Just Finished Reading: Sleep – A Very Short Introduction by Steven W Lockley and Russell G Foster (FP: 2012)

Sleep is strange. We spend around a third of our lives in that state and apparently share it with all other living things – or at least with the majority of other creatures – yet there is no agreed definition or understand of what exactly sleep is. Sleep studies have made remarkable progress in understand the mechanisms of sleep yet the why of sleep continues to allude us. Lack of sleep results in progressive disorientation and eventual death yet still the why of sleep remains beyond our grasp. Is it a simple fact of biology that we must sleep to recover from the build-up of sleep toxins? Partly. Is there an evolutionary advantage in sleep? Arguably. Does sleep allow the formation of memories and the solidification of experience in the physical structure of the brain? Probably. But is that enough to explain the phenomena? Probably not.

This is the scope of this fascinating and intriguing little volume – the understanding of how and why we sleep and what to do about things when sleep alludes us. I certainly know a great deal about the mechanics of sleep: How sleep varies during the night, how brain waves and brain activity vary as the hours creep by, how forces under our control can enhance or degrade the amount or quality of sleep we get. It’s interesting to know that the standard 8 hours of continuous sleep which is the expected aim and norm is nothing of the sort and only really came into being with the Industrial Revolution. It’s interesting to know that teenagers do actually have different sleep patterns to adults and children. This book is full of pieces of information and pieces of the still incomplete puzzle of sleep.

Personally sleep is a very important part of my life. As far as I am concerned killing someone who is actively preventing me from sleeping is justifiable homicide. It’s not that I like to sleep (I do) or that I want to sleep (I do) but that I need to sleep. My record – back in my teenage years – is 16 hours. These days my maximum is probably 8-9 or maybe 10 if I’ve been particular active. During the working week I get by on around 7 if I get off straight away. Given the chance I’m generally a night owl and ‘hit the sack’ around midnight. In the mornings it takes me around 45-60 minutes to completely wake up. I hate getting up in the dark with a passion that’s hard to describe. As far as I’m concerned if it’s still dark it’s still night time and night time is for sleeping. Fortunately I’ve never had to work shifts (though it had been talked about a few times in previous jobs) which I think is a barbaric way to work. I would not like to see me or work with me on shifts. I think that I’d be unbearable!

Of necessity we all have a relationship with sleep – some good and some bad. As with all relationships a degree of understanding is a good thing. That’s what you’ll get from this book. It probably won’t save your life or give you a guaranteed good night’s sleep but it will arm you with useful information that could help or at the very least give you an appreciation of what’s going on inside your head when it’s in the Land of Nodd. Recommended.