The Sleep Instinct
by Ray Meddis

‘The Sleep Instinct’ was first published over 30 years ago. It received mixed reviews. Many were intrigued by the new perspective on sleep; others found the attempt to overturn the ‘common sense’ view as simply laughable
Unfortunately, it had little impact on other sleep researchers who largely failed to address the arguments raised in the book. As a group, they all stuck to the mantra that ‘sleep is necessary for recovery’ without ever producing a clear specification of what was being recovered or why this recovery function was more important than the evolutionary benefits to be gained from an ‘activity scheduling system’
By reissuing this book in electronic form I hope to keep the new view of sleep alive long enough to be properly addressed by sleep scientists and to allow everyone to enjoy the thrill of a counter-intuitive scientific theory that my yet be true!