Those of you who know me know that I don’t like to sleep. I blame my older sisters for this. My two oldest sisters were teenagers during my toddler and preschool years, and my memories of when they lived at home involve being put to bed early while everyone else sat up and laughed and popped popcorn.
I’m sure those memories are totally correct because I have never been known to exaggerate.
Dorm life nearly did me in, because there is always someone up doing something fun in a college dorm. If you’re the type of person who never wants to miss anything, you might not sleep for years.
Anyway, I hate sleep. It takes up so much time that I could spend doing something more interesting.
The ladies at Mason-Dixon Knitting, however, are trying a little experiment where they sleep 7 & 1/2 hours each night. It’s supposed to make you ever so much healthier.
I know all this. I took classes in college where they talked about sleep hygiene and insomnia and the diurnal cortisol cycle and all that jazz. But late at night is the only time my house is quiet. If I go to sleep, POOF!, it will be morning and people will be up asking me for food.
For the introvert, time alone trumps good health.
But this article in Glamour made me reconsider my night-owl ways: Lose Weight While You Sleep. One woman in this article lost FIFTEEN POUNDS just by sleeping more.
So last week, I committed to getting myself to bed by 11 PM each night. This is hard work, people. Just for a change of pace, I’m thinking about learning to defuse bombs so I can do something less nerve-racking that doesn’t require so much prior planning.
I’ll let you know how it goes if I’m ever successful.
Subscribe to Writing and Living by email or in a reader.
, and other online booksellers.
SO glad to read you again. I’ve missed your wit!
Well, since eating less and exercising a WHOLE lot more hasn’t net even a one lb loss in almost 3 weeks, I’m ready to give it a try. Not that I’m frustrated or anything.
It is a love/hate thing for me. I LOVE sleep, but I hate doing it because like you said, there are more fun things to do AND no one is asking for food….or anything else. Just ME and the cats and whatever we want to do.
I’ve made the same commitment! Eleven p.m. is soooo hard, and I admit I’ve missed it (by a fair bit) the last two nights.
I also have memories of everyone else being up while I was sent to bed.
But I also remember a lot of Johnny Carson.
Not sure which of me to believe.
I remember lying in bed, listening to the Johnny Carson theme song in the next room, and hating the fact that I had been staring at the ceiling for hours. But I still send my kids to bed early.
I can’t believe you’re a Samford. I thought all Samford’s needed lots of sleep. I sure do, but I wish I was more like you. I can’t imagine what I could get done if I could stay up later and not feel like crap the next day.
Yes, the other cousins always wanted to get up too early, too. LOL. I probably need more sleep, I just fight it like a toddler. Most people quit fighting sleep once they become adults.