Sleeplessness Assessing Sleep Need in Society Today
This book critically evaluates the popular notion that today’s society is suffering from ‘sleep debt’, or what Horne calls ‘societal insomnia’ - an apparent chronic loss of sleep, which can lead to obesity and related physical and mental disorders includi
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Jim Horne
Sleeplessness
Jim Horne
Sleeplessness Assessing Sleep Need in Society Today
Jim Horne Loughborough University Leicestershire, UK
ISBN 978-3-319-30571-4 (hard cover) ISBN 978-3-319-32791-4 (soft cover) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-30572-1
ISBN 978-3-319-30572-1
(eBook)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016940600 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Cover illustration: © H. Mark Weidman Photography / Alamy Stock Photo Printed on acid-free paper This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG Switzerland
To My Family
Preface
Apparently, many of us in today’s society are, unknowingly, suffering from chronic sleep loss, known as ‘sleep debt’—search the term on the internet and there are millions of hits. This ‘societal insomnia’ is largely attributed to the pressures of modern waking life, and seems to be yet another cause of obesity, cardiovascular disease and other disorders. Besides, such claims further add to the worries of those actually suffering with insomnia, striving even for 6 hours’ sleep, only to hear that 7–8 hours is the ideal goal. Yet, human nature being what it is, little has actually changed since Victorian times, when ‘sleeplessness’ was a common topic of medical debate, and it is here where we begin, with some remarkable insights from physicians of that era, that ought still to give us pause for thought, and underlies the theme of this book. A diagnosis of ‘insomnia’, and indeed the term itself, is largely a twentieth century convention, mostly heralded by the discovery of new hypnotic medicines, allowing the condition to become more ‘medicalised’ rather than a more benign ‘fact of life’, as it was then seen to be. By continuing to take this more ‘matter of fact’ approach to today’s sleep debt, Sleeplessness looks more closely and dispassionately at insomnia itself, its var
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