Some More News - Some More News: America's Nightmare Sleep Industry

Episode Date: November 13, 2024

Hi. Losing sleep lately? For no reason whatsoever? Capitalism has solutions: wearable tech, apps, and other self-help tricks that don't really work. Get the world's news at https://ground.news/SMN to ...compare coverage and see through biased coverage this election season. Subscribe for 50% off unlimited access – their biggest discount – through our link.Blueland is on a mission to eliminate single-use plastic by reinventing cleaning essentials to be better for you and the planet. Right now, get 15% off your first order by going to https://blueland.com/MORENEWSSimpliSafe is offering our viewers exclusive early access to their Black Friday sale. This week only, you can take 60% off any new system with a select professional monitoring plan at https://simplisafe.com/MORENEWS Check out our MERCH STORE: https://shop.somemorenews.com   SUBSCRIBE to SOME MORE NEWS: https://tinyurl.com/ybfx89rh   Subscribe to the Even More News and SMN audio podcasts here: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/some-more-news/id1364825229   Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6ebqegozpFt9hY2WJ7TDiA Follow us on social media: Twitter: https://twitter.com/SomeMoreNews

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Starting point is 00:00:00 This is real. Am I real? Ow! Yep. OK. This show. Hi. Hey. Still doing the show. Welcome to show with me, your host, Cody. Hi. There's been a lot of... Cody, lately.
Starting point is 00:00:29 The election is over, I think. We recorded this before the results, so congratulations to, I don't know, Jill Stein, the Noid, who knows? The election is something we'll get to. We're gonna get to the election results in a later episode. But for now, we're just very, very, very, very, very, very, very, Cody, I got COVID.
Starting point is 00:00:56 Cody vid, it's a Cody vid. So that was fun. I loved it. I loved having COVID still recovering from that. I feel haunted, haunted from the COVID, but also the election. Like, it's like, it's like, it's like I've been cursed somehow, but you know, you know, you know,
Starting point is 00:01:15 you gotta have, you gotta push forward. The show must go on as assholes say. You can't die. See, you can't, you can't, so you gotta, you gotta. Keep on. Big smiles, big smiles, Cody, big smiles. Oh, big smiles. Let's do an episode to charge me up, something spicy.
Starting point is 00:01:36 Boars, Elon Musk, you gotta stay awake. You can't sleep, but you want to, but you can't, you can't stop. What is the episode about? ["Sleeping With a Sniper"] Sleep is so, so good and nice and we love and need it. No. Okay, cool, fine, I don't care.
Starting point is 00:02:04 Here's some news. We're all really tired. And here in America, we're sure not getting enough of that sleep. And in fact, our society isn't built for it. And many companies really don't want us to have it. Most Americans get between six and seven hours of sleep. Lucky, with 20% of us getting less than that.
Starting point is 00:02:26 Ah, dang it, me. And of course the pandemic made that worse. Like it made most things worse. But it was always getting bad. According to Gallup, back in 2013, 56% of Americans said they got enough sleep. Today, that number has dropped to 42%. Not to mention that the percentage of people
Starting point is 00:02:46 getting five or fewer hours has risen from 14% to 20%. There is some conflicting data. The American Time Use Survey actually says Americans gained 10 extra minutes of sleep since 2019, which would mean we are getting more sleep, but also feeling super tired. more on that way later. But that's also pretty overshadowed by all the other surveys.
Starting point is 00:03:11 Here's a CDC report from 2011 that said one in 20 Americans had fallen asleep at the wheel in a month's time. Hey, that's, that's, yeah, that's too many people for the thing that that is. This decline in sleep, of course, makes us more stressed. That's, yeah, that's too many people for the thing that that is. This decline in sleep, of course, makes us more stressed. Not me, I feel, I feel great.
Starting point is 00:03:33 But on average, adults who sleep less than eight hours a night are more stressed out than adults who get eight or more hours. Because here's some news, sleep, pretty important. It helps with learning and long-term memory. It's crucial for brain plasticity, and some researchers hypothesize sleep is when brain cells get rid of their waste products. It's when your brain poops. Other effects of sleep include improved growth, heart health, germ fighting, attention span, and reduced risk of injury. So it's good.
