America’s Sleep Culture is Broken — and What We Can Do About It

We need to change our work culture’s hero-worshipping of ‘early to rise’

1 in 3 Americans don’t get enough sleep. Lack of sleep causes a myriad of health problems — and yet in the United States, work and education cultures keep rewarding those who pull all-nighters, wake up at the unnatural crack of down, and operate on 4–6 hours of sleep a night.

In education, schools are scheduled so early they impact student development. In work, employers sing the praises of those who start the day first. At parties, friends will talk about how little sleep they’re getting as a mark of resilience and value, while our entrepreneurs sell us how-to guides to maximize our sleep value by engaging in bizarre nocturnal rituals so we can work even more.

Certainly, in a world in which productivity is measured less and less by actually making physical things and more and more by creating value, the manageable measure of who is sleeping the least is a simple way to gauge who is working “hardest” — and is consequently the most valuable. As your co-worker strides in ten minutes after you, surely you occasionally feel a flutter of pride knowing you got there first. And as a student, doubtless, you rolled up to school bleary-eyed but feeling accomplished for having…