Sleeping Beauty

There are some understandable favorites that qualify for the top of my “Best Things in Life” list, such as food, love, chocolate (yes, chocolate is technically food, but I believe it spawns in me a specifically unique and untouchable desire that justifies it having its own exclusive ranking on my list) and many others. These are hankerings that are able to single-handedly save the day. When I’m at my lowest, they have the power to bring me to my highest; when I feel like reveling in a personal accomplishment, these items regularly come along for the ride.

What is funny to me though is when I think about this imaginary list, I wonder how it is that I have such a different relationship with one of my Top Five: sleep. For those of you new to the planet, sleep is that irreplaceable state of relaxation where your body unwinds, recovers, and lets you escape the chaos known as everyday life. And yet I’m pretty sure that I have spent my entire existence kicking and screaming (sometimes literally) to keep from having to go there.

Think about it: As kids we were constantly begging Mom and Dad for one more hour – pretty please! – so that we might be let in on all that secret partying the grownups do once we are put to bed. In college we DID all that partying half the week to block out the all-night study fests pulled during the other half. I am positive I shrieked the phrase, “You can sleep when you’re dead!” anytime one of my friends was the first to suggest we cut out of a band party before the entertainment had gone home for the night. And now as a full-fledged adult (when did that happen, by the way?) I find myself closing my eyes later and later each night as I try to fit in one more email or one more chapter into an already jam-packed day. Let’s not even mention all those nights I still lie there in the dark with my thoughts racing about all the things I forgot to do that day that must be knocked out tomorrow.

I’m betting from a medical perspective, this kind of life is just plain terrible (as common is I’m guessing it is among all of us). The fact is, sleep is more than just a want – it’s a flat out need for survival. The National Sleep Foundation reports that the typical adult person needs seven to nine hours of sleep per night. When was the last time you slept that much? You probably already realize from experience that anything less than six hours results in a sharp decline in any cognitive performance expected of you the next day. I also just read that not getting enough sleep can more than double the risk of death from cardiovascular disease (incidentally, this occurs with too much sleep too – go figure). According to Professor Francesco Cappuccio (which is a great name, by the way) of the University of Warwick in London , “Short sleep has been shown to be a risk factor for weight gain, hypertension, and Type 2 diabetes, sometimes leading to mortality; but in contrast to the short sleep-mortality association, it appears that no potential mechanisms by which long sleep could be associated with increased mortality have yet been investigated. Some candidate causes for this include depression, low socioeconomic status, and cancer-related fatigue. …In terms of prevention, our findings indicate that consistently sleeping around seven hours per night is optimal for health, and a sustained reduction may predispose to ill health.” Or you could skip reading all that and be back to: get 7 hours a night. Period.

My boyfriend is now pointing out to me as I write this that he is getting his full allotment of sleep by what I have nicknamed “binge sleeping” when he can be frequently found in bed past noon on the weekends versus the five hours a night he gets during the week. Although dozens of cultures in warm climates follow large meals with regular “siestas” in the middle of the day – I do not think this is the same thing as sleeping UNTIL the middle of the day. However, this is known as sleep deprivation, which will lead to “sleep debt” – and that ups the chances of you falling asleep in a meeting at work. Not good.

And besides, when you slow down enough to admit it, sleep is a wonderful, comforting thing. A rainy Sunday afternoon is the perfect time to crawl into bed with a book, fully aware that the sounds outside your window will soon lull you off to sleep. I love how refreshed I feel when I wake up without an alarm clock, knowing my system got exactly the amount of slumber it needed.

Now if I can just quiet those reminder alarms going off in my head that are demanding I be more productive.