Shanee Giani completed her Master’s in Anthropology at the University of Johannesburg (South Africa), under the supervision of Ms Hemali Joshi. Her MA research focused on understanding sleep narratives at a department at the University of Johannesburg, Auckland Park campus. This study explored the anthropological meaning of sleep through understanding sleep narratives. Her research interests focus on ethnography, social issues, and making meaning of social and cultural phenomena. In addition, she is also interested in the importance of sleep in our everyday life. Shanee is currently a PhD candidate in Anthropology enrolled at the University of Johannesburg.

Abstract
Sleep is an essential part of our everyday lives. However, living in a fast-paced world, where much of our time is focused on the everydayness of life, we often make little time for sleep. This paper stems from a major finding during my master’s research study which focused on understanding the sleep narratives of participants at a department at the University of Johannesburg, Auckland Park campus. In this study, the diverse community differed in terms of age, gender, class, ethnicity and socio-economic status. This paper describes the narratives of participants sleeping in secret spaces, as well as the agency with which people negotiate sleep and work within a typical 24/7 lifestyle. This trade-off between work and sleep shows that participants are exhausted and find parts of their working day to sleep, whether it is under a desk or in the office. In this paper, phenomenology was used as a conceptual framework to understand the lived experience of sleep. In addition, qualitative methods such as interviews, observations and sleep diaries where used to understand the sleep narratives. Overall, this paper contributes to a broader meaning of sleep from a cross-cultural perspective and further illustrates that sleep is not a privilege for all.