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May 20, 2012

"Many things - such as loving, going to sleep, or behaving unaffectedly - are done worst when we try hardest to do them." --C.S. Lewis

The Science of 'Social Jet Lag'

"'Six hours' sleep for a man, seven for a woman, and eight for a fool,' Napoleon famously prescribed. (He would have scoffed at Einstein, then, who was known to require ten hours of sleep for optimal performance.) This perceived superiority of those who can get by on less sleep isn't just something Napoleon shared with dictators like Hitler and Stalin, it's an enduring attitude woven into our social norms and expectations, from proverbs about early birds to the basic scheduling structure of education and the workplace. But in 'Internal Time: Chronotypes, Social Jet Lag, and Why You're So Tired,' German chronobiologist Till Roenneberg demonstrates through a wealth of research that our sleep patterns have little to do with laziness and other such scorned character flaws, and everything to do with biology." Maria Popova shares further.