The Editor's Letter From The March 2014 Issue Of Popular Science Magazine
In Defense Of Sleep Marius Bugge On December 1 of last year at around 7:20 a.m., a speeding commuter train bound for New York City careened off its tracks, killing four and injuring 59. Popular Science is based in New York, so for us the accident was particularly scary, and we all waited eagerly for an explanation. An investigation soon revealed that the train had approached a sharp bend in the track at 80 mph, nearly three times the advised speed. And then an all too familiar detail emerged: The engineer had nodded off at the controls. Of the body’s primary functions, sleep is the one we most often take for granted. On average, Americans sleep about an hour less than they used to in the 1940s, and 43 percent say they’re routinely under-slept. We get up a little earlier,...