As an aside, in trying to make a title compelling (have a person as the subject), the Times is inadvertently hurting science.

This article is about a hypothesis that has some evidence in mice, but tells nowhere near the whole story, especially in humans with regard to sleep. However, the title suggests more confidence than warranted. Likely, in the near future, some newspaper will publish a similar article, except the purpose of sleep will be to remember (which is also supported by studies).

The problem is the average person will see that and think, what scientists say is always changing, and they are contradicting each other all the time. Then when they see an article stating scientists say that climate change is worsening, they will view it just like any article that has "scientists say" in the title.