Latest news with #MatthewWalker
India Today
4 days ago
- Health
- India Today
Sleep, rebranded
For a long time, sleep was overlooked in conversations about health and wellness. It was seen as unproductive—even lazy—something to cut short in favour of getting more done. In recent years, however, it has undergone a profound rebranding—from a passive, expendable state to a vital cornerstone of physical, mental, and emotional well-being. 'Sleep is the single most effective thing we can do to reset our brain and body health each day,' writes neuroscientist Matthew Walker in Why We Sleep. In a society that often glorifies hustle and productivity, the value of rest is finally being reclaimed. This shift has propelled the design world into a new era, where creating spaces that support deep, restorative sleep is not just desirable but essential. From calming palettes to technology-free zones and sleep-enhancing architecture, homes are being reimagined with rest at their heart, setting new standards in how we design for well-being.
Business Wire
08-07-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
Equinox Hotels Launches The Sleep Lab with Dr. Matthew Walker: A Scientific Approach to Transforming Sleep
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Equinox Hotels, the leader in luxury hospitality and high-performance living, continues to redefine sleep tourism with the launch of The Sleep Lab at Equinox Hotel New York. Designed in collaboration with renowned sleep scientist and bestselling author Dr. Matthew Walker, The Sleep Lab is a groundbreaking, data-driven experience that transforms sleep into a precision science. The Equinox Hotels Sleep Lab is a first-of-its-kind, research-backed sleep optimization experience. Designed to enhance rest and recovery, it blends personalized sensory environments, cutting-edge sleep technology, and curated AM + PM Rituals to align with your body's circadian rhythm. Every element—from lighting and temperature to sound—is engineered for deep, restorative sleep, helping guests wake up recharged, rebalanced, and primed for peak performance. From its inception, Equinox Hotels has embedded sleep at the core of its hospitality philosophy. Every room is engineered as a sleep chamber, developed in consultation with sleep psychologists to create an optimal rest environment. Now, with The Sleep Lab launching on July 8th, Equinox Hotels deepens this commitment by offering a pioneering program that empowers guests to understand and enhance their sleep with cutting-edge technology and scientifically validated methodologies. 'The Sleep Lab is not just an evolution of our commitment to sleep—it is the future of high-performance regeneration,' said Chris Norton, CEO of Equinox Hotels. 'We have designed a first-of-its-kind experience that merges science and luxury, enabling our guests to achieve peak recovery and performance through optimized sleep.' The Sleep Lab, bookable on the Equinox Hotels website, offers a research-backed experience to help guests refine their sleep quality and optimize their circadian rhythm. Open to the public for booking, it provides a science-driven framework for better rest and recovery, redefining high-performance sleep. Four Premier King rooms with river views are outfitted with advanced sleep-enhancing technology, including: Adaptive Mattress Technology: Personalized temperature control enables precise sleep-stage monitoring to optimize for comfort and quality sleep. Dual-zone settings accommodate individualized preferences for couples. Personalized Sleep & Wake Automation: The Intelligent + Personalized AM + PM room features automatically adjust the temperature, lighting, sound, and ambiance based on the guest's selected sleep and wake-up times. 30-minutes before sleep, the room gradually transitions to the optimal sleep environment. Similarly, 30-minutes before the wake-up time, the room gently eases the guest into wakefulness, utilizing carefully curated soundscapes grounded in music psychology, promoting a smooth and natural transition from rest to wakefulness. Contrast Therapy Shower: Steam Room: With the touch of a button, the shower transforms into a Steam Shower that utilizes the therapeutic effects of heat to enhance blood circulation, promote detoxification, lower cortisol levels, and reduce muscle tension to prepare the body for restorative sleep. Ice Shower: While water typically hovers between 50-55°F, Equinox Hotels' Ice Shower drops to a refreshing 46-50°F year-round. The Ice Shower reduces inflammation, enhances circulation, flushes out metabolic waste by constricting blood vessels, and promotes