Sleep is the most undervalued clinical intervention of our generation

If a pharmaceutical company developed a single intervention that lowered cardiovascular events, normalised insulin sensitivity, improved memory consolidation, and reduced all-cause mortality at a clinically meaningful level, it would be the drug of the decade. That intervention exists. It is seven to nine hours of consistent, high-quality sleep.

Yet sleep remains the most undervalued and under-prescribed lever in modern medicine. Editors of this magazine have been arguing for sleep to be elevated to the same clinical status as diet and exercise — the evidence base now supports the case.