私たちは生涯の3分の1を眠って過ごします。睡眠はなぜ必要で何時間必要なのか。眠らなかったらどうなるか。…これらの疑問に明快な答えを提供する一冊です。睡眠とは一体何なのか、生涯における睡眠の変化や睡眠障害の原因とそれがもたらす弊害など、生活時間が24時間化した現代社会における睡眠の役割を、生理学的、心理学的観点から考察します。
  

• Answers all of the pertinent questions - what is sleep? why do we need sleep? how much sleep is enough? what happens when we don't get enough sleep?
• Explores sleep changes in relation to pregnancy, newborns, children, adolescents, middle age and menopause, old age, and dementia
• Considers the impact of out modern 24/7 society on our sleep and its patterns
• Looks at some of the major sleep disorders

  
Why do we need sleep? How much sleep is enough? What is sleep? What happens when we don't get enough? 
  
We spend about a third of our lives asleep - it plays a crucial role in our health and wellbeing. References to sleep abound in literature and art, and sleep has been recognized as fundamental to the human condition for thousands of years. Over the past century, our knowledge of how sleep occurs, what it does, and what happens to our health if we do not have enough has developed hugely. The impact of poor sleep on our quality of life is also gaining recognition and the prevalence of sleep disorders in the population appears to be increasing as we live ever stressful lives.
  
This Very Short Introduction addresses the biological and psychological aspects of sleep, providing a basic understanding of what sleep is and how it is measured, looking at sleep through the human lifespan and the causes and consequences of major sleep disorders. Russell G. Foster and Steven W. Lockley go on to consider the impact of modern society, examining the relationship between sleep and work hours, and the impact of our 24/7 society.