The Atlantic

The Human Body Is Too Complex for Easy Fixes

You don’t need to be hacked.
Source: Pictures Ltd. / Corbis / Getty

In 2016, I became the lucky parent of a newborn who slept horribly. Of course, this meant that my wife and I slept horribly, too. We rested in small snatches and were constantly irritable. We were a mess.

As a result, I became consumed with the idea of minimizing my need for sleep as much as possible. I had always required less sleep than my wife, but I thought that if I could just find some clever solution, some trick or tool, I might be cured of this time suck forever. I wanted to hack my need for sleep.

Eventually, I researched , a trend among the kind of people who quantify every aspect

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