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• This is the final article in The Conversation’s six-part series on insomnia, which charts the rise of insomnia during industrialisation to sleep apps today.
• Insomnia is not just a personal issue that affects an individual’s health and wellbeing.
• The global insomnia market is expected to reach US$6.3 billion by 2030, driven by increased diagnoses and therapy, as well as sleep aids, including sleep apps.

There’s an app for that

• You can buy wearable devices, such as smartwatches and smart rings or wristbands, to digitally monitor your sleep.
• You can download apps that record how long you sleep and where you can log your tiredness and concentration levels.
• You can also buy “smart” pillows, mattresses and a range of smart light-fittings and lightbulbs to help track and improve sleep.
• You can listen to “sleep stories” – bedtime stories, music or guided meditations meant to help you sleep.

Sharing and connecting can help

• Sharing and connection can ease the loneliness we know can impact sleep.
• So online sharing, support and feelings of belonging can alleviate the stresses and unhappiness that may prevent people from finding a good night’s sleep.

What is this fixation costing us?

• A focus on sleep can create a vicious cycle in which worrying about a lack of sleep can itself worsen sleep.
• Using sleep-tracking apps and wearable devices can encourage people to become overly fixated on the metrics these technologies gather.
• The data generated by digital devices are not necessarily accurate or useful, particularly for groups such as older people.

Are we missing the bigger issue?

• People living in poor housing or in noisy environments have little choice over the conditions in which they seek good sleep.
• And multiple socioeconomic factors (for instance, gender, ethnicity and economic hardship) can combine, making it even more likely to have poor sleep.

• Yet, much of the advice offered to people about how to improve their sleep focuses on individual responsibility to make changes.
• It assumes everyone can buy the latest technologies or can change their environment or lifestyle to find better “sleep health”.

Deborah Lupton receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

• “The defendants’ claims that their products can stand in for approved COVID-19 vaccines are bogus,” said Samuel Levine, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.
• For example, the defendants claimed their product “uses quantum theory technology, combines known virus and bacteria killing compounds.
• The complaint also alleges the defendants falsely claimed that the Invisible Mask or its materials are government approved or made in a government-approved facility.
• Follow the FTC on social media, read consumer alerts and the business blog, and sign up to get the latest FTC news and alerts.

• Unfortunately, indigenous knowledge of agricultural practices is rapidly disappearing, because it is not being preserved.
• I conducted a literature review to explore the benefits and challenges of preserving indigenous agricultural knowledge in a digital form in Africa.
• One is that they would improve the quality and accuracy of knowledge stored in digital form.
• The findings of this study could inform policies and interventions to record and share indigenous knowledge in Africa.

Digitalisation: what’s missing?

• They are used in irrigation farming, precision farming, drought predictions, micro-climate monitoring, and crop disease risk assessments.
• But my study found little evidence of indigenous agricultural knowledge being preserved.
• South Africa has developed a system to document indigenous knowledge.

How it could be done

• Technologies such as smartphones, voice recorders and video cameras can capture texts, videos, images and voice narrations about indigenous plants and traditional agricultural practices.
• These could cover information on crop production systems, food preservation and livestock management.
• The study found that databases of these practices and information could be a great resource for farmers.

Hurdles to overcome

• Governments could make strategic investments to overcome these challenges.
• I argue in my paper that the application of indigenous agricultural knowledge practices could help address declining agricultural productivity on the continent.
• In addition, I argue in favour of promoting indigenous knowledge of agricultural practices to address social challenges.

• McDaniel, who uses the social media handle TheBiggestFinn4800, had previously been considered a person of interest in the case.
• Lawyers have used rappers’ lyrics as evidence in criminal cases since shortly after the rise of gangsta rap in the late 1980s.
• In fact, researchers at the University of Richmond documented at least 500 cases from 2009 to 2019 where rap lyrics were introduced as evidence in criminal trials.

Rap lyrics as criminal evidence

• If prosecutors can show that a rapper’s lyrics establish motive, intent or identity related to an alleged crime, then most judges will allow for the evidence to be used.
• But case law regarding using rap lyrics as evidence of a crime can vary from state to state, and judge to judge.
• In 2014, the New Jersey Supreme Court found that the introduction of a defendant rapper’s lyrics should not have been admitted into evidence, because the lyrics were general in nature and did not demonstrate motive or intent.

Criminalizing Black artists

• During the trial, the defendant rapper claimed he was not aware of the contents of the suitcase.
• As a result, allowing a rap artist’s lyrics to be used as evidence of a crime risks weaponizing an art form dominated by Black and other people of color.
• As it is, Black Americans are already incarcerated in state prisons at nearly five times the rate as white Americans.

Protecting artistic expression

• In recent years, lawmakers in California and New York have sought to limit the use of rap lyrics in evidence of criminality.
• In July 2022, Democratic Rep. Hank Johnson of Georgia introduced the Restoring Artistic Protection Act, or RAP Act.
• The federal legislation aims to limit the admissibility of artistic expression as evidence.

Case for caution

• The probability of prejudice against defendants who are rappers in any scenario, unfortunately, in 2023 is still too high.
• Prohibiting the use of lyrics can help ensure that not “one innocent suffer.”