A New York Post writer says: Sleep scientists, we’re begging you: Lay off the scare tactics. There’s nothing less relaxing than being ordered to relax.

But let’s consider who might stand to benefit from scaring us into panicking about the amount of sleep hours we’re logging. Could it be the pharmaceutical industry, which is raking in the bucks on Ambien and other prescription and over-the-counter sleep aids?

Or perhaps it’s the bedding industry — where sales have not so mysteriously been up for the past few years. Sleeping badly? Throw several thousand dollars at a new mattress.

In contrast, there’s not a whole lot of money to be made by accepting that, you know, sometimes you have to go to bed late and get up early. (Especially in New York, where you can sleep when you’re dead.) Sure, maybe it’s not ideal. But it’s real life. And somehow, even though a lot of us are sleeping like crap, we still manage to keep civilization up and running.