Can you buy a better night’s sleep?

The pandemic and the resulting lockdowns have changed our work patterns and made us more sedentary.

Sleep was always neglected but apart from insomniacs and people having sleep disorders, not many talked about getting better sleep earlier, as it was considered a necessary activity constantly disturbing their life (partying, watching Netflix etc.)

Apart from a few herbs, exercise, and nutritional changes, most sleep-related products are not backed by scientific research. Many people who cannot sleep become dysfunctional as their body triggers alarms, and start to panic. They become gullible to buy anything that the market offers promising better sleep.

Going to bed early without engaging with the phone or TV screens at night, for example, is an effective measure to ensure quality sleep, then buying cooling mattress pads or humidifiers.

Humans didn’t need lotions, apps or even mattresses for millions of years, and yet they slept naturally. Nutrition and exercise, the two other pillars of health, are also milked by capitalism into billion-dollar industries for stuff we can do by ourselves naturally and with zero investment.

We need to treat the underlying causes of non-sleep and make our body and our environment conducive to it. The sleeping area should be quiet, dark, cool and comfortable. The mind should be quiet and the body relaxed.