We can blame, to some extent, Thomas Edison for the onset of our lack of Zs. While humans once followed ancient, evolutionary sleep patterns that sent them to bed shortly after dark and kept them there until dawn ten or twelve hours later, the widespread use of electric light at night has allowed us to undercut our biological imperative for adequate rest. Naiman characterizes light at night as “counterfeit energy” because it gives us a phony boost, masking fatigue or sleepiness. Sugar and caffeine, he says, also are counterfeit energies, as are unconscious thought and behavior patterns that spike adrenaline. “We’re a culture that’s very attracted to hyperbole and drama and excessive excitement,” Naiman says. “I think we’re unconsciously drawn to these because they compensate for our chronic lack of healthy rest.”
Beyond that, our twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, industrialized, technology-soaked culture—the outgrowth of ubiquitous electricity—has made production king and normal rest a sign of sloth. “We overvalue productivity and devalue sleep. It’s not OK to have downtime, according to the cultural ethos,” explains Philip Eichling, a doctor and director of the Executive Health Program at Canyon Ranch in Tucson. He’s only half joking when he says culturewide sleep deprivation is “all the fault of cable TV.” And then he adds, in all seriousness, “Some cartoons are on when no one of the age to watch them should be awake.”
Naiman believes there also may be a deeper, psychological reason behind our tendency to be so sleep-leery. We’re afraid of darkness, he explains—“not darkness per se, but the darkness within us, the shadow. When we allow ourselves to have a relationship with the literal darkness, it invites us inward, and we can confront our own shadows. But rarely do we do that anymore. I think our dismissal of night and darkness is symptomatic of our dismissal of the shadow.”
Amazingly, the physiological reasons for sleep are still unknown, according to Michael Breus, a clinical psychologist and author of Good Night: The Sleep Doctor’s 4-Week Program to Better Sleep and Better Health. Sleep science has produced many theories about why sleep happens—restoring the body, integrating memories, allowing neurocognitive structures to rest and reboot—but “studies prove that all of these are right and all of these are wrong,” he says.
We do know that consistently adequate shut-eye is necessary for optimal functioning. For most adults that means around eight hours every night, even though more and more Americans report getting less than six. Adequate sleep is as necessary for good health as are diet and exercise, says Breus. Without it, we are at greater risk for maladies, such as obesity, hypertension, stroke, depression, and cancer. Some
