We waste roughly 1/3 of our lives sleeping. This puts sleep right up there along with global warming, hostile AI risk, and global poverty as one of the world's big problems. From what I can tell very little is being done about it. Drugs such as modafinil can cut the need for sleep from 8 hours a day to 2.5 hours with apparently few side effects.
If people historically never slept, but then suddenly everyone started needing to sleep, this would be seen as the huge problem that it is, but because sleep is part of the status quo the problem is largely ignored.
This is not a recommendation to go out and consume modafinil, rather it is a plea for more research on sleep.
| Project | Cost | Real world outcome | Outcome estimates | Economic value in Western terms |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Modafinil | $100/year | reduce sleep from 8 to 2.5 hours a day | When purchased in bulk modafinil costs around $0.30 per 200mg, or $100/year; valuing a year of normal life at $90k and assigning no value to time spent sleeping gives (8 - 2.5) / (24 - 8) * $90k = $30k as the value of the increased economic productivity and leisure time of an individual consuming modafinil | $30k/year |
300