Starting point is 00:04:08 I like it when I do it. Do you like it? I like it. I don't need to explain why sleep is good and how the lack of it is extremely similar to having alcohol in your blood, minus the part where you're cool and good at karaoke. You may be surprised to learn that Americans
Starting point is 00:04:25 aren't the worst at sleeping. Asian countries log the least amount of hours, while predominantly Northern European countries, plus New Zealand and Australia, log the most sleep on average. And I get that, if my nation was swarmed with mutant swole deer, I'd try to stay unconscious too. The droid's boy as late great pillars.
Starting point is 00:04:46 So why do some countries get more sleep than others? You already know, it's work culture of course. Of course. So for example, comparing a country like South Korea to the Netherlands, South Korea works 36.5 hours a week, as opposed to the Dutch working 27 hours. And sure enough, those crafty Ds get 40 more Ms of S on A. That is not helpful.
Starting point is 00:05:13 40 more minutes of sleep on average. And if you're curious, I mean, I'm not, but if you're curious, we here in the States logged an average of 34.4 working hours per week, only two less than in South Korea. This is all to say that while this isn't a uniquely American problem, we're not gonna try to solve the entire world's
Starting point is 00:05:33 sleeping problems in this episode, but rather focus on what keeps us awake here in the States, which we also aren't going to solve. Like you probably know some of the reasons already. We're on our phones too close to bedtime, obviously. Although people probably have said the same thing about television for decades now. Here's an article from 1999.
Starting point is 00:05:55 But of course, if TV was already bad, having a little TV in your bed, eight inches from your face is certainly worse. Along with that, a lot of us aren't getting enough natural light during the day, likely because of working through all their daylight hours. Lack of sunlight screws with your circadian rhythms.
Starting point is 00:06:14 So dare I say, we perhaps were never meant to spend scores of hours sitting at a tiny desk in a dark office. There's also caffeine. At least 85% of Americans consume at least one caffeinated beverage a day. The FDA considers 400 milligrams of caffeine the upper limit for daily consumption
Starting point is 00:06:33 for a healthy adult. That's about two to three cups of coffee. But according to this Amerisleep survey, over a third of Americans exceeded this limit. Energy drinks have really upped that for us. An eight ounce Red Bull has around 80 milligrams of caffeine while five hour energy or prime has 200 milligrams. A study from Norway found that people who consumed
Starting point is 00:06:57 energy drinks slept for half an hour less than those who didn't. Not that we really need a study to say that because we know, we all know, we're not getting enough sleep. It's as American as fucking a pie in that one movie where he fucked a pie. What I and all of you want to know
Starting point is 00:07:17 is what we're going to do about it. For more and more travelers, there's a new kind of dream vacation. I turned my regular hotel room into a sleep tourism destination. Dubbed sleep tourism, the idea has people booking trips just to get a good night's rest.
Starting point is 00:07:34 Oh, good. Capitalism. I was hoping that that would be the solution. So I guess now you can drain your savings account to book a stay at a hotel that uses smartphone paired mattresses and offers wellness retreat packages that include smart goggles and consultations
Starting point is 00:07:50 with board certified MDs. Because the new way to get actual sleep is to run on fumes for months and months before scheduling a convenient time to crash and burn. Way to go America. We found yet another way to commodify something integral to human survival. And this, my friends and enemies,
Starting point is 00:08:11 is what we're going to talk about today. The sleep industry and why it is, much like our sleep, fucked up. So let's break for ads while I... So let's break for ads while I... Hi there, Oscar. Do you mind if I call you Oscar? I can't see why you would. You know, the holidays are right around the corner
Starting point is 00:08:37 and every single year American households pump out more and more trash between Thanksgiving and New Year's. They really should be called the Trashy Days, Oscar. households pump out more and more trash between Thanksgiving and New Year's. They really should be called the Trashy Days Oscar. They really should if you want the honest truth. Well fortunately, Blue Land is on a mission to eliminate single use plastic by reinventing cleaning essentials to be better for you and for our planet, of which we, somehow, only have one.
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Starting point is 00:09:44 Grouch or Oscar from the Odd Couple would celebrate. There really are a lot of trash-related Oscars in popular culture, aren't there? Interesting. Interesting thing we just unlocked. Anyway, Blueland has a special gift for our viewers and listeners. Right now, get 15% off your first order by going to blueland.com slash more news. You don't want to miss this, folks! BlueLand.com slash more news for 15% off! That's blueland.com slash more news to get 15% off and I will absolutely be sending this
Starting point is 00:10:22 gift set to my family because it seems perfect. And maybe, maybe you want to too. Boy and girl howdy. How's it going? I am so very still going and I'm desperate for something positive to think about. Fortunately, I use Ground News, which you can check out at ground.news slash smn
Starting point is 00:10:45 That's a sponsor we at the show sought out It's both a website and an app that helps you stay informed, but not overwhelmed It aggregates news from around the world to help you understand the current political divide that is dare. I say Quite divided. Hey, here's something positive Did you know the deforestation in the Amazon has fallen to its lowest level in almost a decade? I mean, an area the size of five Los Angeles' was still destroyed, but still, it's a start. And interestingly, this story was essentially only covered by center and left leaning sources.
