The Slumbering Masses: Sleep, Medicine, and Modern American Life (A Quadrant Book)

306 Pages·2012·2.149 MB·English

by  Wolf-Meyer, Matthew J

THE
SLUMBERING
MASSES
The publication of this book was assisted by
a bequest from Josiah H. Chase to honor his parents,
Ellen Rankin Chase and Josiah Hook Chase,
Minnesota territorial pioneers.
THE
SLUMBERING
MASSES
Sleep, Medicine, and
Modern American Life
Matthew J. Wolf-Meyer
a quadrant book
University of Minnesota Press
Minneapolis
London
Quadrant, a joint initiative of the University of Minnesota Press and the Institute for
Advanced Study at the University of Minnesota, provides support for interdisciplinary
scholarship within a new, more collaborative model of research and publication.
Sponsored by Quadrant’s Health and Society group (advisory board: Susan Craddock, Jennifer Gunn,
Alex Rothman, and Karen-Sue Taussig).
http://www.quadrant.umn.edu
An earlier version of chapter  was published as “The Nature of Sleep,” Comparative
Studies in Society and History , no.  (): –; copyright  Society for the
Comparative Study of Society and History; reprinted with permission of Cambridge
University Press. An earlier version of chapter  was published as “Sleep, Signification,
and the Abstract Body of Allopathic Medicine,” Body and Society , no.  (December
): –. Earlier versions of chapters  and  were published as “Precipitating
Pharmakologies and Capital Entrapments: Narcolepsy and the Strange Cases of Provigil
and Xyrem,” Medical Anthropology , no.  (February ): –; reprinted by
permission of Taylor and Francis, Ltd. An earlier version of chapter  was published
as “Fantasies of Extremes: Sports, War, and the Science of Sleep,” Biosocieties , no. 
(August ): –.
Copyright  by the Regents of the University of Minnesota
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photo-
copying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Published by the University of Minnesota Press
 Third Avenue South, Suite 
Minneapolis, MN -
http://www.upress.umn.edu
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wolf-Meyer, Matthew J.
The slumbering masses : sleep, medicine, and modern American life / Matthew J.
Wolf-Meyer.
(A Quadrant book)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN ---- (hc : alk. paper)
ISBN ---- (pb : alk. paper)
. Lifestyles—United States. . Sleepwalking—United States. . Sleep
disorders—United States. I. Title.
HQ.UW 
.'—dc

Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
The University of Minnesota is an equal-opportunity educator and employer.
                  
For my parents, Melanie and Robert,
who endured many years of my wayward sleep
This page intentionally left blank
CONTENTS
..................
abbreviations ix
preface Sleep at the Turn of the Twenty-first Century xi
introduction From the Lone Sleeper to the
Slumbering Masses 1
I. SLEEPING, PAST AND PRESENT
1. The Rise of American Sleep Medicine 27
Diagnosing and Misdiagnosing Sleep
2.The Protestant Origins of American Sleep 51
3.Sleeping and Not Sleeping in the Clinic 79
How Medicine Is Remaking Biology and Society
II. CULTURES OF SLEEP
4.Desiring a Good Night’s Sleep 99
Order and Disorder in Everyday Life
5. Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep 129
Children’s Sleep and the Rise of the Solitary Sleeper
6. Pharmaceuticals and the Making of Modern Bodies
and Rhythms 145
7. Early to Rise 159
Creating Well-Rested American Workers
8.Chemical Consciousness 171
9. Sleeping on the Job 181
From Siestas to Workplace Naps
10. Take Back Your Time 191
Activism and Overworked Americans
III. THE LIMITS OF SLEEP
11. Unconscious Criminality 203
Sleepwalking Murders, Drowsy Driving, and the
Vigilance of the Law
12.The Extremes of Sleep 225
War, Sports, and Science
conclusion The Futures of Sleep 243
acknowledgments 263
notes 265
index 285
ABBREVIATIONS
..................
AAP American Academy of Pediatrics
ASPS advanced sleep phase syndrome
BiPAP bilevel positive airway pressure
CAP Continuous Assisted Performance project
CAREI Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement
CPAP continuous positive airway pressure
CPSC U.S. Consumer Protection Safety Commission
DARPA Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
DSPS delayed sleep phase syndrome
ES excessive sleepiness
FFI fatal familial insomnia
GHB gamma hydroxybutyric acid
HCMC Hennepin County Medical Center
KLS Kleine-Levin syndrome
MCMC Mississippi County Medical Center
MSDC Midwest Sleep Disorders Clinic
NIH National Institutes of Health
NREM non-REM sleep
NSF National Sleep Foundation
OSA obstructive sleep apnea
RBD rapid eye movement behavior disorder
REM rapid eye movement
RLS restless legs syndrome
SIDS sudden infant death syndrome
SRED sleep-related eating disorder
SWSD shift work sleep disorder
TBYT Take Back Your Time movement
ix