John Doerr is the chairman of venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins and a Forbes 400 member. Doerr shared his review of Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker for our ongoing series of book reviews by leaders from the worlds of business, academia, entertainment and politics. See more reviews from leaders here.
We all know how great it feels to have slept really well. So it’s no surprise that Dr. Matthew Walker’s Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams (Scribner, 2017) argues that “a good night’s shut-eye can make us cleverer, more attractive, slimmer, happier, healthier and ward off cancer.” But good sleep—and how to get it—is elusive for many, and poorly understood by medical science. Walker, founding director of the Center for Human Sleep Science at UC Berkeley, leads us on a fresh and clear-eyed exploration of how sleep affects our overall well-being, our cognition, even our ability to stave off heart disease, obesity, depression and Alzheimer’s.
Most important, he shows us how to improve our sleep quality in simple, actionable steps. This is a must-read for anyone in a high-stress role, like the entrepreneurs with whom I work. In the startup world, where execution is everything, founders need unfettered access to this essential fuel called sleep. Walker provides the road map to obtain it.
