Losing (and Finding) Sleep

Last month, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society released a joint statement recommending that adults should sleep seven or more hours a night for optimal health. But millions of Americans aren’t getting this amount—a habit that is wreaking havoc on our health and everyday lives. The search for sleep has become a cultural obsession—fueling the rise of an entire industry. But with glaring laptop screens and grueling work schedules forcing us to burn the midnight oil, it’s likely that sleepless nights aren’t going to become less common anytime soon.

Americans these days simply aren’t spending enough time snoozing. In 2013, the average American slept 6.8 hours a night—with 40 percent banking less than six hours. The nation hasn’t always been this sleep-deprived: Over the past fifty years, the average sleep duration on weeknights has fallen by an hour and a half. Back in 1910, people slept an average of nine hours per night. Our culture of sleeplessness has been propelled by technologies like the light bulb and the Internet, which have…