And Edison, he explains, started the trouble. Edison did not perfect and commercialize the electric light bulb for simple engineering or business motives. That's 500 hours per person per year. Progress, we agree, stifling a yawn. Not so fast, says Coren, and begins an intriguing summary of sleep research results over the past 30 years.
Every creature sleeps.
Is this some mistake of evolution, Coren asks. Rats, when deprived of all sleep, die. As near as researchers can tell, their immune systems shut down and they are consumed by normally benign microbes. Scattered through the book are interviews, most anonymous, with pilots, power plant operators, truck drivers, and physicians. But being a scientist, Coren wants more.