Starting point is 00:11:19 The right basically didn't cover this at all, maybe because it would suggest that President Lula is doing something good while Bolsonaro did not do those good things because he was so busy losing fights to emus or whatever. Who's to say? The point is it's something positive I wouldn't have seen otherwise if it wasn't for ground news.
Starting point is 00:11:37 You can see headlines like this plus context at ground.news slash SMN. With that link, you can save 50% off their Vantage plan, which gives you unlimited access, it's essential, now more than ever, like ever, to see all sides of a story and all the context. For example, if everyone had a Ground News subscription two weeks ago, they might all know what tariffs are.
Starting point is 00:12:01 Once more, that's ground.news slash smn for 50% off whether you subscribe or gift it to someone you know. The link is below, and I'm gonna look at the camera now. There it is. Oh, no. No. Flutter! Ah, hi. Hey, sorry. I was having the most erotic dream until something grabbed me.
Starting point is 00:12:36 It's probably nothing. Okay, we're back. And before the break, we alluded to the thing we are actually here to talk about. The sleep industry, big S, it's a thing. Stuff like apps and pills and self-help books, all of this and more takes in about $76 billion a year. Venture capital funding for sleep tech almost doubled
Starting point is 00:12:57 between 2017 and 2021, along with the US mattress industry between 2015 and 2020. A lot of this also isn't new. Sleep supplements like melatonin and valerian root are fairly harmless things that people have been taking for a while. It should be noted that none of these supplements work that well, but also aren't insidious.
Starting point is 00:13:17 In fact, if you take any individual product in this sleep industry, it's likely not harmful in a vacuum. But then when you look at the larger idea of a sleep industry, it's pretty fucking sinister actually. Probably the most simplistic version of the problem is the classic cycle of self-medication when you drink caffeine to wake up in the morning
Starting point is 00:13:39 and then alcohol to sleep at night. Surprisingly, there are studies that say this might work for a while, but ultimately you crash and burn. And while the modern tech savvy sleep industry presents itself as a healthy alternative, it's ultimately just the same cycle with a fancier sheen. So for example, sleep tracking.
Starting point is 00:14:00 One study found that nearly 30% of Americans use some kind of sleeping app to track their sleep. But interestingly, most of those people were already in generally good health. This makes sense. If I'm crushing at something, I want to see myself being great at it. That's why I have a mirror hanging above my breakfast table.
Starting point is 00:14:20 For the record, this study found that smokers had more trouble sleeping, probably because it's a stimulant. Also, these people tended to have more money, which scans. They are, after all, spending money on a device that tells them if they did a thing, they already know they did.
Starting point is 00:14:37 Like, to be clear, if you have a sleeping disorder, there are apps that can help track that stuff. Still not as good as an actual sleep study, but most people probably don't need any of this. That's kind of the key problem with this industry. It's solving a medical problem most people don't naturally have. There's a difference between a chronic sleep disorder
Starting point is 00:14:59 and simply not getting enough sleep. But the sleep industry doesn't make that distinction and will even try to convince you there's a problem when there isn't and that the only way to solve the problem is to buy an expensive thing. A thing that, can't stress this enough, just tells you what you already know.
