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The science of sleep

We spend around a third of our lives asleep, but what does sleep do for us? And what can go wrong if we don鈥檛 get enough of it?

We spend around a third of our lives asleep, but the reason we sleep is still something of a mystery. Could it be the biggest mistake the evolutionary process has ever made? What does sleep actually do for us? David Edmonds meets Matthew Walker, one of the world鈥檚 leading sleep scientists, to discuss some of his findings. We鈥檒l hear about how the clocks going back has an effect on heart attack rates, and consider why, if you鈥檙e struggling to sleep, the worst thing you could do would be to stay in bed.

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15 minutes

Podcast