NYT-1201: STATE OF THE ART A Thermostat That's Clever, Not ...
NYT-1201: STATE OF THE ART A Thermostat That's Clever, Not ...
NYT-1201: STATE OF THE ART A Thermostat That's Clever, Not ...
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a recent morning, he tried to guess what stage of<br />
sleep the nappers onboard were in. He said that to<br />
reach Stage 1 sleep, the least restorative of the<br />
five stages, riders must be able to slow down the<br />
ir eye movements. To get Stage 2 sleep, riders mus<br />
t relax their muscles and stop moving their eyes e<br />
ntirely.<br />
As Dr. Bazil watched the riders sitting across fro<br />
m him, the nappers’ eyelids fluttered when train d<br />
oors opened. The riders also seemed to clench thei<br />
r messenger bags and backpacks with death grips.<br />
“I suspect all you get is Stage 1 sleep; it’s not<br />
going to be restorative,” he said. “It’s kind of w<br />
asted sleep.”<br />
At a reporter’s request, Dr. Bazil wired up a slee<br />
py subway rider to study his brain waves as he tri<br />
ed to nap. He enlisted Dr. Brandon Foreman, a 30-y<br />
ear-old neurology fellow, whose 2-year-old son, Ju<br />
de, still does not sleep through the night. Neithe<br />
r does Dr. Foreman.<br />
But he has observed how the subway lulls his son t<br />
o sleep, so he tries to replicate the train’s stop<br />
s and jerks when he puts his son to bed. Dr. Forem<br />
an is no stranger to subway napping: He began doin<br />
g so when commuting from Brooklyn during his resid<br />
ency, and said he coveted any sleep he could get.<br />
“Lectures, classes, I can pretty much sleep anywhe<br />
re,” Dr. Foreman said. “But it’s not usually a gre<br />
at sleep. It’s more the nodding off.”<br />
Both doctors met at the end of a long workweek aft<br />
er Dr. Foreman had been up every night dealing wit<br />
h his son’s cold. As Dr. Foreman yawned, Dr. Bazil<br />
had a technician attach 25 multicolored plastic w<br />
ires to Dr. Foreman’s head, connecting them to a m<br />
onitor slightly larger than an iPod to track his b<br />
rain waves. Then Dr. Foreman covered the wires wit