Main content

Sleep, Sleeplessness and Creativity

Rana Mitter discusses why people sleep, with expert on the human body clock Russell Foster and comedian and insomniac Matt Berry.

We spend nearly a third of our life doing it and we still don't really know why so Rana Mitter explores why we sleep with pioneering researcher into the body clock, Russell Foster; Matt Berry, actor, comedian and writer who wrestles with insomnia; Brigitte Steger who has explored Japanese and other global sleeping cultures and Katharine Craik, a renaissance scholar whose new opera project for children is called Watching...back in the 16th century the watching hours were part of a segmented sleep pattern which only disappeared with the industrial revolution.

Producer: Jacqueline Smith.

Available now

45 minutes

Clip

Credits

Role Contributor
Presenter Rana Mitter
Interviewed Guest Russell Foster
Interviewed Guest Matt Berry
Interviewed Guest Brigitte Steger
Interviewed Guest Katharine Craik
Producer Jacqueline Smith

Broadcast

  • Wed 7 Jan 2015 22:00

The Arts & Ideas Podcast

The Arts & Ideas Podcast

You can download all the past episodes of Radio 3's Free Thinking

Discussions and talks from the Free Thinking Festival 2019

Discussions and talks from the Free Thinking Festival 2019

Angry politics, what we can鈥檛 say, being diplomatic, weeping, emotion in music, film & TV

Click to listen to discussions, talks and music as the Free Thinking Festival 2019 Gets Emotional

Click to listen to discussions, talks and music as the Free Thinking Festival 2019 Gets Emotional

Angry politics, what we can鈥檛 say, being diplomatic, weeping, emotion in music, film & TV

CLICK to LISTEN & SEE programmes from the Free Thinking Festival 2018: The One & the Many

CLICK to LISTEN & SEE programmes from the Free Thinking Festival 2018: The One & the Many

We examine the fast-changing relationship between the individual & the crowd

CLICK to LISTEN & SEE all programmes, images, clips & features from 2017's festival

Free Thinking Festival 2017: The Speed of Life