To Sleep, Perchance to Feel Rested

Like millions of Americans, I have an uneasy relationship with sleep, and I've spent the past year really digging into this under-appreciated aspect of our lives. I have dreamed up a new way of assembling research, data, new technologies and resources to help provide people with useful information so they can sleep soundly and feel better. (It's called "Sleep School." More on that below.) It is amazing how much of our society's attention has been obsessed with food and nutrition and countless diet fads in the past few decades. Even fitness has had its 15 minutes of fame -- from half-marathons to Pilates to personal trainers. Countless magazines and websites extol the 30-day route to fabulous abs or offer endless charts of efficient seven-minute fitness routines. But sleep, which occupies more than one-third of our lives, has been relegated to a quiet corner of mystery, like a far-off celestial planet that shines bright but appears too far off to really ponder or try to fully understand. So now, I believe, it is time for sleep. There has been a spurt in the past few years of both scientific and media attention to the national sleep crisis. While most doctors and sleep researchers say that getting approximately eight hours of sleep each night is optimal, we are averaging 90 minutes less of sleep than we did a century ago. This sleep deficit is affecting our health, our relationships, our productivity and, most alarmingly, our safety. We know that we have witnessed an ob...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news