Sleep Thieves by Coren
Sleep Thieves: An Eye-opening Exploration into the Science and Mysteries of Sleep (1996)
by Stanley Coren
304 pages - Free Press
This is a well-written, entertaining and informative book about sleep, intended for a general audience. The author's main message is that most people in society are getting far less than the 8 hours of sleep necessary each night, and are thereby harming themselves and others in a myriad of ways. Additionally, if we increased our sleep to about 10 hours a day, there is a definite benefit to productivity, creativity, alertness, mood, etc.
The author takes aim at a lot of the people and forces that seem to want us to cut down on our sleep, and that view people who are concerned about sleep 'lazy'. Many famous people of accomplishment are, by their own word or that of others, popularly known to need very little sleep; from Leonardo Da Vinci to Edison and Tesla to Churchill and Stalin. However, when the facts of their lives are examined, it seems they took sleep very seriously, and over the course of a day possibly even slept longer than the average person. There's also lots of information about natural cycles of the body, such as the 'down' times at 1-4am and 1-4pm, when it's hard not to fall asleep, and the 'up' times around 8-11am and 7-9pm, when it's almost impossible to fall asleep. There's all sorts of studies quoted and explained, and the book is quite nicely neither too technical nor too dumbed-down. The author's personality really comes through, and it's warm and engaging.
Personally, a lot of the time I've felt there was usually something 'off' in my sleeping, as it's rare that I wake up refreshed, and more often it's sort of a slow, resentful crawl into the world of the waking. I don't know if there was anything really revolutionary here (except perhaps the advantages of getting up to 10 hours a day), but seeing all those little snippets that you might of picked up here and there being put together to form a coherent picture gives me a much better understanding of sleep. And I think I've got a renewed commitment to regularly put in some quality sleep, as I think I've somehow been trying to sleep as little as possible.
pg.20 - Sleep itself is not a case of total insensitivity or temporary death but, rather, represents a condition of reduced ability to monitor events in one's world.
pg.36 - Whenever I deal with the evolutionary explanation of behavior, I always feel that I am entering a realm that is closely related to the creation of myths. The evolutionary story we tell for any behavioral process is really a very delicate blending of verifiable facts and speculative conjectures. It is the scientific community's attempt to make sense of the present state of affairs by creating an epic tale describing its view of the past. Like ancient Greek or Norse myths, our modern saga of the evolution of the various species and their characteristics, begins back in a misty antiquity. It is an exciting tale. It features a cast of fearsome, alien, and wondrous beasts, each of which is subjected to a series of strange and wonderful transformations. The exotic, often threatening landscape of this long-lost world, like the beastly denizens themselves, are also undergoing metamorphoses. Instead of the dreadful creatures of myth like demons, ice giants, or cyclopes, we substitute tyrannosaurs, triceratops, and pterosaurs. Instead of the classic struggle of the forces of good and evil or the struggle between greed and compassion, we substitute a cosmic principle that we call "survival of the fittest."
pg.69 - Cutting back on sleep was not an effective way for anyone to improve either the quantity or quality of his or her work.
pg.74 - As sleep debt increases, we become more and more like a machine or an airplane on autopilot. We can respond to simple changes and relatively moderate demands on us, but we do so using a preprogrammed or mechanical set of responses. Anything out of the ordinary will cause us to start to make errors.
pg.77 - "I sometimes think that it is impossible to work out any kind of complicated agreement between smart, motivated people. That's why international bodies like the United Nations don't work so well. But if you can steal enough sleep from both sides to make them dumber, less detail oriented, and less motivated, I think that a negotiated contract is always possible." - Professional mediator
pg.155 - When we compare personal reports of the quality of sleep with more objective measures taken in a sleep laboratory, we find that in four out of five individuals the subjective complaints of insomnia cannot be confirmed by any of the current scientific measuring devices we have today.
pg.280 - Shorts sleepers are protected by society's values. Faced with the failure of a project, they can always point to the long sleepless nights they spent working on it, so that success can then be seen as eluding them despite their best efforts.
pg.283 - "I have, all my life long, been lying [in bed] till noon; yet I tell all young men, and tell them with great sincerity, that nobody who does not rise early will ever do any good." - Samuel Johnson
pg.284 - "Don't think you will be doing less work because you sleep during the day. That's a foolish notion held by people who have no imagination. You will be able to accomplish more." - Winston Churchill (on napping)
by Stanley Coren
304 pages - Free Press
This is a well-written, entertaining and informative book about sleep, intended for a general audience. The author's main message is that most people in society are getting far less than the 8 hours of sleep necessary each night, and are thereby harming themselves and others in a myriad of ways. Additionally, if we increased our sleep to about 10 hours a day, there is a definite benefit to productivity, creativity, alertness, mood, etc.