Starting point is 00:15:18 Horror ring helps you get enough sleep and enough steps. It also helps you manage your stress, so you can see what your body really needs. Quick tip, you know what's another easy way to tell if you're feeling stressed? Feelings. Or I guess you can get a premium subscription to a wearable tech that will tell you
Starting point is 00:15:40 if you're feeling tired. Hey, fun little fact about sleep data. It's pretty fucking meaningless. For starters, unless you're hooked up to an EEG machine, they are not going to actually know if you got REM sleep. They can track if you're moving a lot, your pulse or your body temperature, and you can certainly use that data as a baseline
Starting point is 00:15:58 to track consistency. But there is no universal metric for sleep being used here. Not only do these companies use drastically different biosignals, but they've all created arbitrary sleep scores. A score of 85 on an aura ring means your sleep is optimal. While over at Fitbit, that means your sleep is only good? It's all just made up shit, which is particularly depressing because it's actually
Starting point is 00:16:23 common for users to become obsessive about their sleep scores, almost as if calling it a sleep score gamifies that whole thing. It's weird how we do that for everything. Maybe we shouldn't do that for everything. This has actually gotten so common that people have even made a name for it, orthosomnia. While that's not an official disorder,
Starting point is 00:16:42 it's what researchers are using to specifically describe an over obsession with sleep data. Seems bad, because through the promotion of sleep products, companies subliminally generate more anxiety around sleep, which causes people to sleep less, which creates a higher demand for sleep. And so there it is, the cycle of self-medication. Only in this case, the loop is smaller.
Starting point is 00:17:07 It's a single company making you feel dependent. Because if you take a basic health need and turn it over to a corporation, it turns out they won't actually have your wellbeing in mind, but rather they will want the problem to persist so that you keep giving them money. Who knew? We. We knew.
Starting point is 00:17:28 We also talked about this next thing in our Brainship episode. But it's worth noting that there are other and worse ways that capitalism has made wearable tech and in this case, sleep tech, somehow even more dystopian. Take founder and CEO of oral health company, Byte, Lindsay McCormick. She uses an aura ring to track her energy levels, saying, quote,
Starting point is 00:17:51 "'Energy management is so important as a CEO. "'With my aura ring, I can see when I didn't sleep well, "'when I'm not getting enough exercise, "'when I'm stressed so I know when I can push harder "'and when I need to take a break. And again, another way to know if you're stressed or tired is to just feel those things. But whatever, I guess Patricia Bateman here
Starting point is 00:18:14 needs a computer to track her emotions. But if you're wondering what the actual value of a tech that just tells you what you're feeling is, it is of course that tech telling other people what you're feeling. That's actually the value of these things, right? Providing companies with your data. And so, of course, Aura Ring attempted to roll out a Slack feature
Starting point is 00:18:35 that would grant access to coworkers and managers' personal sleep data. The idea was that Slack users would be able to share their sleep status with coworkers, so, I don't know, they could brag about their sleep quality, have a fun little office sleep off, a battle of honk chews. There's literally no reason for workers to want this, and the only purpose would be for managers to see the data. Luckily, for society, most workers realized this, objected to it, and Aura discontinued their integration with Slack. However, they did launch Aura for Business in 2022, which equips employees with Aura rings,
Starting point is 00:19:13 giving employers anonymized health data on their workforce. Aura's head of business development justified the policy, saying, we can track the well-being of a company's employees and use that to empower management to engage their workers better and design and change their well-being program on the fly to react to the health of their employees. They love to present this as an innocent attempt to improve workers' health, but I can't help but notice that whenever some news program talks about the lack of sleep in this country, they always frame it like this. People are exhausted. They don't have the energy. Sometimes they can't even get to work.
Starting point is 00:19:52 And that's why there are six lost work days per year, additional lost work days, in individuals who sleep less than six hours a night. And lack of sleep makes workers less productive. If the people who slept less than six hours a night simply upped the game a little bit, that would save $200 billion a year in lost productivity. Thanks, Doc. That is an actual doctor talking about the dangers
Starting point is 00:20:19 of lost productivity. Because obviously the only reason the company is concerned with the health of their employees is because that affects their bottom line. We know this, we've spent decades upon decades forcing labor laws on corporations that would otherwise be happy to let children work in lead line sadness factories made of asbestos.
Starting point is 00:20:41 And so the only reason they are concerned about employee health is because you can't get labor out of a corpse. But the moment they can, you can bet your Necronomicon they will change their tune. I'm sure Elon is trying to see if his brain chips can keep working after you've died. But hey, at least for now, the interests of corporations align with the interests of increasingly tired workers, right? We're now seeing companies find new and creative ways to encourage employees to get sleep. For example, the U.S. insurance company, Aetna, gives workers an extra $25 per night if they sleep at least 7 hours a night for 20 days in a row. For insomniacs, they offer cognitive therapy via smartphones to help get their sleep on track.
