Vladyslav Vyazovskiy writes:

After decades of research, there is still no clearly articulated scientific consensus on what sleep is or why it exists. Yet whenever sleep comes up as a topic of discussion, it is quickly reduced to its necessity and importance. Popular media remind us of what can, and will, go wrong if we do not sleep enough, and serve up some handy tips on how to overcome insomnia. Discussed exclusively in utilitarian terms, we are force-fed the idea that sleep exists solely for our immediate benefit. Is this really all we ever want to know about a third of our existence? Sleep is perhaps the biggest blind spot, or the longest blind stretch, if you will, of our life. Naturally, the health and societal implications of sleep are huge: from technogenic disasters caused by tiredness, to sleep deprivation as a form of torture or weapon of war, and to sleep disorders, some of which inflict so much suffering that they compete with chronic pain. However, in my opinion, to say sleep is important is to miss the point entirely. Sleep is the single most bizarre experience that happens to all of us, against our will, every day.

The disconnect between old questions about sleep that have remained open for centuries and new, increasingly sophisticated technologies applied to solve them is ever growing. The predominant view is that sleep provides some sort of restoration for the brain or the body: what goes awry – out of balance – in waking is almost magically recalibrated by sleep. At the centre of this narrative is the individual-who-sleeps, a lone castaway, locked in a permanent, inexorable cycle of sleeping and waking, without hope of breaking free (except in death). From the moment of opening one’s eyes, the clock starts ticking, and there is a price to pay for every minute of wakeful time, measured precisely in proportion to the transgression of staying awake. Like a snake eating its own tail, waking and sleep consume each other in an endless cycle, without beginning or end. There is no mercy, and lack of sleep can be paid back only by sleep. The image of burning a candle at both ends endures.

Despite vast technological advances in recent years, exponential growth in our understanding of nature and the cosmos, and major breakthroughs in biology and medicine, there is still no unified theory of sleep. I find myself pondering whether it is time to step back and seek a different angle. [Continue reading…]