杏吧原创

FUR SEALS dozing at sea stop themselves drowning by resting one side of their
brain at a time. One hemisphere remains active to control the opposite flipper
so that the seal stays afloat. Such a sophisticated adaptation suggests that
sleep is a vital function. And that is Stanley Coren鈥檚 emphatic message in Sleep
Thieves: An Eye-opening Exploration Into the Science & Mysteries of Sleep
(The Free Press, $24, ISBN 0 684 82304 7). Sleep deprivation is a growing
malaise of today鈥檚 society, in his opinion, turning people into 鈥渋ntelligent
idiots鈥� with sometimes catastrophic consequences.