The science of sleeplessness. "Wolf-Meyer refers to the practice of going to bed at around eleven o’clock at night and staying there until about seven in the morning as sleeping 'in a consolidated fashion.' Nowadays, adults are expected to sleep in this manner; anything else—sleeping during the day, sleeping in bursts, waking up in the middle of the night—is taken to be unsound, even deviant. This didn’t use to be the case." [more inside]
posted by epimorph on Mar 11, 2013 - 82 comments

1-3 percent of the population may be natural "short sleepers" who function well on only a few hours sleep. Not only are these people both night owls AND early birds, they function perfectly happily on a short amount of sleep, without caffeine, without drowsiness. They're more energized, multitask more, are thinner, and are very cheerful and resilient. Sounds like Beggars In Spain wasn't too far off...
posted by jenfullmoon on Apr 6, 2011 - 81 comments

An essay on sleep and loss by Bill Hayes, author of Sleep Demons. The essay is part of a NYT series All-nighters, which has also included work from Mefi favorite Christoph Niemann (previously) and other sleep deprived contributors.
posted by Cold Lurkey on Apr 27, 2010 - 13 comments

The Sleep Medicine Home Page: A comprehensive links and resources one-pager for both professionals and sufferers, resources regarding all aspects of sleep including, the physiology of sleep, clinical sleep medicine, sleep research, federal and state information, patient information, and business-related groups.
posted by nickyskye on Sep 4, 2008 - 11 comments

A good night's sleep with the flip of a switch? A brain zapper to fight sleep deprivation using TMS. [more inside]
posted by nickyskye on May 7, 2007 - 47 comments

Engineering the perfect night's sleep. Because I want my bed to monitor my heartbeat.
posted by jeremias on Mar 28, 2006 - 3 comments

From 24 hours of movies to 3 hour naps between 36 hour shifts on an ocean trawler, sleep deprivation can be just another narcotic.
posted by holloway on Nov 21, 2005 - 20 comments

Deep into Sleep. "While researchers probe sleep's functions, sleep itself is becoming a lost art." [Via Mind Hacks.]
posted by homunculus on Aug 5, 2005 - 20 comments

Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sleep (But Were Too Afraid To Ask). Circadiana is a new specialty blog dedicated to chronobiology. As a night owl (I'm posting this link at 2:45 AM), I look forward to many late nights reading this site.
posted by painquale on Jan 16, 2005 - 14 comments

Do you suffer from sleeplessness? Don't bother counting "the same dirty old sheep"!! Seems the old tried and true method does not actually work but do any of them? People are obviously obsessed with sleep in our sleep-deprived culture. What do you do to get to sleep and stay asleep at night???
posted by gloege on Jan 24, 2002 - 32 comments