The author takes aim at a lot of the people and forces that seem to want us to cut down on our sleep, and that view people who are concerned about sleep 'lazy'. Many famous people of accomplishment are, by their own word or that of others, popularly known to need very little sleep; from Leonardo Da Vinci to Edison and Tesla to Churchill and Stalin. However, when the facts of their lives are examined, it seems they took sleep very seriously, and over the course of a day possibly even slept longer than the average person. There's also lots of information about natural cycles of the body, such as the 'down' times at 1-4am and 1-4pm, when it's hard not to fall asleep, and the 'up' times around 8-11am and 7-9pm, when it's almost impossible to fall asleep. There's all sorts of studies quoted and explained, and the book is quite nicely neither too technical nor too dumbed-down. The author's personality really comes through, and it's warm and engaging.
Personally, a lot of the time I've felt there was usually something 'off' in my sleeping, as it's rare that I wake up refreshed, and more often it's sort of a slow, resentful crawl into the world of the waking. I don't know if there was anything really revolutionary here (except perhaps the advantages of getting up to 10 hours a day), but seeing all those little snippets that you might of picked up here and there being put together to form a coherent picture gives me a much better understanding of sleep. And I think I've got a renewed commitment to regularly put in some quality sleep, as I think I've somehow been trying to sleep as little as possible.
pg.20 - Sleep itself is not a case of total insensitivity or temporary death but, rather, represents a condition of reduced ability to monitor events in one's world.
pg.36 - Whenever I deal with the evolutionary explanation of behavior, I always feel that I am entering a realm that is closely related to the creation of myths. The evolutionary story we tell for any behavioral process is really a very delicate blending of verifiable facts and speculative conjectures. It is the scientific community's attempt to make sense of the present state of affairs by creating an epic tale describing its view of the past. Like ancient Greek or Norse myths, our modern saga of the evolution of the various species and their characteristics, begins back in a misty antiquity. It is an exciting tale. It features a cast of fearsome, alien, and wondrous beasts, each of which is subjected to a series of strange and wonderful transformations. The exotic, often threatening landscape of this long-lost world, like the beastly denizens themselves, are also undergoing metamorphoses. Instead of the dreadful creatures of myth like demons, ice giants, or cyclopes, we substitute tyrannosaurs, triceratops, and pterosaurs. Instead of the classic struggle of the forces of good and evil or the struggle between greed and compassion, we substitute a cosmic principle that we call "survival of the fittest."
pg.69 - Cutting back on sleep was not an effective way for anyone to improve either the quantity or quality of his or her work.
pg.74 - As sleep debt increases, we become more and more like a machine or an airplane on autopilot. We can respond to simple changes and relatively moderate demands on us, but we do so using a preprogrammed or mechanical set of responses. Anything out of the ordinary will cause us to start to make errors.
pg.77 - "I sometimes think that it is impossible to work out any kind of complicated agreement between smart, motivated people. That's why international bodies like the United Nations don't work so well. But if you can steal enough sleep from both sides to make them dumber, less detail oriented, and less motivated, I think that a negotiated contract is always possible." - Professional mediator
pg.155 - When we compare personal reports of the quality of sleep with more objective measures taken in a sleep laboratory, we find that in four out of five individuals the subjective complaints of insomnia cannot be confirmed by any of the current scientific measuring devices we have today.
pg.280 - Shorts sleepers are protected by society's values. Faced with the failure of a project, they can always point to the long sleepless nights they spent working on it, so that success can then be seen as eluding them despite their best efforts.
pg.283 - "I have, all my life long, been lying [in bed] till noon; yet I tell all young men, and tell them with great sincerity, that nobody who does not rise early will ever do any good." - Samuel Johnson
pg.284 - "Don't think you will be doing less work because you sleep during the day. That's a foolish notion held by people who have no imagination. You will be able to accomplish more." - Winston Churchill (on napping)