Aticle Analysis

David K. Randall wrote in the New York Times about the common misconception of sleep deprivation in America in “Rethinking Sleep.” Randall argues that there are different methods to getting the sleep you need rather than the “8 hour block” of straight sleep. He even goes as far to argue that splitting up your time of sleep is more beneficial and will leave you feeling better rested. Randall supports his argument by showing examples of different cultures that do not have the same “8 hour block” tradition as America. It turns out the rest of the world’s population finds interesting ways to fit in their sleep “Millions of Chinese workers continue to put their heads on their desk for a nap of an hour or so after lunch, for example, and daytime napping is common in India and Spain.” Even several major league baseball teams are using the napping method to adapt to long demanding seasons. Former conditioning coach of Texas Rangers Fernando Montes “counseled his players to fall asleep with the curtains in their hotel rooms open so that they would naturally wake up at sunrise no matter what time zone they were in.” Even though they were not getting 8 straight hours of sleep “They felt great both physically and mentally over the long haul.” Randall argues that “neither our bodies nor our brains are built for the roughly one-third of our lives that we spend in bed.” “Roughly 41 million people in the United States,” are sleep deprived, and we only reinforce it by believing we need 8 hours of straight sleep and having anxiety that something is wrong if we wake up “we lie in our beds thinking about the sleep we’re not getting.” By doing this we are only reinforcing our habit and turning into insomniacs. Randall supports his thought that humans are not made to sleep in 8 hour blocks by showing research done on the history of sleep. Roger Ekrich a professor from Virgina Tech spent a lot of time researching the history of sleep and he began to find strange references to different patterns of traditional sleep. One character in a story called “Canterbury Tales” decides to go back to bed after her “firste sleep” One doctor wrote “that between the “first sleep” and the “second sleep” was the best time for study and reflection.” A 16th century physician concluded women could conceive better after their “first sleep.” All of this evidence only reinforces “whether in an eight-hour block or a 30-minute nap” sleep helps us function better and “freeing ourselves from needlessly rigid and quite possibly outdated ideas about what constitutes a good night’s sleep might help put many of us to rest.”

Works Cited
Randall, David . “Rethinking Sleep.” New York Times. NYTimes.com. 22 Sept 2012, Web.

Cited: Randall, David . “Rethinking Sleep.” New York Times. NYTimes.com. 22 Sept 2012, Web.