Dangerously Sleepy

The number of workers experiencing sleep deprivation is rising. This is due to the fact that more and more people are working multiple jobs at night. Before the advent of working during the night, workers were typically portrayed as being lazy and stubborn for not working during the day, but now that many more people work at night, it is not uncommon to see sleep portrayed as a liability or a flaw while perpetual productivity and flexibility are lauded at the health and safety of workers. Alan Derickson is a historian that has been researching the long-standing link between overwork and sleep deprivation from the nineteenth century to now. He examines the cultural and political dynamics that have led to the overvaluation of wakefulness in the United States, as well as its masculinization.