Chapter 16 Further Reading: Sleep, Exercise, and the Body-Brain Connection

Sleep: Foundational Reading

Walker, M. (2017). Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Mind. Scribner. The most accessible and comprehensive popular treatment of sleep science. Walker is a UC Berkeley neuroscientist and sleep researcher, and his book synthesizes decades of research — including his own — into a compelling argument for sleep's centrality to health, cognitive function, and learning. Note: some specific claims in the book have been questioned by other researchers; Walker has also been criticized for occasionally overstating certainty. The broad argument, however, is well-supported. Read with critical engagement. Essential.

Harrison, Y., & Horne, J. A. (2000). The impact of sleep deprivation on decision making: A review. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 6(3), 236–249. A research review examining the specific cognitive impairments produced by sleep deprivation. Particularly focused on the executive function and decision-making effects that are most relevant to academic and professional performance.

Stickgold, R. (2005). Sleep-dependent memory consolidation. Nature, 437(7063), 1272–1278. A Nature review paper by a leading sleep and memory researcher. Covers the mechanisms of sleep-dependent memory consolidation — the hippocampal replay, the different roles of NREM and REM sleep, and the evidence for sleep's causal role in learning. Moderately technical but important for understanding the mechanisms.

Mednick, S., Nakayama, K., & Stickgold, R. (2003). Sleep-dependent learning: A nap is as good as a night. Nature Neuroscience, 6(7), 697–698. The nap study mentioned in the chapter. Shows that a 90-minute afternoon nap produces memory consolidation benefits for morning learning equivalent to a full night's sleep. Short, important, and directly applicable.

Exercise: Foundational Reading

Ratey, J. J., & Hagerman, E. (2008). Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain. Little, Brown. The best popular book on exercise and cognitive function. Ratey documents the BDNF research, the neurogenesis findings, and the implications for learning across the lifespan. Readable, compelling, and directly actionable. The section on a Naperville, Illinois school district that moved PE to first period and saw academic performance improve dramatically is one of the most striking demonstrations of the principle.

Hillman, C. H., Erickson, K. I., & Kramer, A. F. (2008). Be smart, exercise your heart: Exercise effects on brain and cognition. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 9(1), 58–65. A comprehensive review of the exercise-cognition research. Covers the mechanisms (BDNF, neurogenesis, vascular effects) and the evidence from both animal models and human studies. Accessible to non-specialists while being scientifically rigorous.

Erickson, K. I., Voss, M. W., Prakash, R. S., Basak, C., Szabo, A., Chaddock, L., ... & Kramer, A. F. (2011). Exercise training increases size of hippocampus and improves memory. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108(7), 3017–3022. The direct evidence that aerobic exercise training increases hippocampal volume and improves memory in older adults — with neuroimaging to verify the structural changes. One of the most important papers in the exercise-cognition literature.

Stress and Learning

Sapolsky, R. M. (2004). Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers (3rd ed.). Holt Paperbacks. The best popular treatment of stress biology and its health consequences. Sapolsky's chapter on memory and stress directly covers the hippocampal damage from chronic cortisol. Engaging, scientifically rigorous, and somewhat funny.

Ramirez, G., & Beilock, S. L. (2011). Writing about testing worries boosts exam performance in the classroom. Science, 331(6014), 211–213. The expressive writing intervention study. Two well-designed experiments showing that 10 minutes of expressive writing about exam worries before a high-stakes exam significantly improves performance for anxious students. Short, clear, and directly applicable. Free through many university library databases.

Beilock, S. (2010). Choke: What the Secrets of the Brain Reveal About Getting It Right When You Have To. Free Press. A cognitive psychologist's account of how performance anxiety impairs cognitive performance, and what to do about it. The working-memory-as-the-mechanism explanation for test anxiety is developed in detail. Practical and evidence-grounded.

For Deeper Exploration

Van Dongen, H. P., Maislin, G., Mullington, J. M., & Dinges, D. F. (2003). The cumulative cost of additional wakefulness: Dose-response effects on neurobehavioral functions and sleep physiology from chronic sleep restriction and total sleep deprivation. Sleep, 26(2), 117–126. The paper documenting that two weeks of six-hour sleep produces impairment equivalent to total sleep deprivation. The methodological rigor and the subjective-vs-objective impairment finding are particularly important. Direct evidence for the chapter's most disturbing claim.

Lim, J., & Dinges, D. F. (2010). A meta-analysis of the impact of short-term sleep deprivation on cognitive variables. Psychological Bulletin, 136(3), 375–389. A large meta-analysis of sleep deprivation research. Quantifies the effects across many studies and cognitive domains. Useful for understanding the magnitude and consistency of sleep deprivation's cognitive effects.