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Who needs sleep? I do!
Nise's Notes
By Denise Schoppe
The Marlin Democrat
September 8, 2004
Sleep — the natural periodic suspension of consciousness during which the powers of the body are restored
Interesting concept, sleep. You lie down, close your eyes and eventually drift into a state in which everything slows down. You breathe deeply. You relax. You dream things that most of the time don’t make sense.
Sleep is an important component to a person’s health. Their mental, emotional and physical states can be greatly altered by a lack of sleep. However, in today’s world in which everything moves so fast, the thing that gets sacrificed first to get everything done is usually sleep.
I don’t get enough sleep. I know I don’t. However, demands of getting things done have altered my sleep schedule so dramatically that I’m not sure I know how to get it on track. Or even that I really want to yet.
See, I love the night hours. My ideal time of “day” is from around midnight to 4:00 am. That doesn’t make for a very long night of sleep as I get up every day around 7:00 am, so I usually have to miss those hours in exchange for sleep.
Usually, but not always.
Some nights, I just can’t help being too wired to sleep, or else I just have something else to do that I feel is more important than sleep.
It all started in high school, when the amount of homework I had was so heavy that I was forced to become acquainted with the early AM hours. The radio personalities on a program called “After Midnight” were my company, and I began to find that I really could run on four hours of sleep when circumstances demanded it.
College came and it got worse. Two hours of sleep seemed to work okay every now and then, and all-nighters I discovered give a fascinating up-down effect on a person’s physical and mental state.
Upon graduation, I was determined to get back to getting plenty of sleep. That happened, except that my new sleep schedule was around 5:00 am some nights until almost noon. I did it by choice, and I quickly came to wonder, “What’s morning?”
I’d like to say that things changed drastically once I began working, but it didn’t. No, my schedule has been altered once again to allow myself a few nights a week of enjoying my late night hours, and then trying to make up for the lost sleep on other nights.
It’ll be my luck my doctor will read this and send me a stern letter reminding me of the last lecture about getting enough sleep.
Sleep is very important, I know. One of these days I’ll let the many lectures sink in and I’ll try harder to get more sleep. However, until that time I’ll just keep running on empty, refueling the energy cells as time allows it.
Much like the rest of the world does. There was a time when you slept when it was dark, and worked while it was light. Now nothing stops, and sleep gets lost in the cracks of time.
For something as simple and lying down and closing your eyes, sleep is an important part of living a healthy and happy life. Maybe we should all do more to try to reincorporate it into our lives.
Nise's Notes
By Denise Schoppe
The Marlin Democrat
September 8, 2004
Sleep — the natural periodic suspension of consciousness during which the powers of the body are restored
Interesting concept, sleep. You lie down, close your eyes and eventually drift into a state in which everything slows down. You breathe deeply. You relax. You dream things that most of the time don’t make sense.
Sleep is an important component to a person’s health. Their mental, emotional and physical states can be greatly altered by a lack of sleep. However, in today’s world in which everything moves so fast, the thing that gets sacrificed first to get everything done is usually sleep.
I don’t get enough sleep. I know I don’t. However, demands of getting things done have altered my sleep schedule so dramatically that I’m not sure I know how to get it on track. Or even that I really want to yet.
See, I love the night hours. My ideal time of “day” is from around midnight to 4:00 am. That doesn’t make for a very long night of sleep as I get up every day around 7:00 am, so I usually have to miss those hours in exchange for sleep.
Usually, but not always.
Some nights, I just can’t help being too wired to sleep, or else I just have something else to do that I feel is more important than sleep.
It all started in high school, when the amount of homework I had was so heavy that I was forced to become acquainted with the early AM hours. The radio personalities on a program called “After Midnight” were my company, and I began to find that I really could run on four hours of sleep when circumstances demanded it.
College came and it got worse. Two hours of sleep seemed to work okay every now and then, and all-nighters I discovered give a fascinating up-down effect on a person’s physical and mental state.
Upon graduation, I was determined to get back to getting plenty of sleep. That happened, except that my new sleep schedule was around 5:00 am some nights until almost noon. I did it by choice, and I quickly came to wonder, “What’s morning?”
I’d like to say that things changed drastically once I began working, but it didn’t. No, my schedule has been altered once again to allow myself a few nights a week of enjoying my late night hours, and then trying to make up for the lost sleep on other nights.
It’ll be my luck my doctor will read this and send me a stern letter reminding me of the last lecture about getting enough sleep.
Sleep is very important, I know. One of these days I’ll let the many lectures sink in and I’ll try harder to get more sleep. However, until that time I’ll just keep running on empty, refueling the energy cells as time allows it.
Much like the rest of the world does. There was a time when you slept when it was dark, and worked while it was light. Now nothing stops, and sleep gets lost in the cracks of time.
For something as simple and lying down and closing your eyes, sleep is an important part of living a healthy and happy life. Maybe we should all do more to try to reincorporate it into our lives.
