On Sleep
Fleur Anderson
Top 10 Best Quotes
“It's been a long path to sleep recovery, including many short-lived 'fail-safe' soporifics like reading economics textbooks before bed, burning incense, wearing ear plugs and eye masks, installing block-out blinds and buying 'not-too-warm-but-not-too-cool' bedding. A daily dose of melatonin helps. But most critically, it's her realisation that no one can be 'on' all the time. 'Don't complain if you can't sleep' is no longer a career-ending threat. She's managing the hours, but now it's her heart that's calling the shots.”
“[US futurist and trans-humanism advocate Zoltan Istvan] argues libertarian science advocates are needed in today's political environment, warning that technology-centric risk-takers are required as a reaction against the rise of ultra-conservative religious ideologies that threaten to stifle not just advances in AI, driverless cars, stem cell research, drones and genetic editing, but also immigration, women's rights and the environment.”
“[US futurist and trans-humanism advocate Zoltan Istvan] argues libertarian cience advocates are needed in today's political environment, warning that technology-centric risk-takers are required as a reaction against the rise of ultra-conservative religious ideologies that threaten to stifle not just advances in AI, driverless cars, stem cell research, drones and genetic editing, but also immigration, women's rights and the environment. (p.112-3)”
“[Former Australian Prime Minister John Howard] would not schedule any Cabinet meetings in the evening because he'd previously observed as a minister that any meeting after dinner and a couple of glasses of wine was an 'inefficient use of time'. ... Predictable? Most of the time, yes. But in Howard's view, a regular timetable was also a courtesy, as much for other people's benefit as his own. For his security detail, younger men and women who often had children. For his staff, who regularly had to be reminded to take a lunchbreak. And also for his ministers, obliged to attend endless public functions.”
“[Former Australian Greens Leader] Bob Brown, who spent much of his political life lying awake at night worrying about the ecological destruction of the planet, immediately leaps on the idea of 'curing sleep'. 'We are going into terrifying technologies which define our role as human beings on a beautiful finite planet and as far as we know is the only one that has got anything like us,' he says. 'We are in an age of unbridled technology for profit, and as people are spendin billions of dollars to avoid looking old, we'll have people spending billions of dollars if an answer comes along to avoid sleeping.' We are mortal beings with natural fears about existence and mortality. Sleep, he says, is part of that mortality and of being human. Sleep should be honoured, just as we should respect that we live and then we die. 'It's a little bit like winter; it's a grounding period for the exuberance of life which follows. The next round.' he says.”
“Yet we need our elected representatives to remain connected to our everyday rhythms - of waking in the pale dawn to gently prod our children awake, the morning commute, the early evening conflict of a trip to the gym versus a wine or two, a late-night work email check, or the start of the late shift on a second job. Until technology intervenes to 'cure' our need for sleep, this is our life in the twenty-first century.”
“We expect our politicians and public figures to be just like us; that is, until they admit to being tired, run-down or - the very worst - bored. Perhaps it's a reflection of our nation's tall poppy syndrome, or maybe we simply want those who represent us to represent only the very best of us, not our day-to-day selves who also get tired or sick or cranky. None of us is perfect, but our representatives must be perfection personified: of unwavering good judgement and with a superhuman body and mind. They must also be capable of perfect restorative sleep, except when we demand them to work for us around the clock.”
“Unable to sleep and in despair, [former Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown] reflected on previous generations who had lain awake at the witching hour - the soldiers in trenches, the women in the pains of childbirth. He chastises himself for lying awake worrying about being tired the next day, for being anxious about his ability to perform in a maiden speech.”
“There's a lovely French phase to describe the regret of not saying the right thing at the right time: l'esprit de l'escalier - 'staircase wit', thinking of the reply too late, when we are already halfway down or up the staircase.”
“Some, like [Former Australian Greens Leader] Bob Brown, favour a greater overhaul of the political system, restricting sitting days to normal business hours, and compressing sitting weeks iinto longer blocks of time, allowing parliamentarians and their staff longer uninterrupted periods back in the electorate and at home with family. 'I think it would be better to have four or five full days a week and hav ethe evenings off - all of them,' Brown says. 'If peopel want to, they can have their party-room meetings and inevitable discussions after, but earlier, and have more sleep time at night.'”
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Book Keywords:
society, scientific-advancement, self-management, french-sayings, soporifics, mortality, career-pressure, insomnia, sleep-hygiene, l-esprit-de-l-escalier, techology, courtesy, government, working-hours, technology, sleep, public-expectations, humanity, modern-life, circadian-rhythms, the-witching-hour, schedule, parliamentary-schedules, public-figures, political-ideology, staircase-wit, innovation, political-representatives, routine, sleep-disturbance, human-nature