deeper, restorative sleep. Circadian Color Meditation: This visually guided breathwork experience gently slows the heart rate and breath rate through passive rhythmic entrainment through a pulsing red glow on the screen to help unwind before sleep AM + PM Soundscapes: A sensory ritual grounded in neuroscience and music psychology that supports natural wakefulness in the morning and down-regulation and preparation for sleep in the evening. Sleep Lab AM & PM Rituals: The PM Ritual is designed to activate the parasympathetic nervous system, reducing stress and guiding the body into a restorative sleep state. The AM Ritual optimizes natural wakefulness through precise movement, breathwork, light, sound, and temperature adjustments, gradually energizing the body for a refreshed, energized start to the day. Travel Sleep Kit: Featuring research-backed tools for sleep enhancement while traveling: High-Performance Eye Mask, Magnesium Sleep Patch, proprietary Equinox Hotels Sleep Tea Sleep Assessment: Allows guests to view their sleep stages and quality each morning from their bedside device, and participate in the Dr. Walker-led sleep studies. Additional sleep-enhancing add-ons guests can experience include the sleep circuit and techno therapies at The Spa by Equinox Hotels and Sleep-Well Menu from in-room dining, offering nightly sleep-inducing food and beverage turn-down items. Dr. Matthew Walker emphasized the significance of the partnership, stating, 'Our objective is to bring the rigor of sleep science into the hospitality space, offering an experience that is not only luxurious but also scientifically validated. Sleep is the foundation of human performance, and The Sleep Lab offers guests an unparalleled opportunity to enhance their health, cognition, and overall well-being.' To quantify the impact of The Sleep Lab, Equinox Hotels is conducting two research methodologies. The Within-Participant Study evaluates sleep improvements by comparing individual guest data under two different conditions, while the Between-Participant Study analyzes sleep performance across a diverse guest population between two conditions to refine and enhance program efficacy. All data is securely stored within the Equinox Hotels Data Vault, ensuring privacy while enabling guests to track and optimize their personal sleep metrics. 'Our mission is to empower guests with scientifically-backed insights into their sleep,' added Dr. Walker. 'This is not just about better sleep during your stay—it's about equipping you with the tools to improve your long-term health and performance.' Pricing starts at $1,700 + taxes per night for a minimum of 2 nights. The Sleep Lab at Equinox Hotel New York is available for bookings starting July 8, 2025. For more information or to reserve your experience, visit ABOUT EQUINOX HOTELS Equinox Hotels is a rapidly expanding, global luxury hospitality brand and management company built off the evolution of Equinox. With a design-forward approach, our portfolio spans urban, resort, and destination locations worldwide, offering high-performance living in architecturally stunning spaces. We redefine luxury hospitality by integrating the brand's core pillars of movement, nutrition, regeneration, and community. Tailored for the next generation of travelers, our hotels empower guests to reach their fullest potential, combining holistic health into every aspect of the experience. Our philosophy of "All. And Nothing." balances indulgence with simplicity, ensuring each guest thrives by amplifying performance and pushing limits, ultimately helping them achieve new heights in life. For more information on Equinox Hotels please visit: ABOUT DR. MATTHEW WALKER Matthew Walker, Ph.D., is a professor of neuroscience at the University of California, Berkeley. Walker is the author of The New York Times and international bestseller Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams, which was recently listed by Bill Gates as one of his top five books of the year. Matt Walker's TED Talk, 'Sleep is Your Superpower,' has garnered more than 20 million views. He has received numerous funding awards from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. In 2020, Walker was awarded the Carl Sagan Prize for Science Achievements. Walker's research examines the impact of sleep on human health and disease. He has been featured on numerous podcasts (e.g., Andrew Huberman, Joe Rogan, Peter Attia), television and radio outlets, including CBS' '60 Minutes,' National Geographic Channel, NOVA Science, NPR, and the BBC. He is also the host of the 5-star-rated podcast, The Matt Walker Podcast.
