I would like to talk about sleep, but also its deprivation. When I was a kid, I used to see sleep as a nuisance, an interruption to my day. I’ve always questioned why adults find sleep to be so important, but now, it seems like a luxury to even lay in bed. In today’s TEDx speech, I would like to explore why we should stop treating sleep as optional, how we can (try to) fix it, and how it reflects wider issues in our society as a whole. I’m Ethan Guo, and I’m a Grade 10 student from China. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx