Opening our eyes to the science of sleep, in 1971

Armed with the new EEG machine, investigators were able to look into the familiar yet strange phenomenon more deeply than ever before

‘Sleep is like love. If you have it, you take it for granted,’ reports Wendy Cooper in the Observer Magazine on 24 January 1971. If you don’t, it’s rhythmic rocking or counting sheep for you, though not for Charles Dickens: he made sure his bed faced north, better to boost his creativity as he slumbered.

We spend a third of our lives sleeping, but some feel they still don’t get enough, some (narcoleptics) fall asleep when they eat. Some sleepwalk or, in one case, sleepride their motorbike in the middle of the night.

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