well:)
Of course you get the idea, dreams fit well to what we call VR
@Z3R0 G805T
Who says there are external sources when your awake.. It all happens in your head.
But you perceive my comment to be real.. Weird eh.
Keep on dreaming.. All we can do.
Good one.
dream believer Yeah but under any reasonable epistemological framework it is fair to say that your perception is "influenced externally" when awake...
@15:06 “what’s the last thing most of us do before going to bed?” I dont want to say,...........................but it rhymes with tank!!!!
thank you so much wonderful talk
Hvala za Srpski prevod.Super ste.
"Sleep. Those little slices of death. How I loathe them."
~ Edgar Allan Poe
I can't sleep at night, I am actually afraid to go to bed at night around 12pm ,because I know I am going to lay on bed twist and turn and couldn't fall asleep until 3 or 4am and wasting my time worrying about my future, will I be rich, can I keep my job,can I achieve my dreams, can I have a better relationship.... etc. then I am extremely tired when I wake up 7 am to go to work and face the unfriendly busy dirty busy dirty traffic mean cheap pollution environment no hope world ,no friends, no one I like ,no loved ones, no support world, no one I have common interest world , this thing have been troubling me for 10 years, I am afraid to go to doctor, cause I am afraid if the doctor can't solve this problem for me who is going to help me. I am watching this 2 am at night, cause I can't sleep.
張添湖 We all know the answer, but we can't act on what we know.. Simply put, make a habit of sleeping early..
Taktuk Taktuk thanks 😀
From your description sleep is only one of your issues. More than anything you need a change of life and lifestyle, your sleep pattern will fix itself once the others are taken care of.
Try Melatonin
Brian Bixby 😃
What a wonderfully charming way of teaching.
I LOVE sleep!! It is one of my favorite of the basic needs. Eating is also top notch pass time. But sleep, that's the best. Oh, & taking a big dump in the morning. That is like the trophy for having a good nights sleep.
I say every morning when i go into work.
"Why am i here again, I was having such a good dream... Ah well back to this one"
@Terran TAING no he got his profile pic at random .
"Sleep is for the weak"
-Patrick Starfish from Spongebob Squarepants
N.B. starfish - no brain.
Gianni Rosenkranz Patrick is a savage 🤙🏽
Seriously? That´s what they teach the youngest? Damn (o_O)
I really want the sleep be defeated without bearing too much of consequences. A lot of people rather playing game than sleeping. I found a way to play during sleep. you can use a novel reading software to read novels during sleeping, you will have dreams about that novel, very funny, and the story would be different with the novel.
That's why I slept all week!
total of 32 years in sleep as a normal person.
the function of sleep:
1.restorvation.
2.energy conservation. less convincing.
3.menmory consolidation
the drawback of lacking sleep:
raising risks of many kinds of disease(obesity, diabetes, stress...)and car accidents...
tips to get enough sleep:
1.reduce light exposure.
2.turn off electronic devices.
3.avoid coffee and other stimuli.
some myths about sleep.
the relation between sleep and mental illness.
Russel, i'm from Brazil and here we have a man stoic and compromissed to human desenvolviment neurocientist called Eslen Delanogare. A podcast with you and him can be a divisor of waters for most of us who knows how great can be our lifes with balance. Amazing TED! Informative and Entertaining.. Come to Brazil
I've been testing out sleep deprivation several days on, quite interesting how the body reacts. Watching your lucid dreams
unfold before you in wake life, quite weird at times when you are in a drunken type of haze.
Breaking 10 days, now thats hard. You'll start seeing what the matrix is.
I can't go for more than like two days, I've fallen asleep standing up lol
@@scruggs6633 I use to work so many hours that I'd fall asleep standing up on a lift 110 feet in the air. My boss would slap my stomach and scream, "wake up!". I'd be asleep again within minutes
The irony of the fact that I'm watching this whilst very sleep deprived, haven't slept all night in the past two
days :/
excellent talk thanks for sharing
Thank u for sharing. .
