There is currently a global epidemic that has gained alarming levels of concern, with far-reaching consequences that many are entirely unaware of. I am not talking about climate change, the current economic crisis or the military struggles splashed across the news today. This pandemic resides a little closer to home, intimately entwined in our lives, and happens in our own beds, our own bodies. The monster’s name is sleep deprivation.In recent years the World Health Organization has declared a sleep loss epidemic throughout the westernized world. Two-thirds of all adults, spanning all developed nations, fail to secure the recommended eight hours of sleep at night. Chronic sleep loss not only makes you overtired, but it can ultimately lead to a whole slew of life-threatening diseases, many of which scientific studies are only just now uncovering, including the increased risk of premature mortality.

Matthew Walker’s bookWhy We Sleep, (a…