dreamland. adventures in the strange science of sleep - david randall_

[...]... about the largest overlooked part of your life and how it affects you even if you don’t have a sleep problem that sends you into a wall in the middle of the night I began my research into sleep with the self-serving intention of finding a way to prevent future run-ins But as I spent more time investigating the science of sleep, I began to understand that these strange hours of the night underpin nearly... most of Silicon Valley, which found that twenty-seven infants over a five-year span died as a result of being placed in the same bed as a sleeping adult More than half of those accidents were caused when the adult rolled over onto the child The others were caused by suffocation The American Academy of Pediatrics warned against co-sleeping in the early 1990s, citing the risk of an infant becoming entrapped... adventurous topic to investigate After all, people who are sleeping are usually just lying there, making it very hard to interview them What could possibly be interesting about that? My aim is to convince you otherwise by taking you on a tour of often odd, sometimes disturbing, and always fascinating things that go on in the strange world of sleep, a land where science is still in its infancy and cultural... ignored And yet maintaining a healthy sleep schedule is now thought of as one of the best forms of preventative medicine Stanford University, one of the world’s premier centers of sleep research, established the first university laboratory center devoted to treating sleep disorders in 1970 The opening of Stanford’s clinic started a revolution in the way the medical field approached sleep Until then, most... But Ekirch continued the lonely work of prying open the pages of mildewing books, noting any hints that something interesting happened after the close of each day He didn’t know he was on the path of a major breakthrough that would change our conception of how the human brain is built for sleep He was a history professor, after all, whose only understanding of sleep consisted of knowing that he liked... afterward The immortal family tree made this clear: Hypnos, the Greek god of sleep, was the twin brother of Thanatos, the god of death, and their mother was the goddess of night It was probably best not to think about this too much while lying in a room on a dark and lonesome evening Two-dozen centuries later, doctors put forth the theory that blood flowing through the head put pressure on the brain and induced... didn’t stop the march of the twin beds They were no longer necessary if the body’s bad air alone was not the cause of disease, but they had other things going for them For one, these beds evoked a certain modern sensibility and taste on the part of the buyer Department stores ran ads aimed at middle-class shoppers that put twin beds squarely in the middle of chic bedrooms The end of the sanitary craze... came the purchase of a white bassinet, which they put in their room and intended for Abigail to sleep in during her first few months, a way station that would make nighttime feedings easier and calm their nerves when she was out of sight The day soon came when they brought their newborn home They put her down in the bassinet that first night as planned, but something strange happened as they lay in their... staring at the ceiling and trying to sleep Abigail, in the corner of their modest bedroom, felt much too far away Her father strained to hear her every breath Her mother wondered if the bassinet was sturdy enough When Abigail woke up and began crying, both of her parents jumped out of bed together While her mother held her, Abigail’s father dragged the bassinet next to his wife’s side of the bed, closing... closing the three-yard gulf that seemed much larger when the lights went down Finally, with Abigail practically on their mattress, they drifted off to sleep At first, they attributed their feelings to first-night jitters But the next night, they again felt like something was amiss while their daughter slept soundly in the corner Abigail’s father moved her bassinet flush with the side of the bed for the . whether to put half of their brain to sleep or the whole thing. Imagine a flock of ducks sleeping at the edge of a lake. The birds at the periphery of the group will likely be sleeping with one-half. don’t have a sleep problem that sends you into a wall in the middle of the night. I began my research into sleep with the self-serving intention of finding a way to prevent future run-ins. But as. Hypnos, the Greek god of sleep, was the twin brother of Thanatos, the god of death, and their mother was the goddess of night. It was probably best not to think about this too much while lying in