The great history of sleep part 4: Starting to understand the importance

From the awareness on the job to the speed of your eye-movement

Photo by Jan Canty on Unsplash

1926

“The big American company Ford became the first company to present an eight-hour work day, and the 40-hour work week.”

With today’s renewed enthusiasm for sleep, a 40-hour work week remains an elusive goal for many. Even as sleep came to be devalued, our fascination with dreams, what they mean and their purpose is continued.

Dreams were increasingly decoupled from religion, but on the other hand still considered vital to our makeup as individuals and to our inner lives.

1929

Hans Berger,

He Gave early descriptions of the differences between brain wave patterns in awake and sleeping human beings. They served to further fix the notion of sleep as an “inactive” or “idle” state.

1930

Unbelievable amounts of sleeping pills were then thought of being swallowed each year in the U.S. Brand names changed, meanwhile the popularity of sleeping pills was only increasing.

At this moment we came near the end of what seems to be…