We've become a nation of walking zombies. The professor of psychology in Cornell's College of Arts and Sciences defines sleep debt as the difference between the hours of restorative rest people need for optimal physical and mental well-being and the number of hours they actually get. At any given time, the American sleep debt totals nearly half a billion hours or close to two hours every night for the average American. Any one of those sleep-debt zombies can kill you or hurt in other ways. A professor, sleep researcher, filmmaker and corporate speaker for more than 30 years, Maas has grown increasingly concerned about Americans' ignorance of a function we perform every day sleep.
Adequate sleep is just as important as nutrition and exercise.
REM sleep occurs about every 90 minutes, and the periods of REM sleep get longer as the night progresses. If you're a six-hour sleeper, you're missing that last, important opportunity to repair and to prepare for the coming day. For his part, a well-rested Maas steers alertly through a world of zombies. He would never think of scheduling his popular Psych 101 course which, at nearly 1,500 students per semester, is the largest live lecture class at any American college in the afternoon. And in return for the knowledge, Cornell students act as survey subjects.