Ideas worth spreading

The brain benefits of deep sleep -- and how to get more of it

4,893,970 views | Dan Gartenberg • TED Residency

There's nothing quite like a good night's sleep. What if technology could help us get more out of it? Dan Gartenberg is working on tech that stimulates deep sleep, the most regenerative stage which (among other wonderful things) might help us consolidate our memories and form our personalities. Find out more about how playing sounds that mirror brain waves during this stage might lead to deeper sleep -- and its potential benefits on our health, memory and ability to learn.

There's nothing quite like a good night's sleep. What if technology could help us get more out of it? Dan Gartenberg is working on tech that stimulates deep sleep, the most regenerative stage which (among other wonderful things) might help us consolidate our memories and form our personalities. Find out more about how playing sounds that mirror brain waves during this stage might lead to deeper sleep -- and its potential benefits on our health, memory and ability to learn.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

Download SleepSpace Tracker and Coach, the first sleep operating system that uses the science of sound, light and meditation to give you a deeper, more regenerative sleep.

Learn more about how you can get more out of your sleep.

About the speaker

Dan Gartenberg

Sleep scientist

See speaker profile

TED Resident Dan Gartenberg has spent his adult life trying to make seven and a half hours feel like eight hours.

Carl Gustav Jung | Dell, 2012 | Book

Man and His Symbols

My grandma gave me this book in college, and it's what got me interested in cognitive psychology.

George Lakoff | Basic Books, 1999 | Book

Philosophy In The Flesh: The Embodied Mind And Its Challenge To Western Thought

This book formed the background of how I think about human consciousness, through the lens of embodied cognition.

William Empson | New Directions, 1966 | Book

Seven Types of Ambiguity

This book comes out of the 20th-century literary movement called New Criticism which breaks down what language and the role that language plays in human expression. I like this book because it makes me think about how we might be able to change languages in order to make what we are saying clearer.

Robert M. Pirsig | HarperTorch, April 25, 2006 | Book

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

This one is more of an entertaining book that still gets into the philosophical inquiries that invigorate me.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

Download SleepSpace Tracker and Coach, the first sleep operating system that uses the science of sound, light and meditation to give you a deeper, more regenerative sleep.

Learn more about how you can get more out of your sleep.