This book critically evaluates the popular notionthat today’s society is suffering from ‘sleep debt’, or what Horne calls‘societal insomnia’ - an apparent chronic loss of sleep, which can lead toobesity and related physical and mental disorders including heart disease.

It presents evidence which suggests thatsleep debt has not in fact worsened to any marked extent over the last hundredor so years, by looking back at some historical writings on sleeplessness andintegrating the findings with, evidence-based research that he has undertakenover the last decade.

Written in a concise andunderstandable way, and interwoven with real-world insights, the book will beuseful to academic and students of cognitive, critical and social psychology,neuroscience and sociology, as well as anyone who is interested in the socialand psychological implications of sleep and sleeplessness.