I wonder why I don’t go to bed and go to sleep. But then it would be tomorrow, so I decide that no matter how tired, no matter how incoherent I am, I can skip one hour more of sleep and live. Sylvia Plath
I buried my head under the darkness of the pillow and pretended it was night. I couldn’t see the point of getting up. I had nothing to look forward to. Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar
Some people talk in their sleep. Lecturers talk while other people sleep. Albert Camus
In the old days, before I was married, or knew a lot of women, I would just pull down all the shades and go to bed for three or four days. I’d get up to shit. I’d eat a can of beans, go back to bed, just stay there for three or four days. Then I’d put on my clothes and I’d walk outside, and the sunlight was brilliant, and the sounds were great. I felt powerful, like a recharged battery. But you know the first bring-down? The first human face I saw on the sidewalk, I lost half my charge right there. Charles Bukowski, Sunlight Here I Am: Interviews and Encounters, 1963-1993
If you can’t sleep, then get up and do something instead of lying there and worrying. It’s the worry that gets you, not the loss of sleep. Dale Carnegie
The nicest thing for me is sleep, then at least I can dream. Marilyn Monroe
What means this heaviness that hangs upon me?
This lethargy that creeps through all my senses?
Nature, oppress’d and harrass’d out with care,
Sinks down to rest. Joseph Addison, Cato, A Tragedy V:1
What hath night to do with sleep? John Milton
The timely dew of sleep
Now falling with soft slumb’rous weight inclines
Our eyelids. John Milton, Paradise Lost IV:615
For his sleep
Was aery light, from pure digestion bred. ibid. V:3
‘Best we go off homeways and get a bit of spatchka,’ said Dim. Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange
He closed his eyes in the languor of sleep. His eyelids trembled as if they felt the vast cyclic movement of the earth and her watchers, trembled as if they felt the strange light of some new world. His soul was swooning into some new world, fantastic, dim, uncertain as under sea, traversed by cloudy shapes and beings. A world, a glimmer or a flower? Glimmering and trembling, trembling and unfolding, a breaking light, an opening flower, it spread in endless succession to itself, breaking in full crimson and unfolding and fading to palest rose, leaf by leaf and wave of light by wave of light, flooding all the heavens with its soft flushes, every flush deeper than the other. James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
‘But when I’m falling asleep it comes back to me.’ The Act of Killing ***** Sky Atlantic 2016
Regular sleep throughout our lifetime could lower our risk of developing the disease. Horizon: Curing Alzheimer’s, BBC 2016
We’re in the middle of a sleep crisis. A third of us regularly struggle with our sleep which rose to one in two during the pandemic. The highest it’s ever been. Horizon: How to Sleep Well with Michael Mosley, BBC 2022
Losing sleep for just one night prompted my immune system to move into overdrive. ibid.
In the UK over 5 million adults are believed to suffer from insomnia. ibid.
In the second half of the night there is a rebound effect – you have fragmented, lighter sleep … booze doesn’t really help you snooze. The Truth About Alcohol, BBC 2016
Our children are exhausted. It’s the new norm. Mobile devices have taken over many children’s lives and interfere with their sleep. But sleep deprivation has serious consequences. Panorama: Sleepless Britain, BBC 2017
Across the developed world children are sleeping less than previous generations. ibid.
103,426. Poor sleep jeopardises our children’s school performance and their long-term health. ibid.
Sleeping: We’re told we should spend a third of our lives doing it, but we don’t … a massive 70% of us feel we get less shut-eye than we need. Michael Mosley, The Truth About Sleep, BBC 2017
We are sleeping less, we are sleeping worse. ibid.
Insomnia is just one of the causes of sleep deprivation … It [alcohol] can cause interrupted sleep … A lack of sleep can also be extremely dangerous … ibid.
Sleeping pills – but are they a good solution? Over fifteen million prescriptions are issued every year. ibid.
A sleep epidemic has swept over Kalachi but the cause of it is yet unknown’ … ‘For two years since the first case was recorded, people of various ages have been fainting and then sleeping for several days. Sleepy Hollow: Unsolved Mystery of Slumbering Village, radio news, RT 2014
Sleepy valley, sleepy hollow: that’s what people call us. ibid. resident
In Soviet times the village was deemed top secret due to uranium mining. The mines were closed in 1980. ibid. caption
In one hour eight kids fell asleep. ibid. resident
Some people slept for a whole week. ibid.
Maybe it’s the heavy metals reacting with one another. ibid.
He’s [son] diagnosed with toxic encephalopathy. The doctor said the brain oedema is very slight and not dangerous at all. ibid.
The symptoms suggest it’s radon. ibid. resident
I’ve always loathed the necessity of sleep. It’s like death: it puts even the most powerful men on their backs. House of Cards s2e10: Chapter 23, Frank, Netflix 2014
The average Brit sleeps just six and a half hours a night. And many of us get far less. As a nation we’re exhausted. Our busy lives, our addiction to caffeine, technology, are all taking their toll. Going without sleep is bad for our bodies. It can be frightening. And it can ruin our lives. Why Can’t We Sleep? ITV 2019
Memory problems, diabetes, heart disease and even strokes: it can be seriously dangerous. ibid.
Britain is in the midst of a sleep crisis. On average we sleep two hours less a night than we did fifty years ago. Due to our busy lifestyles most of us don’t know if we’re suffering from a sleep problem or if we’re just plain tired. The Science of Sleep: How to Sleep Better I, Channel 5 2019
‘Poor sleep has been linked to obesity, type 2 diabetes and higher blood pressure.’ ibid. doctor
Snoring affects thirty million people in the UK. ibid.
It’s estimated that nearly four million of us suffer from sleep apnoea. ibid.
We discover the shocking link between lack of sleep and obesity. ibid.
70% of us say we just don’t get enough sleep. The Science of Sleep: How to Sleep Better II
Poor sleep plays havoc with our emotions. ibid.
Restless Leg Syndrome: it’s one of the UK’s top sleep complaints. ibid.
Some use the weekends to binge-sleep. ibid.
Insomnia is the most common sleep problem in the UK, affecting over one third of the population. ibid.
Sleep; and if life was bitter to thee, pardon,
If sweet, give thanks; thou hast no more to live;
And to give thanks is good, and to forgive. Algernon Charles Swinburne, Ave atque Vale
Is it a cover-up in Kazakhstan? Why are these central Asian villagers unable to stay awake? … A mysterious sleeping sickness strikes a Kazakhstan village … Conspiracies Decoded s1e7, Discovery 2022
Is Britain in the middle of a sleep crisis? What’s keeping us awake? And what’s sleep deprivation doing to the British economy? Tonight: Sleep Better Live Well, ITV 2023
In Britain today many of us are sleeping badly. Sleep disorders are on the rise. ibid.