reasoning that because "sleep needs vary radically,” "the only way to answer the question whether the impairment 'substantially' limit[s] [a plaintiff’s] sleep would be by reference to the effect on his waking 'life activities’ ” without looking separately at the intermediate step of an impact on sleep
How later courts described this case
- reasoning that because "sleep needs vary radically,” "the only way to answer the question whether the impairment 'substantially' limit[s] [a plaintiff’s] sleep would be by reference to the effect on his waking 'life activities’ ” without looking separately at the intermediate step of an impact on sleep
- holding that to succeed, a plaintiff must prove that her employer believed she had a physical impairment that substantially limited one or more major life activities
- suggesting that “the only way to answer the question whether the impairment substantially limit[s] [a plaintiffj’s sleep would be by reference to the effects on his waking life activities” (internal quotation marks omitted)
- affirming district court’s grant of summary judgment to employer because plaintiffs “evidence would not have permitted a reasonable jury to conclude that [he] was substantially limited in a major life activity”
Written by the judges who cited it.
The opinion
STEPHEN F. WILLIAMS, Senior Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I write separately only to question the premise, assumed by all parties (and thus quite properly not ruled on by the court), that “sleeping” is “a major life activit[y]” for purposes of the Americans with Disabilities Act, specifically 42 U.S.C. § 12102 (2)(A). Here no analytical problem arises, because Haynes loses for want of evidence that his impairment, idiopathic pruritus, caused his sleeplessness. But had he prevailed on that question, the next issue would have been whether the impairment “substantially” limited his sleeping. See id. Not only is sleep largely an instrumental activity — valued for its ability to refresh us for various waking activities — but humans’ sleep needs vary radically. Some can be successful chief executives of firms — -or countries — on very little sleep, while others require a full eight *486 hours, or more, to get through only moderately productive days. See, e.g., Only Wimps Need 8 Hours, L.A. Times, Feb. 10, 1994, at 1 (“Winston Churchill slept little and sometimes ridiculed those who slept more.”). Thus the only way to answer the question whether the impairment “substantially” limited Haynes’s sleep would be by reference to the effects on his waking “life activities.” A more direct answer to that question would look straight to the waking activities adversely affected. The intermediate step seems to add nothing useful.