Starting point is 00:21:30 Whoop, which I guess is a company called Whoop, pays their employees a $100 bonus if they improve their sleep performance. Fitbit has an optional wellness program for their own employees that allows the company to view biometric data and give fitness challenges to complete throughout the work week. Because we all love it when fitness is a challenge,
Starting point is 00:21:53 don't we folks? Exercise was too easy to do, better make it part of your job. As a fun little anecdote, one Redditor posted that they were forced to do one of these challenges, so they put the Fit bit on their dog. It should be noted that those fitness challenges were discontinued, probably because they sucked.
Starting point is 00:22:12 But hey, at least they're trying, right? Except here's some not-at-all news. Here it is. It turns out that much like corporate greenwashing, these types of fitness incentives are largely useless. In fact, a recent study found that quote, workers who participated in company sponsored wellness benefits were no better off than their fellow workers who opted out of these initiatives. That is, except for the dog I mentioned earlier. He's yoked as hell and absolutely cleaning up at the dog park,
Starting point is 00:22:44 snatching that pooch pussy. I'm so sorry I said that. I'm so sorry. But the reason these job initiatives don't work is, when you think about it, painfully obvious. Because if a company really wanted their employees to take more time to sleep, the actual solution would be time.
Starting point is 00:23:04 They need time away from work. the actual solution would be time. They need time away from work. The thing that is actually causing the problem. Like giving someone a hundred dollar bonus to get good sleep is nice, I guess, but it's kind of like if a bar gave out free drinks in exchange for AA chips, which I know is already a Simpsons joke, I'm tired.
Starting point is 00:23:23 See, it's actually exactly like corporate greenwashing. Companies will plant trees or tote their net zero carbon footprint or do really anything except decrease production, the thing that would actually help. And so similarly, corporations will create elaborate wellness programs or sleep incentives or stick wires in your butt so long
Starting point is 00:23:43 as they don't have to introduce a four-day work week. Same way we're told to recycle and drive electric cars, they will put the responsibility completely on the individual without making any sacrifices themselves. So of course, there is a giant boom in companies investing in these types of programs, and yet simultaneously, employees report feeling burnt out across the board because you simply can't solve this with capitalism.
Starting point is 00:24:12 You can't job or hack your way into getting more sleep. After all, our entire work culture is hinged on the idea that sleep is for the weak. That's why it was called Wall Street Money Never Sleeps. Remember that film? Here's a random deleted scene from that. It's a great place to get a haircut. I love this place.
Starting point is 00:24:32 Been coming here since the 80s. Well, the 80s are no longer Gordo. Aw, did he win or did he do the coup? You know what? Don't tell me. I wanna be surprised. Rich CEOs absolutely love bragging about how little sleep they get, as if that's the key to success.
Starting point is 00:24:49 Elon Musk has claimed that he worked up to 120 hours a week and at times hasn't left the Tesla factory for three to four days. His sleep solution? Elon tweeted, a little red wine, vintage record, some Ambien and magic. The magic was probably more Ambien mixed with alcohol. Sam Bankman Fried was described by Insider
Starting point is 00:25:12 as famously sleeping four hours a night on a beanbag chair next to his desk and taking calls from clients and investors at 3 a.m. And of course, Donald Gordo Trump regularly boasts about sleep deprivation. Back in 2015, he said, "'I have a great temperament for success.
Starting point is 00:25:31 "'You know, I'm not a big sleeper. "'I like three hours, four hours. "'I toss, I turn, I beep-de-beep. "'I want to find out what's going on.'" So there you have it, kids. Skip out on sleep and beep-de-beep instead. And you can be just as normal and not fucked up as those three guys I just listed. Of course, whenever a rich guy brags about not sleeping, they are either full of shit or just completely
Starting point is 00:25:59 forgot how much easier their lives are. Like yeah, I could probably only get a few hours of sleep a night if I didn't have to drive myself anywhere or do any physical labor or like do anything. But most likely, they are just lying. Like as an aside, the only honest daily routine that ever existed came from Dr. Hunter S. Thompson when he revealed a regular schedule of, and I'm gonna quote this, cocaine, orange juice, Dunhill, cocaine, cocaine, cocaine, coffee, Dunhill's, more ice in the
Starting point is 00:26:32 Chivas, cocaine. Man, watch out there, sir. Too much coffee gives me the jitters. What was my point in all this? Oh, right, liars. Because as you probably could guess, rich people get a lot of sleep. Of course they do. According to a CDC study from 2011 to 2014, the more money someone makes, the more likely they are to get the full 7-8 hours.
