An eloquent yet distressing affirmation of this fact is provided by the former prime minister of Israel, Menachem Begin, in his autobiography, White Nights: The Story of a Prisoner in Russia.
In the 1940s, years before taking office in 1977, Begin was captured by the Soviets. He was tortured in prison by the KGB, one component of which involved prolonged sleep deprivation. Of this experience (which most governments benignly describe as the practice of “prisoner sleep management”), he writes: In the head of the interrogated prisoner a haze begins to form. His spirit is wearied to death, his legs are unsteady, and he has one sole desire: to sleep, to sleep just a little, not to get up, to lie, to rest, to forget . . . Anyone who has experienced this desire knows that not even hunger or thirst are comparable with it . . . I came across prisoners who signed what they were ordered to sign, only to get what their interrogator promised them. He did not promise them their liberty. He promised them — if they signed — uninterrupted sleep.
— Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams (Matthew Walker), Loc. 4928–35
Comment from October 27, 2026:
Yeah, in other words… parenting.