Sleep Loss -- and Possible Consequences

In a BBC interview with James Fletcher, neuroscientist Matt Walker raised many interesting points about the diminishing amount of sleep we seem to get these days. In the 1940s, people apparently slept a shade over four hours per night, where the average at present seems to be somewhere between 6.7 and 6.8 hours per night: a 20% drop.

Walker sounded even more alarms about potential consequences: “Every major disease that is killing us in the developed world: Alzheimer’s, cancer, obesity, diabetes, anxiety, depression, suicidality. All of them have direct ... and very strong causal links to deficient sleep.”

The short article is worth reading in its entirety:

http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20170707-the-worrying-effects-of-working-more-and-sleeping-less?ocid=global_capital_rss&ocid=global_bbccom_email_07072017_capital