Starting point is 00:26:56 To quote an obvious quote from a physician at the American Sleep Association, People with more resources are able to afford homes that are in quieter locations, more space, less people density, and better soundproofing. People with more resources can also afford more healthcare when it relates to sleep disorders. Right. Quieter rooms, more space, more time, and healthcare. That's actually what helps you sleep. Not an app, not a fucking work incentive. Sleep just takes time. There are no shortcuts. You just have to do it for the time it takes. That's it.
Starting point is 00:27:36 That's the secret. And so when you stand back from this whole mess and look at the sleep industry, what you see is a group of very rich people who have the resources to actually sleep well, selling a bunch of fake solutions to people who don't. And not only that, but these rich people are also teaming up with other rich people
Starting point is 00:27:56 to create performative incentives so corporations can pretend like they are concerned about employee health when the reality is that they are the problem. Of course they are concerned about employee health when the reality is that they are the problem. Of course they are. Did you think for a second that they weren't? But accepting that, is there any way we can perhaps get more sleep?
Starting point is 00:28:16 If not all of us, then just me right now? Well, after the break, we'll look at what a society that values sleep would look like. And maybe even we'll let Cody nod off for a little while while we all just sort of watch in silence. That sounds great. To me. What's up haters and skaters?
Starting point is 00:28:45 It's cool Katie coming at ya to talk about home protection. It's skibbity important to me that I protect my golf memorabilia and cigar collection and that's why I use SimpliSafe. And boy oh boy, SimpliSafe is offering our audience exclusive early access to their Black Friday sale. This week only you can take 60% off any new system with a select professional monitoring plan. This is their best offer of the year.
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Starting point is 00:30:05 won't last long. Keep your home, your family, and your peace of mind protected with SimpliSafe. There is no safe like SimpliSafe. I'm totally Cody. Okay. Fucking. Hi. It's me again. I'm very tired. So are you. The election is over. Not for me filming this, but for you watching.
Starting point is 00:30:31 There is a non-zero chance this is playing through static on the internet. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm going to be able to do that. I'm going to be able to do that. I'm going to be able to do that. I'm going to be able to do that. I'm going to be able to do that. I'm going to be able to do that.
Starting point is 00:30:39 I'm going to be able to do that. I'm going to be able to do that. I'm going to be able to do that. I'm going to be able to do that. I'm going to be able to do that. I'm going to be able to do that. I'm going to be able to do that. I'm going to be able to do that. I'm going to be able to do that. I'm very tired. So are you. The election is over, not for me filming this, but for you watching. There is a non-zero chance this is playing through static
Starting point is 00:30:49 on a blasted out 50s TV in a kitschy post-apocalypse setting while a guy sings like this in the background. But assuming it's not that, we should talk about how we as a society might go about fixing sleep. Again, unless we're all skulls right now. If that's the case, then problem solved. Mr. Skullman, bring me more skulls.
Starting point is 00:31:11 So here's a really obvious question no one is asking. If our sleep is so intertwined with our modern work culture, what was it like before that? How did humans naturally sleep before, say, the Industrial Revolution? Well, it turns out that a lot of people had something called a biphasic sleep schedule, which means we slept in two chunks per night
Starting point is 00:31:34 instead of one. Typically, folks would turn in around 9 p.m., sleep until midnight, dick around for an hour or two in a period known as watching, which sounds like something Batman would enjoy. Then they would go back to bed for their second sleep until morning.
Starting point is 00:31:49 Watching activities varied between cultures. Some folks did needlework in between sleeps while others had sex. Either way, people were poking around, if you know what I mean. Nice, Cody, nice. Oh, oh, I'm awake now. While different cultures had their bedtimes
Starting point is 00:32:06 and watchings at different times and used varying terms for this, everyone did it. It transcended culture. And the concept of a first and second sleep can be found in at least 30 different languages. I know that sounds like a fun little factoid that you'd read on the TikToks, perhaps while lying in bed at 3am,
Starting point is 00:32:26 but I really, really want to stress what I just said. Before the Industrial Revolution, as in before our society got balls deep into modern work, we, humans, slept in a fundamentally different way, everywhere, regardless of religion or culture. But thanks to the invention of gas and electric lighting, we began to phase this out. And while some researchers point out that this is just a natural evolution of sleep, something that has always changed based on culture and technology,
Starting point is 00:32:57 there's a lot of compelling evidence that humans naturally run on this biphasic cycle, or at least a lot of them do. In one study, when given a larger span of time to sleep, researchers found that some people would settle back into this biphasic pattern. Other scientists have looked to certain tribes in order to approximate what our ancient ancestors
Starting point is 00:33:17 slept like. They found that these tribes will average out at about 6.5 hours, didn't nap during the day, and generally woke up due to temperature changes. Ultimately, it's a combination of our natural rhythms and our environment, right? There's a reason the invention of fire drastically changed us, because it made the night safer and put our minds more at ease. So did the invention of electric light change our habits as well. But the one constant in all of these studies is that they were looking at people who weren't tethered to a specific frame of time.