Yahoo
02-07-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
There's a Critical Thing We Can All Do to Hold Alzheimer's Symptoms at Bay
Deep sleep could forestall the declines in brain health that can eventually lead to Alzheimer's disease, the most common form of dementia. In their study of 62 older, cognitively healthy adults, researchers from the University of California (UC) Berkeley, Stanford University, and UC Irvine in the US found individuals with brain changes associated with Alzheimer's performed better on memory function tests as they got more deep sleep. This was irrespective of education and physical activity, two factors along with social connection known to contribute to cognitive resilience in older age. Those with similar Alzheimer's-linked changes who failed to get as much deep sleep didn't fare quite as well on the same tests. By comparison, sleep made little difference to those individuals with few deposits. Taken together, the results, which were published in May 2023, imply having a generous amount of solid shut-eye could help support the decline in memory that sets in as dementia begins to take hold. Watch the following video for a summary of the study: "Think of deep sleep almost like a life raft that keeps memory afloat, rather than memory getting dragged down by the weight of Alzheimer's disease pathology," said University of California (UC) Berkeley neuroscientist Matthew Walker. "This is especially exciting because we can do something about it. There are ways we can improve sleep, even in older adults." The study echoes previous research which has found a build-up of amyloid-beta proteins in the brains of people with disrupted sleep. But poor sleep is both a risk factor for and a symptom of Alzheimer's disease, making it tricky to tease apart cause and effect. Likewise, clumpy amyloid-beta proteins might only be a sign of Alzheimer's disease, not its root cause. Related: Even so, levels of amyloid-beta proteins are commonly used as a marker of Alzheimer's disease, as research suggests they – and another protein called tau – can start clogging up brain cells decades before symptoms of the disease arise. Past research from Walker's group found significant levels of amyloid-beta aggregating in the brains of older adults can disrupt deep sleep – also known as non-rapid eye movement slow wave sleep – and impair memory function. But some folk appear to stave off the decline that comes with Alzheimer's disease, even when levels of amyloid-beta proteins are relatively high. To find out why, Walker and colleagues monitored participants' brain waves as they slept, and then asked them to complete a memory test the next day. Among those whose brain scans revealed similarly high levels of beta-amyloid deposits, getting a good night's sleep seemed to make a critical difference in cognitive function. This effect was only seen when the researchers looked specifically at non-rapid eye movement slow wave sleep, and not at other sleep wave frequencies or sleep stages. Longer-term studies in older adults are needed to test whether increasing deep sleep over a number of years can actually help preserve a person's cognitive function in that time, even as levels of amyloid-beta increase. This research adds to scores of studies suggesting that sleep could be a modifiable risk factor for Alzheimer's disease, one that could potentially forestall molecular changes by giving the brain time to clean up waste products that accumulate during the day. It also points to sleep quality being important. "With a certain level of brain pathology, you're not destined for cognitive symptoms or memory issues," UC Berkeley neuroscientist and lead author Zsófia Zavecz said of the study findings in 2023. Although people may display molecular changes indicating a progression toward Alzheimer's disease, Zavecz says their findings suggest lifestyle factors can help buffer against those effects. "One of those factors is sleep and, specifically, deep sleep," she said. The study, though small, also hints at why getting good sleep naturally might be a better option than taking sleeping pills to get some shut-eye. Other research shows users of sleeping pills appear to have lower levels of amyloid proteins in their cerebrospinal fluid, which washes the brain clean at night. But these medications come with side effects; they may also lull people into shallow bouts of sleep rather than deep sleep phases. Instead, to set yourself up for a good night's sleep, Zavecz suggests cutting out coffee late in the day, doing some exercise, avoiding screen time, and taking a hot shower before bed. While you snooze, rest assured scientists are working hard to figure out the knotty problems of Alzheimer's disease, which affects millions of people worldwide. The study has been published in BMC Medicine. A version of this article was first published in May 2023. Ozempic Alternative Ditches The Needle And One Major Side Effect A Simple Change To Your Evening Routine Could Help You Exercise More 'Sky-High' Levels of Alzheimer's Protein Found in Newborns
