Horizon - Season 59 / Year 2022

A third of the population regularly struggle with our sleep, which rose to one in two during the pandemic, the highest it's ever been. However, as more and more people seek help, an explosion in sleep science is enabling the study of sleep in ways not possible before. What's more, recent breakthroughs are uncovering what's happening in our brains and bodies while we're asleep, getting us closer than ever to understanding the importance of sleep for our health.

Michael Mosley has struggled with his sleep for years and wants to know if the latest insights can help him and the millions like him. He discovers why cutting our sleep short can be linked to a host of illnesses, including serious diseases like Alzheimer's. Putting his own sleeping brain and body to the test, Michael signs up for two revealing experiments: wearing a new device that maps his sleep and allows scientists to see how it measures up to an ideal night, and taking part in a sleep deprivation experiment, where he is confronted by the fact that just one sleepless night impacts his cognitive performance.

Revealing the very latest science breakthroughs and packed with personal anecdotes, this programme is a useful guide to anyone looking for tips and insights on how to get the benefits from learning how to sleep well.

Hannah Fry, a professor of maths, is used to investigating the world around her through numbers. When she's diagnosed with cervical cancer at the age of 36, she starts to interrogate the way we diagnose and treat cancer by digging into the statistics to ask whether we are making the right choices in how we treat this disease. Are we sometimes too quick to screen and treat cancer? Do doctors always speak to us honestly about the subject? It may seem like a dangerous question to ask, but are we at risk of overmedicalising cancer?

At the same time, Hannah records her own cancer journey in raw and emotional personal footage, where the realities of life after a cancer diagnosis are laid bare.

The inside story of the James Webb Space Telescope, following the Nasa team building the £8 billion device and the scientists taking its first image of distant stars and galaxies.