As a sleep researcher, one of
the most common questions I’m
asked is how to get a better night’s
rest. That’s a challenging inquiry to
answer. Many of us in the field began
studying the subject because we areso terrible at it in practice. And despite
decades of study, we still don’t totally
understand what sleep is—or why our
ancestors first started doing it.
All vertebrates alive today have a
form of slumber. So do some inverte-
brates like fruit flies and sea slugs. You
can trace restfulness back to single-
celled organisms that split their time
between periods of quiescence and
bursts of activity. In some ways, sleep
is just a state of inactivity. But there’s
something unique about it that we
haven’t figured out.
Despite what our fitness trackers
might tell us, we don’t yet know whatmix of deep, light, and REM—the three
stages of sleep—translates into the
best rest. People obsess over these
numbers, but they aren’t actionable.
With so much left to learn about
the purpose of repose, it’s no wonder
we can’t quantify it. Unfortunately,
I’ve also found, in my research and
personal habits, that most sleeping
problems stick around. Once you’ve
had trouble getting your z’s, you’ll be
susceptible to that same issue again.
The irony, of course, is that the less
you worry about your rest, the better it
will be. Given my profession, I sort of
set myself up for failure there.no one knows
why we sleep
JAMIE M. ZEITZER,
PROFESSOR OF PSYCHIATRY
AT STANFORD UNIVERSITY’S
CENTER FOR SLEEP SCIENCESas
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