Listen Live
Donate
 on air
    Schedule

    KCRW

    Read & Explore

    • News
    • Entertainment
    • Food
    • Culture
    • Events

    Listen

    • Live Radio
    • Music
    • Podcasts
    • Full Schedule

    Information

    • About
    • Careers
    • Help / FAQ
    • Newsletters
    • Contact

    Support

    • Become a Member
    • Become a VIP
    • Ways to Give
    • Shop
    • Member Perks

    Become a Member

    Donate to KCRW to support this cultural hub for music discovery, in-depth journalism, community storytelling, and free events. You'll become a KCRW Member and get a year of exclusive benefits.

    DonateGive Monthly

    Copyright 2026 KCRW. All rights reserved.

    Report a Bug|Privacy Policy|Terms of Service|
    Cookie Policy
    |FCC Public Files|

    Back to Press Play with Madeleine Brand

    Press Play with Madeleine Brand

    Why sleeping alone may be keeping you up at night

    You’ve heard the rules for being rested: Get 7 to 8 hours of sleep, limit caffeine, have a bedtime routine, turn off your devices. But many still struggle. The Centers for Disease Control says that more than 50 million American adults have a sleep disorder.

    • rss
    • Share
    By Madeleine Brand • May 8, 2017 • 1 min read

    You’ve heard the rules for being rested: Get 7 to 8 hours of sleep, limit caffeine, have a bedtime routine, turn off your devices. But many still struggle. The Centers for Disease Control says that more than 50 million American adults have a sleep disorder. A new book about the history of sleep found that two centuries ago, things were completely different. Sleep was social, and people dozed in two 4-hour chunks rather than a straight 8-hour shot through the night.

    Benjamin Reiss is author of the new book “Wild Nights: How Taming Sleep Created Our Restless World.” (Photo by Gretchen Connell)

    • https://images.ctfassets.net/2658fe8gbo8o/AvYox6VuEgcxpd20Xo9d3/769bca4fbf97bf022190f4813812c1e2/new-default.jpg?h=250

      Madeleine Brand

      Host, 'Press Play'

    • KCRW placeholder

      Sarah Sweeney

      Vice President of Talk Programming, KCRW

    • KCRW placeholder

      Michell Eloy

      Line Editor, Press Play

    • https://images.ctfassets.net/2658fe8gbo8o/AvYox6VuEgcxpd20Xo9d3/769bca4fbf97bf022190f4813812c1e2/new-default.jpg?h=250

      Amy Ta

      Digital News & Culture Editor

    • KCRW placeholder

      Benjamin Reiss

      Emory University; author, “Wild Nights: How Taming Sleep Created Our Restless World”

      News
    Back to Press Play with Madeleine Brand