Lights Out: How Sleep Can Save Your Life - Tapa blanda

Forget sugar, salt, and fat—the real culprit behind the rise of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and depression is the lowly lightbulb. Revised and updated with the latest research on chronobiology, the microbiome, epigenetics, and inflammation, Lights Out is a trailblazing look at how staying awake is making us sick.

First published fifteen years ago, Lights Out delivers a staggering message: Americans are literally dying for a good night’s sleep. Research conducted in the years since first publication has only further proven that seasonally appropriate cycles of eating and circadian sleeping are the cornerstones of good health. In her trademark style that combines dark humor and dazzling insight, T.S. Wiley pulls together the most current research to create a terrifying portrait of a population that won’t turn out the lights—with disastrous consequences.

When we rely on artificial light to extend our day until 11 p.m., midnight, and beyond, we fool our bodies into living in a state of eternal summer—and destroy the delicate balance that keeps us in optimum health. These embedded biological rhythms rule the hormones and neurotransmitters that determine appetite, fertility, and mental and physical health. Sleep science tells us that our own survival instinct, honed over millennia, is paradoxically killing us.

This new edition of Lights Out not only elucidates why and how our endless days hurt us, but offers a new template for living in sync with nature despite all our modern conveniences and distractions, including travel, workdays that never end, and smartphones. This is one wake-up call none of us can afford to miss.

T.S. Wiley and Bent Formby, Ph.D., are researchers who worked together at the Sansum Medical Research Institute at Santa Barbara, California, the site of cutting-edge diabetes research since insulin was first synthesized there in the 1920s. T.S. Wiley is an anthropologist and medical theorist with a background in investigative journalism, currently working in medical research with a special interest in endocrinology/evolutionary biology. Bent Formby holds doctorates in biochemistry, biophysics, and molecular biology. Their research has been presented at national and international medical conferences and in scientific journals.