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Russell Foster and Ruby Wax

How to Sleep

Hay Festival 2025, 

Neuroscientist Russell Foster and comedian Ruby Wax discuss one of the most important contributors to our health: sleep. The pair take a look at society’s obsession with getting the ‘perfect’ night of sleep, and why a one-size-fits-all approach to sleep doesn’t work, with Foster sharing popular theories about why we sleep and busting myths about how much sleep we need at different ages.

Foster and Wax also cover topics including sleep anxiety, the effects of not getting the sleep we need, and why good sleep is different for each person.

Foster is a circadian neuroscientist, studying the sleep cycles of the brain. He is author of Life Time, a book about the body clock. Wax is a mental health campaigner and comedian whose latest tour, I’m Not As Well As I Thought I Was, is based on her book of the same name.