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community weblog
Be a Revolutionary - Get some Sleep
They're stealing our sleep and getting rich from it. Netflix says their biggest competitor is sleep, and they're not alone in trying to make sure we get less of it. The sleep industry is big business and we're getting less of it than ever.
posted by Bottlecap on Jan 24, 2026 at 6:03 AM
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Recent picture of the CEO at HQ
posted by lalochezia at 6:21 AM
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Speaking of Netflix....they're removing She Ra and the Princesses of Power on February 21st.
Fuck this timeline.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 6:31 AM
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The way you get more free time, is to form a union. If netflix was unionized it would have a worker led group pushing back on this behavior.
Also anti-trust law. If Netflix was worried about getting too big, there would be a force pushing back on this behavior.
Also community building, if we were not all so atomized we wouldn't be filling our lives with so much netflix.
Also reconnecting with nature. The more time you spent looking at trees and thinking about how strange they are the less time you watch netflix.
Also higher wages and less work hours (see union above), if you were not so exhausted that you needed to "turn your brain off" netflix wouldn't have so much appeal.
posted by stilgar at 6:36 AM
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10 years ago this year, Ariana Huffington was making the TED-ish talk circuit bumping her book "The Sleep Revolution."
It's the kind of thing I would normally learn about lurking on Metafilter, but I can't find a link/discussion. The video looks promising but I'm going to have to listen while I walk the dogs (or stay up late tonight to watch LOL)
I feel naughty going to bed when my spouse and kids are all still up, but once the dishes and laundry are done and nobody has any math homework (and the dogs are walked), I'm not a contributing member of society anymore; I dismiss myself to go to bed ~8hrs before the alarm goes off. It's better than the ~5-6hrs I used to get, but of course the next step is not having my phone in hand. Those last few games of Words with Friends are a gateway to only getting 7hrs of sleep
posted by adekllny at 6:46 AM
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the less sleep we get, the fewer vikings we have. and we need vikings
posted by chavenet at 7:11 AM
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Don't they get rich from everyone having subscriptions while not spending too much time actually watching? It's not like you pay more if you watch more, you're just less likely to unsubscribe
posted by mit5urugi at 7:13 AM
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This is a bad timeline.
What we've got to take away is that rule by the rich will destroy ordinary people. Rule by the rich inexorably produces white supremacy, homophobia, transphobia, misogyny and all the structural ills. Ordinary humans of course have failings and bigotries or where would the rich come from in the first place but we lack the power to institutionalize them and as a result they can be fought; also, the good qualities of ordinary humans have just as much power.
Less sleep, worse search, more money for the rich!
And of course, even those among the wealthy who enjoy mildly feminist shows like the Princesses of Power don't enjoy them enough to want to stand up to fascism and keep them available to the public. And for the most part, they were only letting those shows get made for a fast buck when politics allowed anyway.
The streaming economy is in fact a worsening of art production from what was established in the 80s through 2010-ish, because it allows precisely this - the absolute destruction of art when it is politically inconvenient or unprofitable. If this were, like, 2005, there'd be complete DVD sets all over the place.
Princesses of Power is an extremely good show, ftr, and if you haven't watched it, it is worth watching now. I foretell legions of disappointed little kids who see the first three seasons on DVD and spend their entire childhoods wanting to see the rest, unless their parents know how to pirate it somehow. And of course the whole issue is simply that we are not allowed to have a fun adventure show that centers girls - the queer/gender themes also infuriate the right of course, but even if those were not present and it was 100% cisnormative heterosexual, we still would not be allowed to have it because it's a show where men are present but women are the focus and they get to live in the world as whole people who - like actual women, like actual people - spend most of their time thinking about life stuff rather than how to breast boobily down the stairs and whether men like them enough.
I watched the show as a distraction during the first part of the pandemic and found the first couple of episodes twee and annoying, but I was wrong and it built up tremendous force as it went along.
posted by Frowner at 7:30 AM
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The article is less about NetFlix and more about how the quality of our sleep has degraded due to the gig economy and how we're connected online. There are fewer instances of 9-5 jobs where at people can just shut off distractions after 5pm. Instead, work and play keep demanding and getting our attention, so our sleep, health, and sanity suffers.
Binging a show isn't the problem. it's the 24/7 parade of activity that reaches anyone with modicum of connectedness. People love shiny things, yes we do!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:38 AM
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Netflix is an absolute mass murderer of queer content. The Gay Kiss of Death.
posted by Previous username Jacen at 7:55 AM
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posted by HearHere at 9:26 AM
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Re: She-Ra, I don't have any inside information about how it's being handled, but I think that article is missing a couple things:
Firstly, while it's branded as a "Netflix Original," it wasn't made by Netflix Animation itself.
