Shankar Vedantam

This is Hidden Brain.

I'm Shankar Vedantam.

Across the world, many countries are experiencing a sleep crisis.

[gentle music] In the United States, 50 to 70 million Americans have sleep disorders.

He says the consequences of not getting enough sleep extend far beyond what most of us imagine.

Chris Barnes, welcome to Hidden Brain.

I'm happy to be here, Shankar.

Chris, you've studied the effects of sleep deprivation for many years.

And sometimes those are useful lies.

Sometimes those are what Shankar Vedantam calls useful delusions.

But if they're preventing you from facing uncomfortable truths, they can hold you back.

And this is a way to bring those things to the surface.

I caught myself doing this while I was writing this chapter on appreciation and gratitude, and I had, I had done another podcast where, uh, someone asked me.

I was doing The Hidden Brain podcast with Shankar Vedantam, and he asked me, um, "Is there someone in your life who you feel grateful to but you haven't reached out to express your gratitude to that, to that person?" And I immediately thought of Mr.

Aune, right? And I hadn't reached out to him, and why hadn't I? Because, you know, it was weird, and it was a long time and...

But I channel this guy, and I think about him every time I go into a classroom.

This is Hidden Brain.

I'm Shankar Vedantam.

In his great novel, Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy spends hundreds of pages describing Count Vronsky's desperate longing to be with Anna, the woman he loves.

[gentle music] He risks his reputation, his military career, his standing in society.

When we come back, why our emotions work against us, nudging us toward the negative, even when we want to feel positive.

You're listening to Hidden Brain.

I'm Shankar Vedantam.

[Instrumental music] This is Hidden Brain.