Introduction: Sleep

After thousands of years of civilization, all of the breakthroughs that we have had in science, and scientists still cannot agree on why we sleep, and exactly what it does for us. You can ask ten different people how much sleep they get a night, or how much sleep they should get a night and you can probably get ten different responses. There are numerous studies on the subject, and there is a huge misunderstanding as to what each study means. When I look at a study, I try to dig deeper and see what is the real conclusion. Being a mathematical person, I usually look into the numbers to see if a study is large enough to account for statistical anomalies. The next thing I do is try to figure out if a proper scientific method is used to show cause and effect. Many studies take data and throw the numbers together, to see what the correlation is, neglecting to come up with a reason. Once I find a study that meets these criteria, it amazes me that people do not try to do what is recommended. Sleep, for example, is such a seemingly simple topic. Almost any study will show you that you need 6-9 hours of quality sleep per night, but then there is a wild discrepancy as to what will happen if you do not stay within those guidelines for prolonged periods of time. Most Americans neglect these basic standards.