The Age
15-05-2025
- Health
- The Age
‘You will be stunned': A sleep expert's pre-bedtime tips
He calls himself a 'humble servant of this thing called slumber', but that would be selling British neuroscience professor Matthew Walker short. The author of Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams, Walker is the expert of choice on one of life's great mysteries (and necessities). Why do we sleep? Twenty years ago, the crass answer was, 'We sleep to cure sleepiness', which is the fatuous equivalent of saying, 'I eat to cure hunger.' Now we ask, 'Is there any major physiological system of your body or any operation of your mind that isn't wonderfully enhanced by sleep when we get it, or demonstrably impaired when we don't get enough?' And the answer seems to be no. I love a good nap. So did Thomas Edison, right? Edison understood the creative brilliance of sleep and used it ruthlessly as a tool. He was also a habitual napper who would wake up and then write down all of the ideas he was getting. He called it 'the genius gap': [the short phase] between lucid, waking consciousness and the depths of non-conscious, deep sleep. It's probably one of the reasons why no one's ever said you really should stay awake on a problem. Barack Obama says he can survive on five hours of sleep. Nikola Tesla was said to exist on three. Is there any optimal amount? It's seven to nine hours. Chronically sleeping less than seven hours is associated with cardiovascular disease, diabetes, immune and inflammation issues, cancer, hormonal issues and, of course, Alzheimer's disease and dementia. There is a very small subset of the population that we now call 'natural short sleepers', but statistically you're more likely to be struck by lightning. You note that adolescents naturally fall asleep later, meaning school starts far too early? Teenagers have been lumbered with this incessant chronic sleep debt, and if you look at models throughout the world where school start times are delayed, attendance rates increase and truancy rates decrease, while academic grades increase and psychiatric referrals decrease. I don't mean to trivialise things – getting children to school is not easy, and parents have to get to work – but if you look at the data, when sleep is abundant, minds flourish, and when it is not, they don't. What purpose do dreams serve? Dreaming is almost like a form of informational alchemy. During dreaming, we start to collide all the recent things that we've learnt with the back catalogue of information that we've already got, and as a consequence we wake up with a revised mind: a wide web of associations that is capable of divining solutions to previously impenetrable problems. It's also a form of overnight therapy. With the special chemical cocktail that happens during dream sleep, it's almost like a nocturnal soothing balm, taking the sharp edges off those painful, difficult experiences. Dreaming strips the bitter emotional rind from the informational orange. What's the most common cause of insomnia? Sometimes I consider insomnia as the revenge of things we haven't worked through during the day: the stuff causing anxiety and stress. You have to get your mind off itself. How? First, meditation. Next, with what's called a body scan, relaxing as you focus on each part of your body from head to toe. If you don't like the sound of that, try box breathing: inhale for five seconds, hold it for five seconds, and then exhale for eight seconds. Another thing that you can do is take yourself on a mental walk down the street in 4K hyper-vivid detail. Do not count sheep. Loading What are your top tips for good sleep? Try to stay away from too much caffeine in the afternoon and limit your alcohol use, because it will fragment your sleep. Your bedroom temperature should be cool: about 17 to 18 degrees. As for unconventional tips, set an alarm for one hour before you expect to go to bed, then shut down all the lights in your house. You will be stunned by how sleepy and soporific that will make you feel. In that same hour before bed, try to limit the use of devices – not because of the blue light but because they hit the mute button on your sleepiness and cause what's called 'sleep procrastination'. Also, go to bed at the same time and wake up at the same time. I know it sounds desperately pedestrian, remarkably vanilla and deeply boring, but if you want to sleep, regularity is your first best step. Do we undervalue sleep? We are still in the mentality of competitive under-sleeping, and whoever the PR agent for sleep has been, we probably should have fired them long ago because there's a terrible stigma about getting sufficient sleep, which is strange. No one looks at an infant sleeping during the day and says, 'What a lazy baby', but we do that to adults. Don't think of sleep as a cost to today; sleep is an investment in tomorrow.
