We’re told that getting eight unbroken hours of sleep will protect us from cancer and dementia, and make us happier. But are we being sold an impossible dream?
Hardly a day goes by without some new story about sleep in the papers, on TV or in our news feeds. Sleep is everywhere. We’re told relentlessly how much of it we need, what will happen if we don’t get it, and how much the economy loses through tired workers. Sleep experts broadcast their advice and opinions as if some new philosopher’s stone has been found, and sleep books now grace both bestseller lists and bedside tables.
Adverts for mattresses, once a rarity, now regularly punctuate commercial breaks and the global sleep aid industry will reach an estimated $76bn this year. Just as the media constantly tell us what food we should eat and what exercise we should take, we are now instructed on how and when we must sleep. Whereas a few decades ago there were only a handful of sleep disorders that one could suffer from, today there are more than 70. And with more disorders come more cures, more experts, more revenue.
Continue reading...from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2H6fIrz
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