2024 update: Please note that as of 2024, I aim to sleep 7-8 hours most of the nights. Summary: In this essay, I question some of the consensus beliefs about sleep, such as the need for at least 7 hours of sleep for adults, harmfulness of acute sleep deprivation, and harmfulness of long-term sleep deprivation and our inability to adapt to it. It appears that the evidence for all of these beliefs is much weaker than sleep scientists and public health experts want us to believe. In particular, ...
