Wednesday, March 17, 2010

7:40 FAIL

How much sleep do you need? How much do you actually get?

I ask because apparently, I'm a child. I'm a four-year-old child fighting going to sleep even when I know I need it. At least I was last night. I knew I was tired at 9:45, but Peter had a late night at the office -- didn't get home until 10:30 -- so we stayed up to watch 24, and then I had to shower, and then we had to look for some computer files, and and and. The point is I didn't get to bed until aafter midnight, probably didn't get to sleep until almost 1, and when the alarm went off at 6:30 -- no. Just no.

So now I have to face it. I will just have to deal with the "early to bed" part of the equation if I want to wake up early. Which more or less leaves me in the same place as before. An hour tacked on at the beginning of the day or the end of the day will be equally productive, but I guess I was hoping that I could do both and not miss the sleep -- that I'd be one of the 1-3% of people that can function normally on less than eight hours of sleep a night. I get something like 7 1/2 hours on your average day, I'd say, so...I'm probably not one of those chosen few.

At the gym yesterday I read a Women's Health article about Ashley Judd, who admitted to needing 10 1/2 hours of sleep a night to function well. I was repulsed by that -- it seems so grossly decadent. Who besides an independently wealthy person or trust fund baby can sleep away nearly half their day? And why would you want to? I love sleep as much as the next person but truth be told, like time spent in the car, it seems like such a waste to me. I resent having to do it, and so I fight it.

I also read about a study that suggests people who get less than eight hours of sleep daily have a harder time losing weight and tend to crave carby, salty, sugary, and fatty foods more. As someone who has trouble resisting distinct and particular cravings for those very foods, ...well. Maybe I should just get more sleep.

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