Episode 01: Sleep stories

In this episode: Cressida and Joshua talk to Paul Huebener (author of Restless in Sleep Country) of Athabasca University about the surprising ways sleep is presented to us across a wide range of Canadian media, from films to ads. We begin with a discussion of sleep literacy (2:58), then move to a discussion of sleep tech (9:34), a little Canadian content (17:29), some representations of sleep in Canadian and Indigenous literature (19:56), sleep and architecture (31:21), sleep in film (37:28), and finally, in advertising (41:04). Don’t miss our top-and-tail renditions of the Sleep Country jingle!

Mentioned in this episode: Paul Huebener, Restless in Sleep Country: Imagination and the Cultural Politics of Sleep; orthosomnia; 8Sleep’s Podpro; what is a lab sleep study?; Sleep Country Canada; Statistics Canada (value of unpaid work); Rates of sleeping pill use in Atlantic Canada; Suzette Mayr, The Sleeping Car Porter; Alan Derickson, Dangerously Sleepy: Overworked Americans and the Cult of Manly Wakefulness; Cherie Dimaline, The Marrow Thieves; Awake; “sleep is for the strong” (Sleep Country ad); British Airways ads: Flight attendant + Cat to predator.

Transcript coming soon…