60 Minutes had a fascinating story on sleep deprivation on recently. (the other story, about Denmark being the most content country in the world was also very good, but that’s another post.)
I make it a point to get at least eight hours of sleep per day, because I realized some time ago that I am deeply affected by sleep deprivation.
As if to underscore that, I got almost no good sleep last night. It seemed that I couldn’t relax, and spent most of the night tossing and turning. I woke up this morning… impaired, to put it mildly.
I have spent the entire day angry, which, since I’m watching my kids this week, is a bad thing. I wasn’t even angry at anything real, I would just focus my anger on whatever was in front of me.
The 60 Minutes report talks of there being a physical impact from sleep deprivation after a single night. One otherwise healthy test subject began exhibiting pre-diabetic syptoms after just six days of being limited to just 4 hours of “deep sleep” per night.
Fascinating report, and well worth the watch.
June 18th, 2008 at 11:55 pm
Good post. I have to be careful about getting enough sleep. My back tightens up if I’m in bed for more than 7 hours, so I try to get at least that many on workdays, and then try to nap a couple times on the weekend days to catch up. My back stops tightening up when I work out on our Total Gym, but I can’t seem to stick with it. Even 5-10 minutes a day on it is enough to keep my back in shape enough to keep from stiffening up while sleeping. It is great that you recognize and accept that you need to get enough sleep. A lot of people seem to have the attitude that a person is a wimp or lazy if they claim to need more than 4-5 hours a night, and we wonder why there is so much road rage… Most people who only sleep 4-5 hours a night also seem to be heavy coffee drinkers. I avoid caffeine - unless I have a night where I’ve gotten less than 6 hours of sleep and then can only tolerate about 4 ounces of coffee at a time.