This is the laziest argument I've seen from Smith in quite a while, and I've unfortunately listened to a lot of his rants. Arguing that sleep is an irrational

This is the laziest argument I've seen from Smith in quite a while, and I've unfortunately listened to a lot of his rants. Arguing that sleep is an irrational need is worse than misdirected, its exactly opposite to the truth. We don't know the mechanism behind sleep but we are keenly aware that there is a strong correlation between good sleep habits and better health. The correlation is observed and keenly accounted for in science AND pop science. The correlation is not causation mantra is true but that doesn't magically mean that we don't care about correlation. The argument of 'correlation does not equal causation' ONLY matters when its relevant. E.g. you misattribute a cause. He aaaaaaalmost notices this with his cigarette company argument bit then again completely misunderstands the idiom to mean that skepticism is always good and not just a tool in the scenario where you have limited information and its appropriate. The fact that the cigarette companies were skeptical about the correlation is not scientific in a vacuum of this article either. It was a vested interest that they took the preferable stance for their company. Science cares about vested interests, and correlation. I'm all for calling out shoddy scientific reporting but this is arguably worse because it acts like its above the idioms and conflation, when it isn't. Its tragically bad.