Sunday, August 23, 2015

Dreamland - David K Randall

After injuring himself one night in his sleep, the author decided to look into what we knew about sleep.  The answer is of course that we know very little, even though we spend a third of our life conked out.  There were some interesting points - how our ancestors slept, with a first and second sleep and a break often around midnight. How the invention of the light bulb changed what we did at night, how we worked and made night shifts a  possibility.  The importance of sleep on those in the military, and how they have changed how they let some soldiers sleep.

Personally I think the ability and type of sleeping is genetic.  Most of my family are lucky, and have an ability to just lie down and sleep whenever we want, in fact I think we have a sleepy gene when many of my friends have the opposite.  It can take them hours to drop off to sleep and stay asleep.

So I learnt a bit, and but I was left wanting more.  So go scientists go - hope you find out more soon. 3/5

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