America Hates Sleep

[packbat]

Yesterday, I was reading about Ramsey Clark in Esquire online. The article is pretty good, but this paragraph struck me:

When it's over, he walks in his slow, steady pace down to the cab. He's been going all day, on a couple hours sleep, barely even eating, but he shows no sign of it. "That was worthwhile," he says.

Reading that, afterwards, I realized that I'd seen this implicit admiration for people who don't sleep elsewhere. John Grisham's "The Firm". Every story about every startup I've ever heard told. Even my advisor, when he was telling me to work harder. I've never even seen a biography say, "He slept eight hours a day".

What is wrong with this place? Studies show that having enough sleep is explicitly tied to all sorts of benefits. Why, then, are the public role models people who barely go to bed?

Comments

[packbat.livejournal.com]

Ah, hello!

I have to ask, though – how much more work can you do merely by not sleeping? There's more time available, true, but there's also all the negative effects of sleep deprivation.

I guess people do tend to admire determination, even when it is self-destructive to some extent. That's probably the explanation.