Sleep thieves

by Stanley Coren

In this engrossing, expansive look at the facts and folklore of sleep, best-selling author Stanley Coren provides astounding new evidence that we are becoming an increasingly sleep-deprived society, and that this condition is seriously affecting our work, posing a danger to ourselves and others. He shows, for example, that the Exxon Valdez oil spill, the disaster involving the space shuttle Challenger, and the nuclear accidents at both Chernobyl and Three Mile Island were all associated with people suffering from sleep deprivation. Drawing on dramatic interviews with a range of professionals including doctors, airline pilots, stockbrokers, and truck drivers, Coren shows the risks that everyone now faces as more and more people in the workforce operate with insufficient sleep. He also looks at some of the more subtle and insidious effects of sleep loss on our physical and mental health and explains how to tell whether you are getting enough sleep. In addition Coren asks intriguing quest