Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker
Published 2017 · 368 pages · 110,000 words · about 7 hours at an average pace · Nonfiction, Psychology, Science & Nature
How hard is Why We Sleep to read?
Why We Sleep scores 22 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it relatively accessible. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 32 out of 100
- Neuroscience terminology explained accessibly.
- Sentence structure: 28 out of 100
- Abstraction: 35 out of 100
- Neuroscience concepts grounded in practical health implications.
- Information density: 48 out of 100
- Dense with research findings, statistics, and health implications.
- Narrative indirection: 100 out of 100
- Direct, chapter-by-chapter scientific argument.
- Symbolic density: 100 out of 100
- Analytical rather than symbolic.
- Ironic distance: 100 out of 100
- Earnest, passionate advocacy for sleep.
- Resolution withholding: 50 out of 100
- Clear recommendations provided throughout.
- Structural complexity: 20 out of 100
- Four parts: sleep basics, benefits, harms, and practical tips.
How Why We Sleep is regarded
Why We Sleep holds a literary regard score of 39 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.