long held this hope, more recently held this belief
In 1942, the average American slept 8 hours a night. Today it's 6.8 and falling.
Modern life is incompatible with 8 hrs in bed.
But what if we could compress sleep? We already know it's biologically possible.
There are families carrying mutations in DEC2, ADRB1, and NPSR1 that sleep 5 hours a night and seem to do fine on it.
They're leaner, happier, and don't get jet lag. Mouse models with these mutations show less Alzheimer's pathology.
They've effectively compressed the window they need for restorative sleep.
Over an 80-year life, compressing sleep from 8 hours to 5 gives you back a decade of waking life. Get to 4, and it's over 13 years.
That's potentially an extra decade (or more) of consciousness.
Ozempic started as a diabetes drug and turned into something much bigger.
The same kind of opportunity exists in sleep.