a man sleeping in bed under a floral blanket surrounded by walls with floral wallpaper

While We Sleep, Our Mind Goes on an Amazing Journey

Our floodlit society has made sleep deprivation a lifestyle. But we know more than ever about how we rest—and how it keeps us healthy.

Joe Diemand, 76, has spent the past 20 years as a truck driver, sometimes driving all night. Such work, he says, leaves you “so tired that you can’t sleep.” The World Health Organization has described night shift work as “probably carcinogenic to humans.
This story appears in the August 2018 issue of National Geographic magazine.
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