Sleeping with Strangers w/ Julia Vorhölter

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.