When people ask what I study, I explain that my work is at the intersection of sleep science and public policy.
Simple answer: “Really? I never thought I’d sleep like this.”
Many consider sleep to be a matter of personal responsibility
But my work and that of many others over the past two decades has shown that the biggest threats to healthy sleep don’t stop at humans. They are embedded in the policies we live by.
A friend of mine who is a professional cyclist recently shared an incident from the Tour de France that illustrates this point perfectly.
A few hours before the 15th stage, two-time Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard woke up at 2:00 am By International Testing Agency (ITA) officials for random anti-doping testing. The ordeal reportedly lasted about 40 minutes, and Vingegaard later said he needed extra time to fall asleep.
As a sleep scientist, this was no surprise. Waking up in the middle of the night, getting dressed, leaving the room, and providing a biological sample will not help you fall asleep quickly. It is this disruption that makes it difficult to return to restorative sleep.
during competition later that day, Vingegaard crashed, breaking his collarbone and ending his journey.
Did broken sleep cause the crash?
Of course we can’t say that. Bicycle accidents happen for many reasons. But as a sleep scientist, I think this raises an important question: What does decades of research show that routine anti-doping testing at 2:00 a.m. does? attention, decision makingand movement coordination?
Why might we knowingly disrupt one of the most fundamental biological contributors to performance?
And why should we do it in the context of one of the most physical and cognitive sporting events in the world?
Sleep is non-negotiable. It is one of the most powerful recovery tools for athletes. Even one night of disrupted sleep slows reaction time, impairs concentration, impairs judgment, and reduces coordination. These are exactly the tasks that elite athletes depend on. In a sport like cycling, where split-second decisions can determine both performance and safety, these gaps are extremely important.
None of this is an argument against anti-doping tests. Fair competition depends on it. But protecting clean sports shouldn’t come at the expense of healthy sleep. A good policy should protect both.
How sleep is discounted in public policy
This story resonated with me because it seemed like another example of how easy it is to fall asleep when it comes to public policy.
In fact, Congress passed the Sun Protection Act last week, despite warnings from sleep and circadian scientists that permanent daylight saving time is at odds with human biology.
At first glance, these two phenomena seem completely unrelated. One of them includes elite cyclists. The second concerns our biological clocks.
But they share a common assumption: sleep is somehow negotiable.
It is not.
Are we talking about elite athletes, teenagers Whether it’s starting school before sunrise, doctors working night shifts, or U.S. citizens forced to wake up in the dead of night in winter due to permanent daylight savings time, the lesson is the same: Policies that ignore sleep ignore biology.
And biology always wins.
Sleep is not a luxury. It’s not just downtime. It is a biological necessity and a duty to work. This is how our politics begin to treat it.