Wow, nearly fell asleep watching this, he did a good job.
+ronex6211 made my day :P
We get less sleep partly due to the Greed of people and because of this a vast majority of stores and bushiness require late shifts messing with sleep.
well not just greedy stores and businesses. My mom is a nurse in the neo-natal intensive care unit. That is basically where the premature and very sick infants go. She worked the night shift for 30 years. I consider it a heroic sacrifice on her part because those babies needed to be looked after 24/7. So there was no way that she could just not go in to work. She works days now and her mood and energy is much better, thank God.
Patrick But someone has to do that job. Sick babies don’t take the night off. Heroes like your mom make sacrifices for people every night so they can get a good nights rest.
This TED talk is an eye-opener.
thank you for your advice.
There is a sad thing about the sugestion given by this man. As i do believe what he is saying, in this world for a lot of people you need to work so much to pay the bills. The government a long time ago calculated how much time a person can work in a given day but have just enough time for enjoyment. How can you get enough sleep?
OOxford Univеrsity Rеveals: Quick Insomnia Curе => twitter.com/6b32c5ac996d61862/status/804614583075733505 Whу dooо we slеep Russell Foster
I apologize, i didn't watch the video because it is titled "Insomnia." I sleep like a baby most times, and i would think i sleep to much, because i am un-employed, but i strongly believe that to sustain sanity and to stay in a positive frame of mind, we must have comfortable, non- threatening sleep.
I am thinking of my own thing...i will see.
In some special operations courses I've seen where I work, after three days of sleep deprivation, people start to have hallucinations. Dangerous hallucinations.
Incredibly informative!
learning from tedtalk enlightens my knowledge and vision. Thanks
Watching at 6 am. I need to sleep or I'll go crazy very soon.
luckily I wake up before my alarm has a chance to go of and I almost always have because the sun wakes me earlier.
I live in Norway, so if I were to try that i'd wake up at 11am xD
Yep same here.
That is so healthy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love it! you would love my channel
Great presentation.Strongly agree with tha man.I sleep 9 -10h every night,work 6h -5days a week (hate to work) and the rest is for pleasure.Feeling great,happy and don't care about little things.
Never been happier since I quit my overnight job. I did it for 3 months. In order to get test during the fay I had to sleep in the bathroom when I got off because it was the only room with no windows. I gained aeight rapidly and it didn't go anywhere even after I changed my diet to fruits and salads and staying away from carbs.
1,798,000th subscriber!
Watching this after being awake for 24 hours. lol
Wow did not expect a Jim Butcher reference in a TED talk... awesome!
This was really fascinating. I have heard the popular scientific theory is the first one Russell mentions, basically. And what they have discovered is that the brain actually shrinks when you are in REM sleep! This allows more room between the brain and the skull for blood flow to occur. When we are awake, or brain produces more waste chemicals than can be quickly and continuously excreted. This buildup of what are essentially toxins cause the physical experience of being VERY tired. When we sleep, the increased bloodflow allows for quick waste removal.
I FELL ASLEEP WATCHING AND MISSED THE WHOLE PRESENTATION.
Very funny!
Dang I need to watch this for a quiz tomorrow and here I am dozing off
same here, but for an exam. I think my prof completely plagiarized this guy, I knew everything she said sounded familiar
Fascinating discussion
I love this video! It helped and helps me better understand the importance of sleep.
Oh the Irony of watching this video at 3:00am!!
Surprisingly, school drills the fact that we have to sleep; yet, the amount of work that needs to be done completely ruins that. I am speaking as a 3rd year pre-medical student, and 3 a.m. is an early night...
What are you doing at CZcams then ;)
lol
Same, just pulled an all nighter last night.
Excellent talk
I should be sleeping but I find this too interesting. Oh the irony.
Have sleepless nights over and over again? You can have good nights sleep within the next 2 weeks by using sleeplesshelp.com/ guides.
fantastic talk.....
Well it all make sense now !! Thanks for the very interesting talk
I'm listening to this at 3:30am when I should be asleep :/
the emojis😕