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When people ask what I study, I explain that my work sits at the intersection of sleep science and public policy.
The typical response is, “Really? I never thought of sleep that way.”
Most people think of sleep as a matter of personal responsibility
But over the past two decades, my work and that of many others has shown that some of the biggest threats to healthy sleep don’t stop at the individual. They’re built into the policies under which we live.
A friend of mine who follows professional cycling recently shared a story from the Tour de France that perfectly demonstrates this point.
Hours before Stage 15, two-time Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard was awakened at 2:00 a.m. by officials from the International Testing Agency (ITA) for a random anti-doping test. According to reports, the testing process lasted about 40 minutes, and Vingegaard later said it took him additional time to fall back asleep.
As a sleep scientist, that came as no surprise. Being awakened in the middle of the night, getting dressed, leaving your room, and providing a biological sample is hardly conducive to quickly falling back asleep. It is precisely the kind of disruption that makes returning to restorative sleep difficult.
During competition later that day, Vingegaard crashed, fracturing his collarbone and ending his Tour.
Did the disrupted sleep cause the crash?
Of course, we can’t say that. Cycling crashes happen for many reasons. But as a sleep scientist, I think it raises an important question: What is gained by conducting a routine anti-doping test at 2:00 a.m. when decades of research tell us that disrupting sleep impairs reaction time, attention, decision-making, and motor coordination?
Why would we knowingly compromise one of the most fundamental biological contributors to performance?
And why would we do it in the context of one of the most physically and cognitively demanding sporting events in the world?
Sleep is not negotiable. It is one of the most powerful recovery tools athletes have. Even a single night of disrupted sleep slows reaction time, increases attentional lapses, impairs judgment, and reduces coordination. These are precisely the functions elite athletes depend on. In a sport like cycling, where split-second decisions can determine both performance and safety, these impairments matter enormously.
None of this is an argument against anti-doping testing. Fair competition depends on it. But protecting clean sport should not come at the expense of healthy sleep. Good policy should protect both.
How sleep is discounted in public policy
This story resonated with me because it feels like yet another example of how easily sleep is discounted when it comes to public policy.
In fact, just last week, Congress passed the Sunshine Protection Act despite years of warnings from sleep and circadian scientists that permanent daylight saving time runs counter to human biology.
At first glance, these two events seem entirely unrelated. One involves elite cyclists. The other concerns our biological clocks.
But they share a common assumption: that sleep is somehow negotiable.
It isn’t.
Whether we’re talking about elite athletes, teenagers starting school before sunrise, physicians working overnight shifts, or U.S. citizens having to wake up in the dark of night in winter due to permanent daylight saving time, the lesson is the same: policies that ignore sleep ignore biology.
And biology always wins.
Sleep isn’t a luxury. It isn’t just downtime. It is a biological necessity and a performance imperative. It’s time our policies started treating it that way.
