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Why do living things sleep? “Ask researchers this question and hear awe and frustration creep into their voices, like clockwork,” Veronique Greenwood wrote in 2018.
“In some ways, it’s amazing how universal sleep is,” she continued. “Throughout thousands of years of bloodshed, death and flight, countless millions of creatures have laid themselves in a lengthy state of unconsciousness in the scramble for survival. This doesn’t seem conducive to living to fight another day…that such dangerous habits are so common and so enduring that what’s going on This suggests that whether or not is most important.
In other words, Greenwood writes: Whatever sleep gives us is also worth the lot of time and lots of money humans spend figuring out how to get the most out of it. Every night, or almost every night, they report experiencing sleep disturbances, noted Amanda Mull in 2019.
Sleep is necessary, but it is also a ritual. Where you sleep, when you sleep, and who you sleep with next can say a lot about who you are and what you want. Today’s reading list explores scientific mysteries, physical needs, and sleep as the most consistent routine of our daily lives.
Sleep
Could Medieval Sleep Habits Improve American Insomnia?
Derek Thompson
“My 3 a.m. awakenings are echoes of my ancestors, not artificial obstacles.”
Why Everyone Should Sleep Alone
Mallika Rao
On the virtue of parting at night
I found the key to the kingdom of sleep
Amanda Mull
it’s my leg
Still interested?
Other diversions
PS
I’ll give you one fact about sleep from the animal kingdom, which only adds to the mystery. Golden hamsters have been “observed to wake from hibernation for a nap,” reports Greenwood. “Whatever they are getting from sleep is unavailable during hibernation.” But what is it? Scientists don’t know yet.
— Isabel
