Powerful ideas from top nonfiction
Try Blinkist to get the key ideas from 5,500+ bestselling nonfiction titles and podcasts. Listen or read in just 15 minutes.
Start your free trial
Blink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club
by Robin Sharma
Listen to the Intro
The Secret Life of Sleep summary
Kat Duff
An exploration of what happens after we close our eyes
4.1 (105 ratings)
19 mins
8 key ideas
Audio & text
What is The Secret Life of Sleep about?
The Secret Life of Sleep (2014) takes an enlightening look at what exactly sleep is. Using cutting-edge scientific research and examples from cultures around the world, Kat Duff explores why and how we sleep, and what makes some Western sleeping patterns particularly unhealthy.
About the Author
Kat Duff is a mental health counselor and journalist. She is also the author of The Alchemy of Illness.
Table of Contents
The Secret Life of Sleep
summarized in 8 key ideas
Audio & text in the Blinkist app
Key idea 1 of 8
Humans have a sleep switch that makes us fall asleep, bringing inspiration and insight into our lives.
We’re all familiar with that murky yet calm feeling we get as we slip into dreamland, but how do we actually fall asleep? Some say the Sandman comes and sprinkles sand into your eyes, the Blackfoot Indians believe a butterfly visits to help you drift off and the ancient Greeks believed in Hypnos, the god of sleep. But what can science tell us about sleeping?
Well, a sleep switch in humans has been discovered.
In 2001, Harvard University sleep researcher Clifford B. Saper identified a group of neurons in the hypothalamus – the brain region that controls metabolic processes and activities such as hunger and body temperature – called the sleep switch.
Our bodies have a mechanism to chemically regulate sleep. It functions independently of day and night and maintains internal balance by making you sleep more or less, thanks to a chemical called adenosine triphosphate (ATP). ATP depletes over the course of the day, making us increasingly tired until we fall asleep. Then, during our sleep, other chemicals gradually accumulate until they reach a tipping point, causing us to wake up.
The state when these neurons are shutting down and we begin to fall asleep is known as hypnagogia, and its parallel transitional state when we wake up is called hypnopompia.
During these transitional states, we often gain insight or feel inspired. We may also relive daytime events, see geometric patterns in our vision, feel like we’re falling or floating, or think we’re expanding and contracting in size.
As French philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy put it, it’s at these times that we “coincide with the world” and have a chance to access other dimensions or realities. Salvador Dalí famously made use of this in his paintings, which were inspired by his dreams.
Thomas Edison also used these transitional states to solve problems by taking naps while holding steel balls in his hands. As he drifted off, his hands would relax and the balls would fall and wake him up, hopefully with a solution already in mind!
Want to see all full key ideas from The Secret Life of Sleep?
Key ideas in The Secret Life of Sleep
More knowledge in less time
Read or listen
Get the key ideas from nonfiction bestsellers in minutes, not hours.
Find your next read
Get book lists curated by experts and personalized recommendations.
Shortcasts New
We’ve teamed up with podcast creators to bring you key insights from podcasts.
Best quote from The Secret Life of Sleep
While biology necessitates sleep, culture defines its shape and length, character and conditions.
—Kat Duff
Who should read The Secret Life of Sleep
- Anyone interested in sleep and different states of consciousness
- Anyone interested in improving their cognitive abilities
Categories with The Secret Life of Sleep
Books like The Secret Life of Sleep
What our members say
Sven O.
It's highly addictive to get core insights on personally relevant topics without repetition or triviality. Added to that the apps ability to suggest kindred interests opens up a foundation of knowledge.
Thi Viet Quynh N.
Great app. Good selection of book summaries you can read or listen to while commuting. Instead of scrolling through your social media news feed, this is a much better way to spend your spare time in my opinion.
Jonathan A.
Life changing. The concept of being able to grasp a book's main point in such a short time truly opens multiple opportunities to grow every area of your life at a faster rate.
Renee D.
Great app. Addicting. Perfect for wait times, morning coffee, evening before bed. Extremely well written, thorough, easy to use.
Start growing with Blinkist now
25 Million
Downloads on all platforms
4.7 Stars
Average ratings on iOS and Google Play
91%
Of Blinkist members create a better reading habit*
*Based on survey data from Blinkist customers