"After decades of research, there is still no clearly articulated scientific consensus on what sleep is or why it exists. Yet whenever sleep comes up as a topic of discussion, it is quickly reduced to its necessity and importance. Popular media remind us of what can, and will, go wrong if we do not sleep enough, and serve up some handy tips on how to overcome insomnia."
"Discussed exclusively in utilitarian terms, we are force-fed the idea that sleep exists solely for our immediate benefit. Is this really all we ever want to know about a third of our existence? Sleep is perhaps the biggest blind spot, or the longest blind stretch, if you will, of our life. Naturally, the health and societal implications of sleep are huge: from technogenic disasters caused by tiredness, to sleep deprivation as a form of torture or weapon of war, and to sleep disorders, some of which inflict so much suffering that they compete with chronic pain."
"The predominant view is that sleep provides some sort of restoration for the brain or the body: what goes awry - out of balance - in waking is almost magically recalibrated by sleep. At the centre of this narrative is the individual-who-sleeps, a lone castaway, locked in a permanent, inexorable cycle of sleeping and waking, without hope of breaking free (except in death)."
There remains no clear scientific consensus on what sleep is or why it exists despite decades of research. Media reduce sleep to necessity and practical tips, framing it exclusively in utilitarian terms as serving immediate human benefit. Sleep carries major health and societal consequences, including accidents from tiredness, use of sleep deprivation as torture or warfare, and disabling sleep disorders. The prevailing theory treats sleep as restorative for brain and body, centring an isolated individual cycling between wakefulness and sleep. Sleep is an involuntary, daily, bizarre experience that resists simple functional explanation and exposes growing gaps between enduring questions and new technologies.
Read at Aeon
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