Dovi’s Digest Volume 279

Sleep on it 🛏💤💪

Oct 17, 2025

A weekly newsletter for all your intellectual, spiritual, and physical needs

Hello all! Welcome to Volume 279 of Dovi’s Digest!

An interesting email popped into my inbox last night.

Now, my emails can be roughly sorted into four categories. There’s the ever-present spam, IMPORTANT EMAILS!!! from my bank which when opened just say “hi, we’re your bank :)”, newsletters, and the ten daily emails from the NYT urging me to get a family subscription.

This one didn’t fit into any of those categories. It came from my health insurance, urging me to buy an Oura ring fitness device from them to track my sleep. The hook being that if I hit all my sleep goals in a two-year period, the ring and subscription are free.

Sleep has hit the headlines in a big way in the last few years and is now up alongside 10,000 steps a day and an increased protein intake as one of the best indicators of longevity. In fact, according to a recent study, sleeping for 7-9 hours a night lowers your chance of death by up to 40% (compared to those who sleep less.)

We spend roughly a third of our lives sleeping, know how important it is, yet scientists are still figuring out exactly why we need it (it’s not for rest) and what the point of it is. This week’s headline article goes into what sleep is. It’s fascinating. If you’re interested in more, I highly recommend Daniel Walker’s brilliant book Why We Sleep where he explains how it can make us healthier, safer, smarter, just all round better. So on that note, I’m off to bed.

(PS, if you have an Oura ring and have thoughts, hit reply, I want to know!)

https://2026tcslondonmarathon.enthuse.com/pf/david-brom

In this week’s added extras:

Winning entries for Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2025

An official map of the Star Wars galaxy.

Pick a year and play music from that era.

Test: Scroll through a slew of quizzes that test your nostalgia knowledge.

Why truffles are so expensive.

Do you enjoy the Digest? Would you like it to get better? Then please consider sharing it, as the more articles I’m sent, the better it is. It only takes a few seconds, and all you need to do is click here 👇. Thank you!

Refer a friend

There were THREE correct answer to last week’s brainteaser. Well done to Yona G, Josh H and Jeff C! The answer and this week’s riddle are below.

Keep those articles (and everything else) coming.

Have a great weekend,

Dovi

What Sleep Is

It is our biggest blind spot, a bizarre experience that befalls us every day, and can’t be explained by our need for rest.

Pretend to Work Co.

(Courtesy of Yisroel G)

What’s going on at Beijing’s “fake offices”?

He Lost Nearly $100k To a Con Artist. He Turned It into A Business

Johnathan Walton wants to make sure you never get scammed.

Italy’s Hidden Mountain Museums in The Clouds

The Dolomites hold immeasurable thrills for travellers – now, the opening of a new mountaineering collection from one of the greatest climbers of all time, Reinhold Messner, is adding new meaning to their story.

“They’re A Very Elusive Species”: The 10-Year Effort to Photograph the Rare Hyena Stalking a Diamond Mining Ghost Town

The story behind the award-winning photo of an elusive brown hyena bringing new life to the Namib Desert.

Inside Ireland’s Most Unusual Ball Sport

In Ballincurrig, East Cork, a 2km stretch of road becomes a stadium each October. For 40 years, locals and international players have competed in Ireland’s little-known sport of road bowling, where 28oz (794g) iron balls skim bends, potholes, and dips in pursuit of glory.

How a Top-Secret SEAL Team 6 Mission into North Korea Fell Apart

The 2019 operation, greenlit by President Trump, sought a strategic edge. It left unarmed North Koreans dead.

Can a Murderer Earn Redemption?

In a new book, John J. Lennon presses two cases: that his is a work of legitimate journalism, and that this makes him something more than a killer.

Quote of the Week:

“Don’t be so humble – you are not that great.” – Former Israeli PM Golda Meir

Word of the Week:

Copacetic

koh-puh-SET-ik/ˌkəʊpəˈsɛtɪk,ˌkəʊpəˈsiːtɪk/

Adjective

in excellent order.

“he said to tell you everything is copacetic”

Do you know a word you think others should know about? Submit it here!

Facts of the Week:

The first Americans came from Siberia.
The earliest known song was written in Syria.
Cougars have a cry that sounds like a woman screaming.
Australian magpies can understand what other birds are saying.
Pelicans swallow pigeons whole.
Hedgehogs hunt and kill adders.
Coconut crabs climb trees and hunt birds.
Quetzal birds eat avocados whole but regurgitate the stone because it makes them too heavy to take off.