It goes without saying (recognizing I’m about to say it…) that sleep is important. Sleep is a basic requirement for life and is the cornerstone of physical and mental health, cognitive functioning, energy, motivation, you name it—our very existence depends on sleep.

We know that insufficient sleep is correlated with a number of very serious medical and mental health conditions, as well as performance degradation. This is especially important for those for whom peak cognition is important to us all (e.g., transportation workers, medical personnel, law enforcement, military, all of the other drivers on the road—you get the idea). As a descriptive example, sleep-deprived drivers are WORSE drivers than intoxicated drivers. Bottom line, sleep is important for all of us in maintaining health, and safely and effectively accomplishing our day-to-day activities.

Although adequate sleep keeps us functional, good sleep enables us to optimize both our physical and cognitive performance and increase our safety, effectiveness, and well-being. Elite athletes and other professionals are well aware of this and make........

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