Reality Check
The Future of Sleep
While medical science has answered many questions, sleep remains a biological mystery. Why, for example, is shut-eye one of life's necessities? Even though our bodies may shut down for the sandman's visits, our minds remain in gear as the subconscious plays movie director. To learn more about what happens when we nod off, scientists at sleep labs around the country watch their volunteers snooze. But according to the National Sleep Foundation, researchers still know more about what happens when we don't rest than when we do. Wired asked four experts to close their eyes and think about the future of sleep. Morning breath, however, is a personal problem.
| Real Cure for Snoring and Apnea | Electronic Dream Inducer | Effective Nonaddictive Sleeping Pill | Elimination of Need for Sleep
| Giguere | 2001 | unlikely | 2001 | unlikely
| Mahowald | 2006 | unlikely | 1996 | unlikely
| White | 2020 | 2020 | 2010 | unlikely
| Wilkerson | 1997 | 2016 | unlikely | unlikely
| Bottom Line | 2006 | unlikely | 2005 | unlikely
For many people, snoring is more than just an annoyance. Sawing logs may be a sign of apnea – a potentially dangerous syndrome in which the throat becomes so relaxed that the airway narrows, making it difficult to breathe. Treatments – such as using air pressure to keep the windpipes open – are available, though White believes that surgical procedures, electrical stimulators of pharyngeal muscles, or pharmacological innovations may lead to more effective "cures" within the next quarter century. On the other hand, Mahowald points out that "snoring and obstructed breathing represent complicated phenomena, and it's unlikely we'll ever find a permanent cure for all varieties." In other words, keep those earplugs handy, and if your partner has continuing difficulty getting a good night's sleep, be worried, not angry.
Daydreaming may provide mental escape from boring meetings, but it certainly doesn't compare to a dose of real REM sleep. Is it possible to enter a true dream state without hitting the sack? White says injecting small quantities of a neurotransmitter into animal brains can induce REM sleep, so perhaps an electronic dream inducer may "not be far-fetched." Wilkerson points to the revival of a turn of the century "dream machine" that strobes lights in the user's eyes, but claiming it's effective "is like saying that an audiotape of a roller coaster is like being there." Giguere believes that "a much better goal is to sleep at will and consciously dream what you want to dream."
Don't get caught up in the melatonin hype just yet. Most of our experts agree that a truly safe and effective yet nonaddictive sleeping pill is still a few years away. But White believes that it's important for the public to understand the meaning of nonaddictive. "If one has difficulty sleeping, takes a pill that improves this, and the problem returns once the pill is stopped, this does not necessarily indicate addiction," he says. Giguere expects that "one sleeping pill will never be appropriate for everyone," but that highly personalized and effective concoctions will become available within the next few years. Meanwhile, Mahowald touts the virtues of the sleeping pill Zolpidem, with the caveat that it's effective and nonaddictive "as best we know right now."
Most of us spend one-third of our lives asleep, and our experts don't see any way out. Sleeping is an extremely complex neurobiological process that is difficult even for scientists to understand. "Trying to eliminate the need for sleep is similar to trying to eliminate the need to eat," Mahowald says. Giguere thinks that once people get better at lucid dreaming, though, they will be able to work on projects, rehearse daytime activities, and have incredible sex during the night. Then "sleep time will no longer feel like down time." The other side to that, Wilkerson fears, is that "the boss will have me working all through the night."
Brenda Cox Giguere writer and researcher at the Lucidity Institute, Palo Alto, California
Mark Mahowald director of the Minnesota Regional Sleep Disorders Center at Hennepin County Medical Center, Minneapolis; former board member of National Sleep Foundation
David P. White associate professor at Harvard Medical School; director of the Clinical Sleep Program at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston
Richard C. Wilkerson editor of Electric Dreams; director of DreamGate
