The only reason I'm up and writing at 7 something on a SUNDAY morning is because I was sick last night with pain and nausea and went to bed early.
I know that it is possible to get TOO much sleep. I'd rather get too much than too little! Recent studies have shown that lack of sleep doubles the risk of death from cardiovascular disease and increases the risk for weight gain, hypertension, and Type 2 diabetes. Then again, too much sleep can also double the risk of death...but fewer studies have been done on too much sleep and risk factors. I'd rather err on the too much sleep side! ;-D
And I'm sure you've heard of reports on studies that demonstrated that cognitive performance declines with fewer than eight hours of sleep?
Beauty rest is essential to healthy living! I'm all for healthy living!
I know I mentioned sleep in another post last year, but it's very important to me!
If I don't get my BR (as hubby likes to call beauty rest), I can be reeeeealllly cranky. I had an acquaintance long ago who stayed the night with us and the next morning, for whatever reason, she became Queen Bitch! %-( Snapped at me and my honey! After that visit, I vowed to not be like that, ever! Were we supposed to cut her some slack just because she was a single mom, had been raped at gunpoint in college (in my hometown!) and was daily stressed because of her history and a crazy ex-husband bothering her beyond compare? I didn't think so and I called her on it, too.
It wasn't the first time she snapped at me...and I do think she had gotten as much sleep as we did! Sure, I felt bad for her and her situation, even took time off from work to accompany her to court, but I wasn't the right person to help her out. Eventually, I came to dread her calls and slowly extracted her from my life because she abused our friendship, and despite repeated (empty) apologies, never made amends to stop using me or other people around her as her punching bag when she was frustrated. She completely exhausted me and gave me a reason to run to my cozy bed.
I'm a wild sleeper! When I wake up, the blankets are twisted as if a tornado had gone through our room! But my honey is very peaceful, like my mom. So much so that it scares me once in a while because they both are so STILL, reminding me of how dead people look in their coffin. :-( Even as I gaze upon my honey now, entering his 40th year today (!), he looks very calm lying there under our comforter. :-)
It's very rare that the blankets are smooth when I wake up. I forget I caused it and then when nighttime rolls around, I look at the twisted sheet and blanket and wonder aloud: how did this happen?
Okay, so now I just confessed I don't make the bed. All we have is our comforter, flat sheet, bed sheet and king sized pillow. I used to have a bed cover, but it's in storage. The comforter IS our bedspread! Just cover the bed with it and it looks fine! Sometimes I fold up the blanket like I did when we grew up. No fancy bedcover and pillows--we never had any of that. Mil has always had that, so it takes me a while to make the bed when we visit her--as in a half dozen fancy pillows to throw on top of the bed to make it look pretty and proper.
I've done a lot of sleeping on public transportation in my young life: on planes, trains, and buses. I've even ended up in another city because I fell asleep on the subway train! %-0 I need to get myself a neck pillow because I always end up with a sore neck. And I have missed my stop a few times from snoozing on the bus. What's another few blocks to walk?
Some friends have told me they can't sleep anywhere comfortably except their own home. Maybe they haven't traveled enough? I don't care! I've slept in a roomful of strangers both here and abroad--and not just for one night, but several. If I'm sleepy, I don't intend to deprive myself of much needed beauty rest!
Let's see where else I've snoozed: airports, classrooms (uh oh!), campgrounds, homes of friends or relatives of friends whom I didnt know from Adam, and in another home in another city, via a domestic AFS (American Field Service) weekend exchange that felt more alien than being halfway around the world.
As long as I get my sleep, I'm a happy camper. :-) If not...be careful! ;-0
I'm also incapable of taking short naps. Mine are mega naps--at least an hour. Two is better! When I'm out, I'm OUT! The other day, I took a 20 minute nap, which is miraculous. Hubby can take a five minute nap and feel refreshed. Not me.
How about you?
Without sleep, I wouldn't have fantastic, vivid technicolor dreams to report to my man. Or to myself. Dreams where people from my past and present collide, dreams where characters from movies are chasing me instead of the characters from the film, dreams about other people I've never met--or creatures I've never met, dreams of myself inserted into futuristic scenes that came out of a movie I saw recently, dreams of my family members or relatives doing strange things, or dreams of myself being on the world stage (doing something worthy to benefit humanity)! :-)
How else would I enter an idyllic or fantasy world without sleep? It's a fun, often bizarre, and sometimes nightmarish place to go...and that can make waking up a good thing. But I usually have a terrible time waking up, regardless of how little or how much sleep I got. I like my sleep.
I love my sleep! ;-)
* * * * * * * *
A Long, Long Sleep, a Famous Sleep
A long, long sleep, a famous sleepThat makes no show for dawn
By stretch of limb or stir of lid, --
An independent one.
Was ever idleness like this?
Within a hut of stone
To bask the centuries away
Nor once look up for noon?
--Emily Dickinson
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