Article Club: Why do we *actually* sleep?
04/09/25 • 33 min
This week we were pretty flabbergasted to learn that we don't *actually* know why humans sleep. Sure, scientists get that it helps us rest and repair our bodies but they are majorly in the dark about what drives our brains (or jellyfish brains, yes! they sleep!) to get those Zzzzzs. In Veronique Greenwood's piece in The Atlantic, Why Do We Need To Sleep?, she makes a trip to a fancy new sleep lab in Japan where they're trying to tease out everything from sleep pressure to brain scrubbers. We dig into it all (and whether or not you should just add a vibrator to your face mask).
This week we were pretty flabbergasted to learn that we don't *actually* know why humans sleep. Sure, scientists get that it helps us rest and repair our bodies but they are majorly in the dark about what drives our brains (or jellyfish brains, yes! they sleep!) to get those Zzzzzs. In Veronique Greenwood's piece in The Atlantic, Why Do We Need To Sleep?, she makes a trip to a fancy new sleep lab in Japan where they're trying to tease out everything from sleep pressure to brain scrubbers. We dig into it all (and whether or not you should just add a vibrator to your face mask).
Previous Episode
Article Club: Does anyone really know you?
This week on Article Club we ask the very light, very nbd question: “Does anyone really know you?” Joshua Rothman’s article in the New Yorker (check it out here) digs into the layers of identity and how we see ourselves and others. Will anyone ever understand us completely? Is that ok? We talk about how being unknown––aka anonymous at weddings or on first dates––can be pretty powerful orrrr lead to an itty bitty white lie habit.
Here's an extra handy link to the New Yorker article we discuss: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/open-questions/does-anyone-really-know-you
What’s blowing up the group chat?
Every Article Club episode ends with a group chat scan. Here’s what’s getting hearted or “Ha Ha-ed” this week:
- Husbands and boyfriends are turning into Horny Dorks. Help!
- Pliability is the stretching app keeping our creaky ol’ bods limber.
As always you can find Article Club on
- Substack
- Instagram (we are millennials after all)
- Tiktok (we are trying to transcend our millennial-hood after all)
Article outtakes
We consider a few articles to talk about each week. Here are a few we didn’t chat about but we think you’d like!
If you like this episode you’ll love
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