Starting point is 00:33:52 They had the freedom to sleep naturally and wake up depending on their environment. My point is that while we're all so obsessed with how much sleep we get, that's not actually the problem. The actual problem is not having enough time around sleep and not letting our natural sleep patterns dictate when we doze off and wake up. In fact, one historian, Russell Foster, argues that people who suffer from insomnia don't actually have a disorder,
Starting point is 00:34:21 but that their bodies are simply more genetically aligned with humans' natural bi-phasic sleep pattern. don't actually have a disorder, but that their bodies are simply more genetically aligned with humans natural bi-phasic sleep pattern. Because nobody sleeps the same as everyone else. But for some reason we're expected to. To quote the article, what was clear Foster said was that interrupted sleep was perceived as less of a problem in the past
Starting point is 00:34:42 and that modern expectations about what constitutes a good night's sleep, sleeping through the night for eight hours, weren't always helpful. This is why amongst the other reasons, having a sleep score is useless and bad. Treating sleep like a race we're all doing just makes it worse.
Starting point is 00:34:59 What we actually need is very simple. For one, we need a cool room. And by cool, I mean in temperature, not cool as in your bed looks like a race car cool. That helps too, but it's less important. Secondly, we need less stress. While some of that is up to us, there are things our country could do to help.
Starting point is 00:35:18 Unsurprisingly, developed countries that rank highest in sleeping hours also have the strongest social safety nets and rank higher in happiness. But mostly it's the work. And I don't just mean like capitalism. I mean the basic idea of social obligations we have to do at a certain time of day.
Starting point is 00:35:38 For some reason, our society has made it really important for everyone to function in a specific but arbitrary window of time that's fundamentally tied to work. Like for example, why the fuck are we making kids get up at farmer hours so they can go to school? There's so much evidence that starting school later in the day would dramatically improve learning,
Starting point is 00:36:00 but we don't do it. Why? Because the adults have to drop off the kids before work at nine. Why do they have to go to work at nine until five? Because a rich anti-Semite named Henry Ford decided that we should work eight hours a day, which was good at the time. After a bunch of other rich people decided
Starting point is 00:36:18 that we start work at nine. And then other companies said, yeah, sure. And then the government said, yeah, sure. And then the government said, yeah, sure. And then that's what we did. And now we, the entire nation, are forced to live on the sleep schedule of a group of rich dead guys. Some dickhead from the 20s said to himself,
Starting point is 00:36:37 you know, I'm pretty awake by nine and now we all have to be too. An entire society dictated by the morning bladder of one old man, that's it. Now we all have to be too. An entire society dictated by the morning bladder of one old man, that's it. So no, we're not bad at sleeping. We just aren't the one specific guy our entire society was weirdly built for, it turns out.
Starting point is 00:36:56 And I think we're all figuring that out more and more. The pandemic sort of reminded everyone of their natural rhythms. And so hopefully the next generations will gradually redefine what work hours actually are. But that's still probably a ways away. For now, at the very least, we need to be very wary of the growing industry of companies
Starting point is 00:37:17 who profit off of us never solving this problem. They are predators, sleep predators, like a thing that tries to kill you in your sleep that's copyright protected. But I think we can get by on parody law. It's just, it's just like that. But hey, thank goodness I'm not tired anymore so we don't have to worry about that. I actually feel, I actually feel really good and rested. How about you Maggie? Are you rested? I sure do to be dooby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby-doby Bye! Hey everybody, thanks for watching, make sure to like and subscribe. We got a podcast called The More News, you can check it out on YouTube or the podcast
Starting point is 00:38:28 place. And you can listen to this as a podcast if you want. We've also got it on YouTube, obviously you just watched it, so like and subscribe if I didn't say that already. We got merch on the place that you can see. And thanks so much. on the place that you can see and Thanks so much

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