Last year Miranda Lim found that taking care of three young children homebound by the pandemic meant she often had to work late into the evening to stay on top of her job. Concerned that the _________ hours were having a bad effect on her sleep, Lim started tracking her sleep time with an app on her mobile phone. She wasn’t quite _________ the results. “I saw my bedtime was _________ anywhere between 9 p.m. and 3 a.m.,” she says. “I was just horrified.” As a result, she immediately set up a daily alarm — not for waking up, but for _________ to bed at a reasonable hour.

It’s _________ why Lim would be a bit of an alarmist when threatened with a lack of a constant night’s sleep. As a sleep disorders physician at the VA Portland Health Care System, Lim is at the forefront of a global team of medical researchers who have in recent years been _________ the ways in which even moderate sleep shortage in middle age strongly link to Alzheimer’s disease later in life. She says, “Our big discovery was that the lack of sleep involves brain processes that may _________ into the disease.”

The finding that getting more and better sleep could offer the best, and _________ only, way to significantly reduce the risks of neuro-degeneration (神经退化) in older age is likely to further _________ an already hot sleep industry. Market research firm Infinium Global Research puts the current worldwide market for sleep __________ — including drugs, special bedding, and health care services — at an estimated $80 billion–plus, and predicts it will __________ to $114 billion over the next five years. Research firm BCC has been projecting a similar growth rate. Now Tim O’Brien, who heads life sciences content at BCC, says he’s watching for “a sudden leap”.

That leap would be driven not only by consumer’s __________ pursuit of better sleep-related health, but also by a stream of new __________ and technologies that are emerging to help achieve it, from sleep drugs to implantable medical devices to smart pillows. Fitbit’s companion app offers a range of insights and exercises aimed at __________ sleep, including sleep “scores” that break down different aspects of sleep, recommendations for when to get to bed and when to wake up, deep breathing and mindfulness exercises, and more. In addition, a big push into the market is being made by __________ a number of sleep-tracking and sleep-promoting features into the latest version of its “Nest Hub” smart speaker-and-screen device.

Nevertheless, some experts think the tech can help with slight pushes, but people still have to develop the healthy habits.