Jessa Gamble

Jessa Gamble (born April 25, 1979), née Sinclair, is a Canadian and English author and co-owner of the science blog The Last Word on Nothing.[1] Her book, The Siesta and the Midnight Sun: How Our Bodies Experience Time[2] (Penguin Group), documents the rituals surrounding daily rhythms. Along with local languages and beliefs, these schedules are losing their global diversity[3] and succumbing to what Gamble calls "circadian imperialism."[4] The foreword was written by Canadian broadcaster Jay Ingram.

In recent years, Gamble has turned her attention to research on reducing the need for sleep [5] by making it more efficient and concentrated.[6] One of her articles on the subject won the 2014 Best Feature award at the Science Writers' Awards for Britain and Ireland.[7] She is a regular commentator on issues around sleep, such as the morality of sleep,[8] Seasonal Affective Disorder,[9] and cultural differences in daily rhythms.[10]

Gamble's work has appeared in The Guardian,[11] as well as Aeon Magazine,[12] Scientific American,[13] New Scientist,[14] The Walrus[15] , Canadian Geographic[16] and Nature [17] magazines.

The Canadian Science Writers Association bestowed a 2007 Science in Society journalism award for Gamble's first-person account of daily life at the Eureka High Arctic Weather Station.[18] Her travelogue of a canoe trip through the Thelon Game Sanctuary on a quest for muskox was selected for inclusion in the Best Canadian Essays 2009 anthology[19] and nominated for a National Magazine Award for Best Short Feature.[20]

At TED Global 2011 in Oxford, England, Gamble spoke about the natural sleep cycle of humans, which includes a two-hour waking period in the middle of the night. As of November 2018, the talk had more than two and a half million views.[21]

Now residing in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, she worked as an editor at Up Here,[22] the magazine about Canada's North,[23] and served as writer in residence at the Yellowknife Public Library, mentoring local aspiring writers.[24]

In September 2014, Palgrave Macmillan published her book collaboration with fund manager Guy Spier, "The Education of a Value Investor".[25]