Sleep and Your Screens, Not Friends
Note to Self
WNYC Studios
4.7 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 14 May 2014
⏱️ 17 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This episode of the New Tech City podcast explores how technology has changed sleep through the ages, specifically through artificial light.
Hear historian Roger Ekirch and psychiatrist Thomas Wehr explain how they each discovered the natural segmented sleep pattern our bodies want. And why we don't sleep that way because of modern technology.
Plus, we learn what actually happens to our brains when someone actually does return to the ancient way of sleeping: "People would sometimes say they felt a kind of crystal clear consciousness when they were awake that was not familiar to them. And it made me wonder if any of us knows what it’s really like to be awake — fully awake,” Wehr says.
Even though technology is the problem, it can also be the solution. "You have people that are using their phones as alarm clocks, people who are checking their phones all night long... And every time you get that hit of light, it’s like a hit of espresso, and we’d like to fix that for everybody,” says Lorna Herf, co-creator of the app f.lux. She and her husband have an app and a plan.
The revelations in this episode might be a wake-up call. You’ll sleep better after listening to this one.
If you liked this episode, why not subscribe to New Tech City on iTunes and follow us on Twitter.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello friend, this is an episode of Note to Self, but from when we used to be called New Text City. |
| 0:06.9 | Same good content, just the old name. Enjoy. |
| 0:11.0 | You're listening to New Text City, I'm your host, Manouche Summerodi, |
| 0:14.5 | and usually this show is about how technology is changing the way we live. |
| 0:19.0 | But this episode is about how tech has changed the way we sleep, or don't sleep. |
| 0:25.0 | Every time you get that hit of light, it's like taking a sip of espresso. |
| 0:28.0 | We'll show you how technology has interrupted and altered sleep through the ages. |
| 0:33.0 | It occurred in a very protracted, erratic way, as with other forms of biological change |
| 0:41.0 | during the industrial revolution. |
| 0:44.0 | You'll hear why we don't sleep like we used to. |
| 0:47.0 | We're living on an endless summer of light. |
| 0:50.0 | And you'll get some solutions to finding peace and feeling completely rested. |
| 0:55.0 | It made me wonder if any of us knows what it's really like to be awake. |
| 1:01.0 | Fully awake. |
| 1:07.0 | My personal goal every night, more or less, is to sleep straight through from around, I don't know, 10.30pm to like 6.30am. |
| 1:16.0 | But a solid night's sleep is so not how our bodies are actually programmed to work. |
| 1:23.0 | I'm a walking and breathing sleep laboratory. |
| 1:27.0 | Meet Roger E. Courtsch, a historian at Virginia Tech. |
| 1:31.0 | I go by my middle name, Roger. |
| 1:33.0 | E. Courtsch studies the way we sleep, and he's the author of a book called At Days Clothes, |
| 1:39.0 | which is about the history of what we do at night. |
| 1:42.0 | And he says that we used to, in the pre-industrial world, that world before electricity or gaslighting, |
... |
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