The Sleep Problem

Charles Dickens opens A Tale of Two Cities with a famous phrase that says, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” The thought is perhaps as applicable today as it was in the setting of his work.

These are the best of the times because if we can think of something, we make it possible. We reach for the stars every day and feel so good about it.

These are the worst of the times because our faster than ever evolution has resulted in our undermining certain incredibly important aspects of humanity—like our sleep. Our current bittersweet relationship with our sleep hasn’t had a long history. So how did we get here? What can we do about it?

As a matter of fact, tonight is going to be a big night, like any other night, because certain 10 million Americans will not be able to sleep well tonight. Around 200 million people worldwide will not be able to sleep well tonight.

Here are some more numbers about our sleep (the data is sourced from various researches and surveys listed at the end of the article).

33% American adults are not getting enough sleep on a regular basis.
6 million sleepy people are driving on roads, walking on streets and generally yawning through their days.
7% reported falling asleep while driving at least once in the preceding month.
27% people have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep most nights.
Americans spent an estimated $41 billion on sleep aids and remedies in 2015.
Humans sleep 20% less than they did 100 years ago.
The economic cost of insufficient sleep is close to 2% of GDP ($ 400+ billion for America)

Why is sleeping so important?

Let’s spend few seconds to remind ourselves why sleep is so incredibly important. Let’s not go over the obvious facts: like it increases concentration, attention, decision making, creativity, overall health; And that it decreases mood changes, stress, anger, etc.

These are all very valid reasons–but these are only the external manifestations of the underlying neuroscience processes. So let us instead talk about the neuroscience phenomenon that is perhaps the most foundational factor underneath it all.

The moment one mentions neuroscience, half of the audience loses interest because the concepts of neuroscience may be hard to understand at times