“Let’s wake up to the importance of sleep”, recently headlined the prestigious scientific magazine The Lancet. Humans devote a third of their life to sleep, but this activity is barely taken into account by the medical profession and by the public authorities. However, a very large number of studies have shown in recent years the essential role of sleep in health.
But doctors who, during a consultation, ask their patients if they sleep well are still rare. And for the unfortunates who answer no – more and more numerous according to the surveys of Public Health France –, it is difficult to obtain effective care. It does exist, however: it is cognitive and behavioral therapy (CBT). Supply, however, remains desperately low in the face of the vast need.
Good news, a new drug will arrive soon, which can relieve some of the insomniacs. Eventually, CBT applications will also offer a first level of response to suffering patients. These two real advances, however, should not make us forget the need to increase the number of professionals trained in this method – an issue that is currently totally neglected by the public authorities.
Likewise, specialists have long awaited an official campaign on the basic rules of sleep hygiene, and the importance of getting enough sleep. A request to which the health authorities are slow to respond. “With staggered hours, night work, stores and gyms open later and later, TV series accessible 24 hours a day, we collectively continue to see the night as a space to be conquered. rather than to preserve. Communicating about sleep is also going against all that”, whispered an expert. The quality of our nights is not just a personal question: it is also eminently political.