Sydney Morning Herald
15-05-2025
- Health
- Sydney Morning Herald
‘You will be stunned': A sleep expert's pre-bedtime tips
He calls himself a 'humble servant of this thing called slumber', but that would be selling British neuroscience professor Matthew Walker short. The author of Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams, Walker is the expert of choice on one of life's great mysteries (and necessities). Why do we sleep? Twenty years ago, the crass answer was, 'We sleep to cure sleepiness', which is the fatuous equivalent of saying, 'I eat to cure hunger.' Now we ask, 'Is there any major physiological system of your body or any operation of your mind that isn't wonderfully enhanced by sleep when we get it, or demonstrably impaired when we don't get enough?' And the answer seems to be no. I love a good nap. So did Thomas Edison, right? Edison understood the creative brilliance of sleep and used it ruthlessly as a tool. He was also a habitual napper who would wake up and then write down all of the ideas he was getting. He called it 'the genius gap': [the short phase] between lucid, waking consciousness and the depths of non-conscious, deep sleep. It's probably one of the reasons why no one's ever said you really should stay awake on a problem. Barack Obama says he can survive on five hours of sleep. Nikola Tesla was said to exist on three. Is there any optimal amount? It's seven to nine hours. Chronically sleeping less than seven hours is associated with cardiovascular disease, diabetes, immune and inflammation issues, cancer, hormonal issues and, of course, Alzheimer's disease and dementia. There is a very small subset of the population that we now call 'natural short sleepers', but statistically you're more likely to be struck by lightning. You note that adolescents naturally fall asleep later, meaning school starts far too early? Teenagers have been lumbered with this incessant chronic sleep debt, and if you look at models throughout the world where school start times are delayed, attendance rates increase and truancy rates decrease, while academic grades increase and psychiatric referrals decrease. I don't mean to trivialise things – getting children to school is not easy, and parents have to get to work – but if you look at the data, when sleep is abundant, minds flourish, and when it is not, they don't. What purpose do dreams serve? Dreaming is almost like a form of informational alchemy. During dreaming, we start to collide all the recent things that we've learnt with the back catalogue of information that we've already got, and as a consequence we wake up with a revised mind: a wide web of associations that is capable of divining solutions to previously impenetrable problems. It's also a form of overnight therapy. With the special chemical cocktail that happens during dream sleep, it's almost like a nocturnal soothing balm, taking the sharp edges off those painful, difficult experiences. Dreaming strips the bitter emotional rind from the informational orange. What's the most common cause of insomnia? Sometimes I consider insomnia as the revenge of things we haven't worked through during the day: the stuff causing anxiety and stress. You have to get your mind off itself. How? First, meditation. Next, with what's called a body scan, relaxing as you focus on each part of your body from head to toe. If you don't like the sound of that, try box breathing: inhale for five seconds, hold it for five seconds, and then exhale for eight seconds. Another thing that you can do is take yourself on a mental walk down the street in 4K hyper-vivid detail. Do not count sheep. Loading What are your top tips for good sleep? Try to stay away from too much caffeine in the afternoon and limit your alcohol use, because it will fragment your sleep. Your bedroom temperature should be cool: about 17 to 18 degrees. As for unconventional tips, set an alarm for one hour before you expect to go to bed, then shut down all the lights in your house. You will be stunned by how sleepy and soporific that will make you feel. In that same hour before bed, try to limit the use of devices – not because of the blue light but because they hit the mute button on your sleepiness and cause what's called 'sleep procrastination'. Also, go to bed at the same time and wake up at the same time. I know it sounds desperately pedestrian, remarkably vanilla and deeply boring, but if you want to sleep, regularity is your first best step. Do we undervalue sleep? We are still in the mentality of competitive under-sleeping, and whoever the PR agent for sleep has been, we probably should have fired them long ago because there's a terrible stigma about getting sufficient sleep, which is strange. No one looks at an infant sleeping during the day and says, 'What a lazy baby', but we do that to adults. Don't think of sleep as a cost to today; sleep is an investment in tomorrow.
