Everyone needs sleep. Yet, why is it that we seem to make fun of people for sleeping too much? Making fun is not quite the right phrase. It's more like we seem to praise people for hardly sleeping at all. "Oh, you got a whole six hours of sleep? I only got three." or "How much coffee have you had today? I've had three cups and it's not even 10am." It's phrases like these that make this whole thing weird. If we all need sleep, and we all understand that we all need sleep, why is it encouraged to sleep less and less to the point of exhaustion? Why is it that "I'm tired." has become one of the most common responses to "How are you?"
But how much sleep is really enough?
I couldn't figure out how to insert the video (here) from the National Sleep Foundation but they have a pretty nice chart that also works.
The problem is that we've glorified not sleeping to the point where younger and younger people are sleeping so little that it's messing with their brain development. It's almost like we see the need for sleep as a weakness. It's impossible to be as efficient if we sleep too much, right? 'Just have to stay up late and get this thing done so that I'm ahead tomorrow.' Wrong. The resulting sleep deprivation usually leads to decreased performance the next day. Sleep deprivation is a real health issue. Here is a chart showing negative effects of sleep deprivation. It's too big a chart for me to put on here which is saying something.
We shouldn't have to pump ourselves with caffeine just to make it through the day. To too many people, the idea of giving up life-saving coffee is beyond comprehension.
But there is no real solution to this problem until everyone understands that it is one. It's a problem society and culture has made grow to the point where everyone just accepts that coffee is life-blood and sleep is a waste of time. But imagine what kind of amazing things everyone could do if we just slept enough?
Get some sleep. Figure out what you can really do. You've just got to make a little more time for yourself. You're worth it.
We shouldn't have to pump ourselves with caffeine just to make it through the day. To too many people, the idea of giving up life-saving coffee is beyond comprehension.
But there is no real solution to this problem until everyone understands that it is one. It's a problem society and culture has made grow to the point where everyone just accepts that coffee is life-blood and sleep is a waste of time. But imagine what kind of amazing things everyone could do if we just slept enough?
Get some sleep. Figure out what you can really do. You've just got to make a little more time for yourself. You're worth it.
Sam--Good topics for your new entries. Pretty good points and ideas. More development and discussion. Too brief. Missing #8.
ReplyDeleteOh no! I could've sworn I wrote something for 8 but it must have gotten weird and deleted when I was trying to fix my media post. It is what it is, I guess. That stinks.
Delete