The Sleep Revolution

The Sleep Revolution paints a grim picture of Western sleep culture, but not without extending a hand to school kids, students, professionals and CEOs alike by offering genuine advice on how to stop wearing sleep deprivation as a badge of honor and finally get a good night’s sleep.

I HATED getting up at 6 AM in school. Hated it. I had to take the bus to school every morning, which took half an hour, and was always there way too early. No matter how early I went to bed the night before, I was always tired.

Did your school life look similar? Getting up early, needing a while to get there and then ending up there early?

If so, chances are this started wiring you for sleep deprivation, because forcing kids to wake up early disrupts their circadian rhythm. In 1998, Brown University conducted a study among 3,000 high school students and found those, who started school earlier than 7:30 AM, fell into deep sleep within three minutes, if they took them out of class at 8:30 AM and evaluated how sleepy they were. This usually only happens to people with narcolepsy.

Experiments across various schools and universities all lead to the same result: if school starts later, the children do better across the board. I remember learning that school starts later, usually 8:30 AM or sometimes even 9:00 AM, in the UK and envying the kids over there.

This still holds true, so don’t feel bad for letting your kids get some quality shut-eye, even if it means skipping first period sometimes – they’ll be healthier and won’t suffer from chronic sleep deprivation later.

The benefits of sleeping right don’t stop at productivity, but also extend to your relationship. A 2014 study among 1,000 people found that couples are happier if they: Sleep next to each other. Have body contact while being asleep. But it doesn’t just matter whether you sleep next to your partner or in separate beds altogether – how close you are matters too. 85% of those who slept less than an inch apart reported to be happy in their relationship. This percentage kept decreasing the further apart people slept. So if you and your partner usually sleep quite far apart, give moving closer a try and see if it makes you happier and sleep better. In the end, the latter is still the most important, so if you just can’t fall asleep while hugging, don’t feel bad for sleeping back to back as usual. In fact, women’s sex drive is directly connected to how much deep sleep they get – each extra hour leads to a 14% mojo increase, and we all know sex is…