Rediscovering The Lost Art Of Sleep

Sleep is the first thing we sacrifice when our lives get busy, but it’s as important to our health as the food we eat and the air we breathe. Genevieve Gannon uncovers links between sleeplessness and chronic disease and shares expert tips on catching more zzzzzs.

- Genevieve Gannon

The sense of dread arrives at dawn. You’re lying on your back, sheets rumpled, pillow clammy, when the birds begin to twitter. Between a chink in the curtains you can see the sky turning from dark blue to pink as the sun prepares to rise. The stars fade, and with them your hopes of a good night’s sleep. Even if you fall asleep immediately, you will only get a few hours of rest before your alarm begins to shriek. You flip your pillow to the cool side in the hope that will help, but you know it’s too late.

The sandman’s absence has condemned you to a day of drowsiness and low productivity. During the day ahead, your reaction times will be slow, your concentration shot. If you’re desk-bound, the words on your computer will blur and bleed into each other. Shift workers, parents and anyone who has ever stayed up all night will be familiar with these symptoms: sluggishness, itchy eyes, a foggy head and general irritability. But the effects of a lack of sleep are far worse than mere drowsiness.

Alzheimer’s disease, obesity, heart disease and cancer have all been linked to a decline in the quality and quantity of sleep. Since the 1960s, we’ve decreased our average sleep time by about 20 per cent, according to Sleep for Health Managing Director and sleep specialist, Dr Carmel Harrington. The World Health Organisation classifies shift-work as a probable carcinogen. Leading sleep researcher Matthew Walker believes we’re in the middle of an epidemic of sleeplessness. He says less than two-thirds of adults get the required amount of sleep each night.

A neuroscientist and bestselling author, Professor Walker says sleep should be prescribed. Sleep “restocks the armoury of our immune system”, he says in his book,