SLEEP has become a need like food or drink. It’s a thirst I can’t slake, a hunger I can’t feed.
I want, just once, to wake up and not feel tired. What must that feel like? My friend gets up at 7am every morning, even weekends. “I can’t lie any longer. I just feel I’ve had enough.”
Enough? What does enough feel like? I can’t imagine the existence of such a beautiful state of being. To have had enough sleep and need no more. It must feel like angel’s wings or independent wealth.
Inemuri is a Japanese word that means ‘being present while sleeping’ and is the act – or art – of sleeping in public. It’s a status thing. It means you’ve worked so hard that you need to have a nap there and then. I feel like inemuri a good 85% of the day.
Researchers from Oxford University said recently that schools and workplaces should stagger their starting times based on pupils’ and employees’ ages, working with our natural biological rhythms. A 7am alarm call for an 18 or 19-year-old is the same as a 4.30am alarm call for a 50-year-old. For people aged 24 to 30, getting up at 7am is the equivalent of losing 90 minutes of sleep a night.
It doesn’t matter what time you go to sleep, either, as your circadian rhythms can be no more controlled than your heartbeat.
Dr Paul Kelley, clinical research associate, says: “[Sleep deficit] can continue up until you’re about 55 when it’s in balance again. The 10-year-old and 55-year-old wake and sleep naturally at the same time.”
The British Sleep Council says if you don’t get at least six hours sleep a night then you’re 12% more likely to die young. Hardly anyone gets enough sleep. Public Health England says lack of sleep is making people age faster. They’re rotting their own bodies.
Conversely, if you sleep too much, you raise your risk of stroke and depression.
How much is too much? No one knows. How much is too little? No one knows.
So, some reading about the problems reveals I should go to bed earlier, get up later, nap, not nap. Drink milk, avoid coffee, put away my phone, have natural light or block out all light.
Sleep is the new dieting - eat carbs, don't eat carbs. Fat's bad, protein's good. Be careful of protein.
I nap like other people snack in the vain hope I will feel better on waking. I never feel better on waking. But I'm going to keep trying, starting with a wee nap right now.
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