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Sleep

State of the art: Sleep

Jim Horne discusses the latest research on sleep, dreaming and sleep deprivation.

18 June 2001

FOR me, one of the greatest mysteries of sleep is why so few psychologists seem to be interested in the subject. Sleep occupies so much of our time that it is arguably the commonest form of human behaviour, and it is associated with one of the most frequent complaints brought to the GP: also well within the repertoire of the psychologist. Loss of sleep is linked with some of the worst man-made disasters or near disasters, is a major cause of road traffic death and, every year, involves countless millions of pounds of product sales to avoid it. For most of us the explanation for sleep is simple and pragmatic – oblivion.

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