I don’t know how you get that impression. There are a number of trends going either way. For example of trends to more time in the workplace, the universal presence of caffeine and the prevalence of stimulants like amphetamines and cocaine in the workplace, long hours in the high tech industry, catered meals at work (so you don’t have to leave the workplace to find food), some sort of onsite sleeping room where you can take a quick nap rather than go home to sleep, etc. And of course, the two income family.

The point is that there are already many ways businesses at the cutting edge of employment are making the labor of their workers more productive or making the companies more attractive to employees. Among these innovations is a subset that prolongs the amount of time that a worker actually works in a week. I see it as reasonable that a number of employers will actually use such technology on their employees.

Further, I should note that at least in the US, a lot of people really are pressed for time, both due to work and social engagements.

Similarly, I am not sure humans would have happier lives if they were active 22 hours a day. Would members of a family be able to stand being around each other that long? Would all that leisure make people bored and more apt to do dangerous things?

I think a pill to give us more sleep with no side effects would be more useful.

Imagine if you were one of the people with “normal” sleep patterns and 6 hours less a day than almost everyone else. There’d be some strong incentive for employers and fellow employees and friends to squeeze extra time out of you that you couldn’t give without drugs.

Also, I value my dream time. I apparently dream rather more than usual at around 4-6 hours a night. If I’m only dreaming 2 hours a night then that’s a lot of missing time IMHO.

Next they’ll find a way to take away dream time to fuel our soul-sucking society. We’re already nearly robots, the implementation in silicon or meat is just semantics.