Spaces of every-night life: for geographies of sleep, sleeping and sleepiness

Over one third of most human lives — and hence one third of human geographies — is spent asleep. It is our contention in this paper that human geographers should take sleep, sleeping and sleepiness more seriously as topics for theoretical, empirical and critical research than has hitherto been the case. This paper provides a preliminary indication of potentially fruitful directions for geographical research on sleep, reviewing salient extant work in geography and (especially) in cognate disciplines in order to develop a case for research and enquiry in four domains: sleep and consumption; sleep and health; sleep and difference; sleep and bodily practice. The potential ramifications of `sleepy geographies' for prevailing assumptions habitually underpinning wakeful, cognate geographies (ie, the vast majority of human geographies to date) are also considered.