84 BBC SCIENCE FOCUS MAGAZINE COLLECTION
Ever wondered what your body’s doing while you’re off in the land of nod?
You’ll be surprised by some of the science behind snoozing...1
Artificial lights have changed our
natural sleeping patterns
Without them, we would sleep in two
blocks each night. Psychologist Thomas
Wehr found people rever t to sleeping this
way if isolated from ar tif icial light s for
more than a few weeks.4
Dreams tend to follow
well-defined patterns
In his lifetime, psychology Prof Calvin Hall
collected more than 50,000 dream reports.
Using Prof Hall’s database, researchers
identif ied that we tend to dream about
the things that make us anxious.2
Children around the world have
vastly different sleep patterns
In Vietnam 95 per cent of babies sleep in
their parent s’ bed, compared to 15 per cent
in Australia. In New Zealand, the average
bedtime for an infant is 7.30pm and in
Hong Kong it’s 10.30pm.5
The ideal temperature for a
good night’s sleep is 16-19°C
Researchers in Lille, France, worked out the
ideal temperature was 16-19ºC for someone
sleeping in pyjamas and covered by sheets.
If they sleep naked, the ideal temperature
jumps to 30-32ºC.3
Therapy may be a better treatment
for insomnia than sleeping pills
Psychologist Charles Morin found that
people who used cognitive behavioural
therapy to deal with sleepless nights
reported much better overall sleep quality
than those treated with sleeping pills alone.6
The longest known period anyone
has stayed awake is 11 days
In 1964, Randy Gardner stayed awake
without any kind of stimulants for 264
hours, experiencing phantom sounds and
visions the longer he went without sleep.
No long-term ill effects were reported.15 things
YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT SLEEP