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The political weaponisation of sleep
Tireless dynamism has been fetishised by the likes of Donald Trump and Sanae Takaichi.
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US President Donald Trump appeared to be fighting sleep during a Cabinet meeting in December, closing his eyes and at times seeming to nod off.
PHOTO: DOUG MILLS/NYTIMES
Leo Lewis
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It is nearly 30 years since the Guinness authorities officially ceased monitoring feats of extreme sleeplessness. So Mr Robert McDonald’s record 18-day, 21-hour and 40-minute stretch of self-imposed insomnia will forever remain unbreakable.
The reasoning behind this move was a combination of technical (it is tricky to screen accurately for momentary “microsleep” lapses during a record attempt), moral (there is a rare genetic disorder that causes potentially record-breaking insomnia, but also death) and blindingly obvious (sleep deprivation, like dehydration, becomes very dangerous very quickly, so perhaps best not to incentivise it).
