There is not a pilot in the world that doesn't need to read this book.
Or driver, or . . . there is no one really, that should not be aware.
These days it's uncommon for me to get overexcited about scientific findings, but when my son caused this to land on my mat at Christmas I thought, yeh, that should get me to sleep.
Matthew Walker's, Why We Sleep is an . . . eye opener. Far from being soporific in its own right, the book had me on the edge of my chair turning pages in disbelief. Oh sure, I knew some of the science but this world authority takes us into realms that are gut-wrenchingly familiar to pilots and then out the other side into a surreal land.
There are so many 'I need to post this' statements that frankly I'd post a quarter of the book, but the studies that reveal an exponential rise in danger with reduced sleep are nothing short of alarming.
This is serious science but nonetheless often difficult to believe - but believe it we should; the reader will be left in no doubt about the credentials of the scientists and universities involved in the decades long research.
With an aviation connection, there is an amusing section about David Dinges and Dr Mark Rosekind. It seems they suggested names like 'prophylactic naps' to the FAA but it was deemed ripe for snide jokes. It was the latter that put forward the term, 'Power Nap'. Quote: More fitting with leadership and dominance based job-positions. Unquote. One thing is for sure, those gentlemen certainly got the FAA's attention back then.
Some of the stories are heartbreaking. Some, in particular the big name drug companies who make bewildering profits from sleeping tablets, are a description of a cancer in the side of humanity. When I say bewildering, I mean reading, and rereading, and rereading the lines describing their profits . . . and the number of people who die as the result of not being fit to drive the morning after their use.
The number of people that die in north America due to tiredness exceeds both intoxication and drug use combined. Need I go on?
There is one immutable fact drawn from this WHO-backed research. Humans need 7-9 hours sleep to avoid not only immediate danger but also a slew of serious long term health effects. The chances of you being one of the people that only need ~6 hours is less than your chances of being struck by lightning. And I don't mean the airframe we're in. Maggie Thatcher was of course a different species.