Michael Doucette competed in a national driver saftey competition sponsored by Dodge. The 17-year old won, earning the title of America’s Safest Teen Driver.

His award: a $5,000 scholarship and a Dodge Shadow.

According to Michael’s father, safe driving was an obsession with him.

”You need to concentrate and be aware of many things. Not anyone can do it,” said Michael shortly after winning the competition.

The next year Michael was driving his new car home from college. He fell asleep at the wheel and collided with an oncoming car. Michael and the driver in the other car were killed.

This was in 1989. Since then nearly 500,000 people have died as a result of falling asleep at the wheel.

Why Did This Happen

The unfortunate irony of the story gives it some substance and gravity. But there’s a bigger issue at stake: why did it happen?

Michael’s driver instructor said that drowsy driving was not covered in the school’s driver education program, despite the topic being of momentous importance in driver safety.

This is the sleep disparity problem. The pivotal role that sleep plays in our lives is so often overlooked, while other less worthy topics receive attention.

Consider how the cause of depression is often rooted in sleeping problems. When do doctors question the sleeping habits of patients who come in with depression, if ever? We’re not a culture that solves problems at the source: just give me the pills.

Sleep Disparity

Just how bad can disparities be? Take this for example:

Counting from 1960…

• More Americans have died from peanuts (allergic reactions) than terrorism.
• Cost of the War on Terror: over $500 billion.
• Cost of the War on Peanuts: $0.

I don’t think the sleep disparity is that bad, but it illustrates the point of how one problem can garner so much more attention and resources than another despite its lesser importance.

While we see a huge sleep disparity problem in society–driving school, the medical field, etc.–I’m particularly interested in my personal sleep disparity–the importance I give sleep compared to other lifestyle factors.

Let me explain…

I’ve spent years testing and refining my diet and exercise habits, thinking that what I ate and whether or not I exercised were the two most significant building blocks for a high quality life.

Yet if I go a week without exercise, I feel fine. I can even go a week eating junk food and still feel OK.

But go a week sleeping poorly? That’s where life falls apart. Everything takes damage: motivation, happiness, energy, social skills.

A few years back, when I first became slightly obsessed with optimizing my lifestyle habits, I started with exercise. The idea was that if I could spend 30 minutes running every morning I would have more energy to use throughout the day. And that daily exercise would have a greater positive impact on my energy levels than a proper diet. I didn’t even think about optimizing my sleep habits.

Fast forward to now. If I could go back I would reverse the order entirely: I’d put sleep habits as priority one, followed by diet, and with exercise coming in third. Of course all of these are ongoing processes. But with only a finite amount of energy available each day to spend on habit change, prioritization is not only sensible, but necessary.

Changing lifestyle habits takes energy, knowledge, and motivation. It makes sense to start working on the habits that have the most significant effect on our quality of lives (our energy, motivation, creativity, and happiness).

The thing I’ve found with sleep is that there are a lot of tricks you can do to improve its quality beyond what most people think is possible. I don’t have perfect habits, but by working at them it’s becoming more and more common for me to wake up in a state of euphoria.

So even for “normal” sleepers who don’t give the art of sleeping much thought, there’s always room for interesting improvements.

My personal habits aren’t the only place you see sleep disparity… Take a look at these two examples:

1. If you look at the self-improvement literature you’ll hear a lot of (justified) hoopla over how a proper diet can boost your energy and help you achieve your goals. This is undoubtedly true, but when my motivational energy is on the line, I would still prefer a good night’s sleep over a well-crafted diet.
2. Or just go into a bookstore and compare the amount of sleep advice books to diet books. The ratio must be 1:100 at least. Same goes for fitness books.

I think one of the reasons we see sleep disparity is because the effects of sleep are invisible. Good diet and exercise habits will give you a leaner, more attractive body–tangible results.

But good sleep gives you (among other things) enhanced creativity, energy, and mood. Because these things don’t manifest themselves objectively, it’s difficult to quantify them and discern where we are on the creativity/energy/mood spectrum.

The profound, positive effects of optimized sleep are invisible in our society. Too bad. People are missing out.