SLEEP-DEPRIVED NATION

The lifesaving and life-changing magic of getting adequate sleep—and the perils of skimping on it, for both old and young.

Nardo covers the bases: what sleep is; why people today often don’t get enough; why this deficit is especially common among teens (short answer: electronic devices); the dangers of inadequate sleep; and how to improve our sleep quality and quotient. About one-third of an average lifespan is spent asleep—twice as much time as is spent working for a living. Sleep is cardiovascular-repair time, and it offers mood, alertness, coordination, and other dividends. REM sleep is brain-maintenance time. But sleep deprivation has perhaps reached epidemic proportions: about one-third of Americans do not get an optimal amount of sleep, leading to many negative outcomes. The perilous consequences of sleep deprivation, the focus of Chapter 4, appear in other contexts throughout the book. These effects are not fun, and avoiding them might involve sacrificing—or at least reducing our consumption of—enjoyable things like screen time, caffeine, alcohol, and socializing. Luckily, the best and easiest fix cited here is simply maintaining consistent sleep patterns. Nardo’s clear and succinct style and reliance on up-to-date research make the book effective and reliable. There is some minor repetition, but that is probably a plus for sleep-deprived readers.

Chock-full of eye-opening statistics, this book is certainly not sleep-inducing.