You Don't Exist For One Third Of Your Life

The Rest Is Science

Goalhanger

Science, Physics, Mathematics

4.5 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 3 March 2026

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Humans have split the atom, we can stream movies from space and are working towards everlasting life.   So why in the world are we still spending a third of our lives unconscious? In this episode of The Rest Is Science, Hannah Fry and Michael Stevens ask a deceptively simple question: Can human beings cure sleep? Why do evolutionary forces cause us to lie helpless for eight hours a night when predators might lurk? Why can elephants survive on two hours but bats basically exist to nap? And what really happens inside human bodies when we try to cheat this essential system? From WWII amphetamines to witch trial torture tactics, fatal insomnia to the strange possibility that dreams are just your brain…shivering, this episode explores the biology, history, and weirdness of unconscious human sleep. ------------------- For more information about Cancer Research UK, their research, breakthroughs and how you can support them, visit ⁠⁠https://cancerresearchuk.org/restisscience⁠⁠ Cancer Research UK is a registered charity in England and Wales (1089464), Scotland (SC041666), the Isle of Man (1103) and Jersey (247). A company limited by guarantee. Registered company in England and Wales (4325234) and the Isle of Man (5713F). Registered address: 2 Redman Place, London, E20 1JQ. ------------------- Find The Rest Is Science all over the internet by ⁠⁠clicking here.⁠⁠ ------------------- Video Producer: Adam Thornton + Oli Oakley Video & Social: Bex Tyrrell Researcher: Sophia Constantinou Assistant Producer: Imee Marriott Senior Producer: Lauren Armstrong-Carter Head Of Digital: Samuel Oakley Exec Producer: Neil Fearn Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome to The Rest of Science. I'm Hannah Fry.
0:02.2	And I'm Michael Stevens.
0:03.3	I've got a big question for the world today. We live in an age of technological marvels where
0:10.3	it sort of feels like we've solved, you know, lots of humanity's problems.
0:15.4	Yeah. Both physically and biologically, okay? We've got medical breakthroughs as well.
0:20.4	Like smallpox? Never heard of it. I mean, I have, but I've never got it. And I probably won't ever get it. You know what I do still get? All of us still get? A case of the Z's.
0:33.0	Every day. Every day I get tired. I have to close my eyes and do nothing productive for eight hours.
0:40.6	It is such a waste of time. A third of your life, Michael. Hello, science. Can we fix this?
0:46.6	Get on it. Please. We're not asking today. We're demanding. We're demanding answers. We're demanding
0:52.7	solutions. Why haven't we cured sleep? Or, I guess,
0:55.5	to be more fair, why haven't we removed our need for sleep? Right. I think we can all agree
1:01.8	that sleep feels like a design flaw. You know, it's like I want to be maximally productive.
1:08.3	This is not the way I want to do it. Yeah. It feels like a design flaw when
1:12.1	looked at it from a certain angle, not only because it's unproductive, but it's also dangerous.
1:17.4	Okay. Imagine that we're prehistoric people. We sleep on the ground. Hello, we've got
1:22.7	predators. We've even got conflicts amongst ourselves with people in our group, people outside of our group.
1:28.5	We're just sitting ducks there.
1:30.3	Like, how does it make any sense?
1:31.8	Wouldn't it be better if we were just always on?
1:38.5	This episode is brought to you by Cancer Research UK.
1:41.9	The word cancer comes from the Greek carcinos, meaning crab, and Hippocrates
1:47.0	use that word because tumours can spread out like crab's legs. For a long time, cancer was poorly
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Goalhanger, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Goalhanger and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.