Circadian justice

This article gives an empirically-grounded analysis of the normative problems arising in connection with sleep. It takes as its point of departure three tendencies visible to varying degrees in present-day societies: the shortening of sleep, its irregularisation, and its desynchronisation. The article observes their capacity to generate injustice, identifying in particular how they produce social and political inequalities. Minorities arise characterised by their disadvantage on one or both counts. As the article further argues, adequately responding to these inequalities demands a wide-ranging approach, based on recognising the extent to which modern life is structured around sleep norms many no longer live by. Given the difficulty and undesirability of restoring the practices that underpin those norms, the challenge is develop societies that no longer presuppose them.