Sleep has become a global obsession. Activity trackers and smart watches, sleep and meditation apps, cannabis oil, adjustable mattresses, sleeping pills, turmeric milk, even robots that rock you to sleep – everything is being roped in to help with insomnia and poor sleep patterns.
I fall for each and every new pillow advert that promises me and my neck a peaceful night's sleep. Last time I checked, I had a butterfly pillow, a memory foam neck roll, a memory foam ‘cloud’, curved pillows, and several down pillows in various shapes and sizes. Alas.
But perhaps I shouldn't be seeking my salvation in pillows. Rather in my circadian rhythms or cycles, which include the timing of exposure to light, instead of just the number of hours you spend in dreamland.
A few years ago, published an article about the importance of sleep, in response to the fact that sleep had become such an enormously important trend in the wellness industry. People had become so obsessed with insomnia that it had led to orthosomnia, a condition in which a person's anxiety about and pursuit of optimal sleep was actually causing insomnia. Anyone who's had a sleepless night and has watched the seconds slowly ticking
