Читать книгу Counting Sheep: The Science and Pleasures of Sleep and Dreams - Paul Martin - Страница 23

You lack the season of all natures, sleep.

William Shakespeare, Macbeth (1606)

Does it really matter that many people in industrialised countries no longer get enough sleep of sufficient quality at the right times? We have seen one reason: the fact that sleepiness causes accidents. But far more than that, inadequate sleep matters because of what it does to our minds and our bodies each and every day.

Sleep is eloquent in its absence. We know that if we miss a night’s sleep we will feel bad the next day. But the unpleasant sensations of acute fatigue evaporate after a good night’s sleep and we soon forget. Far less obvious are the insidious, cumulative consequences of seldom getting quite enough sleep, night after night, week after week. Chronic sleep deprivation creeps up on us. It has pervasive effects on our mood, social skills and mental abilities – especially judgment, creative thinking and problem solving. It can also impair our physical health and make us more vulnerable to disease, as we shall see in the next chapter. However, the first and most obvious symptom of insufficient sleep is sleepiness, and that is where we shall start.