Our obsession with sleep is doing more harm than good – and ignores the real problem

‘The real story of sleep is not one of personal responsibility, but of social and economic privilege.’ Photograph: amenic181/Getty Images/iStockphoto

Do you have a strict bedtime? A sunrise-mimicking alarm clock? A vial of “sleep oil”? A white noise machine? A ban on screens past 10pm?

We are, as a culture, obsessed with sleep. Not getting enough, not having the right kind; even sleeping too much. Study after study piles up to warn us that any of the above will give us cancer or dementia. And this week, a new punishment for failing to sleep well has appeared, in the form of the “sleepalyser” (not, admittedly, the official term): blood tests administered after a road accident in order to determine if you were under the “sleep limit”.