May/1998
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SLEEP THIEVES: AN EYE-OPENING EXPLORATION INTO THE
SCIENCE & MYSTERIES OF SLEEP
Stanley Coren (Free Press Paperbacks, 1996, 304 pages, paperback, $12)
Reviewed by Lynne Lamberg
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"It is obvious that we can and do cheat on the amount of
sleep we have to accommodate to technological and societal
demands," writes Coren, professor of psychology at the University of
British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. "Unfortunately," he adds,
"such cheating can ultimately make us clumsy, stupid, unhappy, and
dead."
In this polished and engaging book, Coren describes the toll
sleep deprivation exacts from rats (who die when deprived of sleep
for 3 weeks) to humans. He counters the oft-told tale that
17-year-old Randy Gardner suffered no ill effects in his 11 day
marathon without sleep in 1964 to earn a place in the Guinness
Book of World Records. Coren charts the day-by-day impact on
Randy, as documented by John Ross of the US Navy Medical
Neuropsychiatric Research Unit in San Diego: trouble focusing his
eyes on day 2, hallucinations on day 4, and slurred speech and a
short attention span by the last day. This, despite Randy's ability to
beat a sleep researcher in a game of pinball.
Coren rode with the driver of an 18-wheeler, interviewed
young doctors on call and medical school deans, visited a factory
and talked to workers on the graveyard shift, spoke to pilots, and
more. He spent 7 weeks trying to cut his own nightly sleep from 8
hours to 5.5 hours, finding that his mood and productivity
plummeted.
He describes daily cycles in alertness and sleepiness, the
impact of sleep loss on teenagers, the effect of various foods on
sleep, and the cost of sleepiness to society.
The book includes a small number of footnotes, a brief
general bibliography, and an index. Good reporting, and good
writing.
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