How to avoid panic buying in a highly competitive housing market TikToker Robyn is a self-professed sleep expert. Responded to a prompt from another user who asked, “What is a scam that has become so normalized that we don’t know it’s a scam anymore?” Robyn then dropped some insight on how people in the US are seriously sleeping wrong. Shop the Black-owned brands worn by Luka Sabbat for the cover of In The Know: Robin linked our eight-hour sleep cycle to capitalism and the Industrial Revolution. “We didn’t get used to the eight-hour sleep schedule,” he explained. “We used to have two sleeps. they called them first sleep and second sleep.” People would wake up early, do work, take a nap, and then continue the day refreshed. Countries like Spain, Taiwan and Greece still practice siesta or nap. When 19th century workers in labor movements mobilized against exploitation by their bosses, they had a clear demand: “Eight hours of work, eight hours of recreation, eight hours of rest.” This divided the day into three equal parts as an alternative to working 12 to 14 hours a day (six days a week). The eight-hour sleep cycle was therefore a worker’s compromise with capitalism. In 1940, the Fair Labor Standards Act officially limited the work week to 40 hours. But Americans today know that their bosses have found ways to circumvent these legal restrictions with contract workers, temps, freelancers and salaried workers. According to an international study by the Rand Corporation, overworking people to the point of sleep deprivation has the opposite effect of greater productivity and profits. Ultimately, the effects of sleep deprivation result in the U.S. losing the equivalent of 1.2 million work days per year, or about $411 billion in GDP. In fact, much of the recent data suggests that America may be the “most overworked developed nation in the world.” The story continues “The 9am to 5pm working system we have in our capitalist society has made it so that we don’t get as much sleep as we need to effectively,” Robin said. Brandon Blackwood on Normalizing Black Luxury: The post 8-hour sleep schedule is actually a “scam” according to TikToker appeared first on In The Know. More from In The Know: These hot dog rounds might be the most polarizing food in cooking — and they’re finally back in stock Award-winning poet and disability activist Kay Ulanday Barrett talks about intersectionality in the queer community Watch Thorgy Thor help Addie rediscover her confidence through drag How to make your own lampshade
