Sleeping with Strangers w/ Julia Vorhölter

09/01/2025 33 min Temporada 2 Episodio 3
Sleeping with Strangers w/ Julia Vorhölter

Listen "Sleeping with Strangers w/ Julia Vorhölter"

Episode Synopsis

In this episode, Christoph Brumann talks to Julia Vorhölter about her research on sleep and sleeplessness. Julia's personal struggle with insomnia led her to investigate why sleep, despite being essential, is under-explored in anthropology. They discuss the challenges of studying sleep, a private and indirect experience that is difficult to observe or communicate. Julia's fieldwork in sleep labs examines the relationship between subjective sleep experiences and objective data. She contrasts sleep apnea, which is measurable, with insomnia, which is harder to diagnose and often dismissed by doctors despite its significant impact. Her research also explores sleep's political, economic, and social dimensions.