And I've worked on at least one "Netflix Original" show whose deal I know for sure was really structured as 5-year streaming rights (with the option to pay more to renew), not outright ownership, and I got the impression that this was their standard MO. (We didn't get a second season, but it looks like the first one is still in their catalog, so I guess they paid up for another number of years.)
So...I think it's almost certain that She-Ra's streaming rights are simply reverting back to Dreamworks (and so I imagine they'll be selling it along to someone else -- it looks like they'd already been airing it elsewhere outside the U.S. from the get go).
posted by nobody at 10:19 AM
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Yeah, this video was great, if a little guilt-inducing, because hoo boy you can spend a lot of money trying to get a good night's sleep. I hadn't really realized so many other people had this problem. And I like the way she links the system: Stress hurts your sleep, you stay up scrolling, your self-control lowers from exhaustion, and you buy more stuff. The kind of vampirism she describes--businesses caring less about productivity and more on straight-up extraction (your data, or pulling the money from your exhausted hands)--was an interesting way to look at it although I'm not fully convinced.
The part I'm absolutely convinced of is that there is a predatory market for people trying to sleep. And in this predatory market, I'm the world's slowest gazelle. I have been through the melatonin bit for sleep initiation (and benzos, and benadryl), but now my problem is staying asleep, and I'm trying out this insane cocktail of two different kinds of magnesium, l-theanine, apigenin, with some antiinflammatory supplements on the side (with helpful monitoring from both my cpap and my watch), but omg she's right, the benefits, if there are any, are truly marginal.
Of course, my situation is a little different, and she's right that most people would benefit from better sleep hygiene, and I wish that were the case with me, but nonetheless I felt very seen.
posted by mittens at 10:19 AM
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I urge everyone to read a 7 year old article about the Netflix' CEO's offhand comment about sleep.
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 10:35 AM
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There are fewer instances of 9-5 jobs where at people can just shut off distractions after 5pm
By their logic, surely Netflix's greatest competitor is work.
posted by trig at 10:44 AM
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Meditation, yoga, 10 min of slow-as-you-want aerobic exercise, ...
Many things can help with this. If you can let go of the dopamine hits.
posted by aleph at 10:46 AM
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The thing about Netflix is a bit of a derail in the video itself.
The way you get more free time, is to form a union. If netflix was unionized it would have a worker led group pushing back on this behavior.
I really doubt it. Unionized Netflix would have really good incentive to keep everyone hooked on Netflix, as much as un-unionized Netflix.
Also anti-trust law. If Netflix was worried about getting too big, there would be a force pushing back on this behavior.
Wait, is this a problem within Netflix? Or for Netflix customers? I can't see how this has anything to do with anything here.
Also community building, if we were not all so atomized we wouldn't be filling our lives with so much netflix.
Community building has nothing to do with anything here. If anything, it's just another drain on your limited time and attention.
Also reconnecting with nature. The more time you spent looking at trees and thinking about how strange they are the less time you watch netflix.
OK, getting a bit too finger waggy here.
Also higher wages and less work hours (see union above), if you were not so exhausted that you needed to "turn your brain off" netflix wouldn't have so much appeal.
So, wait, Netflix is to blame for turning off your brain, or keeping it engaged? Depending on your needs, it may be a pretty good way to spend your money.
I think the video itself is kinda crap, really. I mean, yes, sleep deprivation is bad. Duh. If a company has "invaded" your sleep space, and it's become a problem, well, double duh, you need to find a solution to your woes. Which can be hard, and may entail a complete change of career in some cases.
But if the solution is from a company that specializes in providing such a solution (which the video seems eager to give a side eye to), and the result is better sleep, I would count that as a win. For you, and for the company.
posted by 2N2222 at 11:47 AM
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This IS the Bad Place!
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 11:56 AM
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lol at Netflix unionization. Netflix employees are paid entirely in cash, no stock, and L5 software engineers make 500k+.
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 12:17 PM
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"...and L5 software engineers make 500k+."
And some clueless exec is planning on replacing them with ai. Soon as the ai gets a little better.
(yeah, I know they can't but they'll try)
posted by aleph at 12:56 PM
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Going to sleep fills me with dread. That's not because I fear insomnia or certain dreams, but because I have too much to do. I work 60+ hours/week to keep a family afloat. I rarely get sufficient sleep.
Heck, I don't have time to watch this post's 25 minute video.
posted by doctornemo at 1:55 PM
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It sounds like we're right on the border of a first world problem here: "when you didn't get enough sleep because you stayed up all night watching Netflix." That's unfortunate. But I don't think it's really hurting gig economy workers, who, if asked, would probably laugh and say that sounds like a problem for a different economic class.
And as for people who have this problem genuinely... maybe cancel Netflix? Or don't. It's up to you. But I would.
posted by julianeon at 6:12 PM
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