(no subject)

[somedaybitch]

well, i could have told you this.

i've been arguing the mandatory-ness of 8 hours of sleep per night for years, and everyone told me i was just lazy. and study after study has backed up my personal experience. sleep keeps the immune system up. (i rarely get sick.) sleep keeps one's mood from going wonky. (only psycho-cranky when i'm sleep deprived. pretty bloody unreasonable too. heh.) sleep slows the visible signs of the aging process. (41 years old and have almost no facial wrinkles.)

i did horribly at morning classes in college. there was a whole directly proportional ratio between attending class and a doing well in class thing goin' on. i finally got smart and got out of the utterly stupid habit from high school of taking 9 am classes and stopped signing up for anything that started before the crack of noon. if i could find a night/late afternoon section of something, i was in heaven.

woe are those who learn the hard way that i take sleep very seriously. i can't count how many times i hung up on the former mother-in-law. heh.

seriously, and maybe i'm a bit weird, but there are very few things that will irrationally piss me off more than someone waking me up from a deep sleep for something that is not an actual life and death emergency. no exaggeration. it used to drive the ex batshit. he'd try and wake me up for sex at, i dunno, 8 am or something fucking retarded, and i'd screw a gun in his ear. (no, not metaphorically. although, only in mock anger.....sort of. it was a fun law enforcement house. maybe someday i'll tell you guys the time i came home from a shift, he was fully asleep but conscious and thought i was a bad guy breaking in. good times.)

his poor male brain just couldn't comprehend turning down sex for anything, much less for sleep. it was kinda cute actually. but we won't tell him that.

or how many times i wouldn't answer the door when my mom and stepdad would come over at, 10 or 11am, or even noon, "cuz they were in the area!", when i was working graveyard. they finally stopped, i dunno, 10 years into the job, when they came by at around 1 and i blew a gasket. i opened the door and they're all, "hi! wanna go to breakfast?". i wouldn't let them in, and in that very creepy, super calm voice of imminent danger i said, "hey, how about on my days off, i come over to your place around 2 am and take you guys to dinner. how's that sound?" oy.

so anyway, parents? let your kids sleep. lobby your schools to start at some time other than oh-dark-stupid. and really, wouldn't that be easier for you? none of that getting up extra early to take the kids to school, along with a couple million of your closest friends, and then hauling ass to make it to work. and hey, if they start later, they end later. neat trick, huh? maybe the latch-key kid syndrome will come to a screeching halt. and who knows what other wackiness could ensue. families doing stuff together. kids not running amok alone cuz the 'rents aren't home yet. crazy, i know.

Comments

[thevaliumsofalj.livejournal.com]

i love sleep... i love sleeping in... i hate early classes .. and I'm sorry I've woken you up ::::hugs::::

:D

[somedaybitch.livejournal.com]

yeah but at least your stuff was important. and when it wasn't, i growled at the phone, which made it stop ringing, and went back to sleep.;)

[boofadil.livejournal.com]

"hey, how about on my days off, i come over to your place around 2 am and take you guys to dinner. how's that sound?"

so totally with you, except for me it was "Hey, Aunt C! How bout I drive out to your house and pound on your kids' doors at 2am next Monday!"

[somedaybitch.livejournal.com]

heh. we're such rebels.

[rubberneck.livejournal.com]

Word. Research suggests that sleep is when you regenerate and repair your body, when your immune system kicks into higher gear against invaders, and when your brain encodes short term memories into long-term memories.

I always put a good night's sleep or two between when I learn something and when I have to know it; all-nighters only work when they're done days before the test.

Human Growth Hormone, which not only grows your body originally but also rejuvenates it throughout life, is only secreted when you're asleep. That--and whatever the hell the brain's doing during those alternate states of consciousness, which is still a big mystery with tantalizing hints--is why babies sleep so much (even if it's all broken up during a given day) and why teenagers sleep like the dead. If we could just *use* that instead of fighting it, who knows, the collective intelligence of America might rise a little bit.

[gingerwood.livejournal.com]

I've heard that bit about teens sleep patterns shifting. It does explain why my teen years are such a blur, not only did class start a 7:30, but during the summer my morning swim workouts were 6am-8:30am. And the coach told us in no uncertain terms that we were not to nap during the day. Needless to say, we lived for early morning thunderstorms.

There's been talk for years about switching around the school schedules so that the elementary school kids started a 7:30 and the High School kids at 8:30, the main problem is that in winter the sun doesn't rise until after 8 and nobody wants 6 year olds waiting for the bus in the dark :( They need to stagger the start times to make the most efficient use of the buses. Safety and economics trump common sense.

[somedaybitch.livejournal.com]

how do your kids handle the early mornings?

[gingerwood.livejournal.com]

The eldest (11) has always been a lark, waking naturally between 6:30 and 7 am. This six months or so he's gradually started staying up later and sleeping later. He's still always up by 8, usually by 7:30 though.

The youngest (8) will wake up between 7:10 and 7:20, like clockwork and has for years.

My two year old nephew, on the other hand, apparently got up at 4am-ish and started working on his career as a purcussionist/vocalist.

[somedaybitch.livejournal.com]

wow. i'm not sure if that makes you lucky or not.

[arthurfrdent.livejournal.com]

Kid, sometimes we're so similar it's frightening [you better take that the right way...] I kinda went on a tear, and the nice board told me I had gone over the 4300char limit... so I posted it HERE

but suffice it to say, I agree...

sorry to hear about the ex... water WAY, WAY, under the bridge... but imagine 6am, when you are expected to PERFORM directly out of stage IV sleep. That argumet went nuclear... maybe less to do with having different sleep cycles than inconsiderate partners... /end

AFD

[somedaybitch.livejournal.com]

re the link, i'll check it out when i get home.

re the 6am issue...all i can say to is that's why folks have hands. don't wake me up when it's totally diy. heh.

[boogieordie.livejournal.com]

In Psych 101 first semester we had a guest lecture Dr. Maas, who is a professor at Cornell, he wrote the book "Power Sleep: The Revolutionary Program That Prepares Your Mind for Peak Performance." It was definately the high point of that class, especially since he was an advocate of eliminating 8 o'clock classes, and it was an 8 o'clock psych class. Teehee.

Apparently he worked with Jenna Hughes the year that she won the gold medal. He made up a whole sleep program for her and told her parents they needed to elimate the early skating practice from her routine, and they thought he was crazy, but they did it anyway. It ended up helping her out a lot.

Anyway, my grandmother ended up buying his book and said it was good, if you're interested here's the link. (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0060977604/qid=1119499858/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/103-3211217-4343060?v=glance&s=books&n=507846)

I myself, can't get enough sleep. :D

[somedaybitch.livejournal.com]

well duh? who LIKES an 8 am class? that's just stupid. the "real world" model as a metaphor for the logic of scheduling college class is just such utter bullshit. you're not at your "real world" job are you? no. you're in school. jeez. they're supposed to be educated. stupid fucks.


interesting re the book. thanks for the link.

[pualaridesagain.livejournal.com]

Have you noticed how difficult it is to compensate for sleep loss as well? ugh.

[somedaybitch.livejournal.com]

utterly brutal. oy. you can do it, contrary to common perception, but it sucks huge.

[spiderbaggins.livejournal.com]

I guess I'm the model forthe opposite end of the spectrum. I usally only get 5 horus of sleep a night. Sometimes less sometimes on weekends more. When I sleep too much I feel tired the whole next day.
I'm 40, I have no visible lines on my face and no one who doesn't know me believes I'm 40. Example...Our new purchasing agent at work said he doesn't get into the new alt rock of today since he is 35 now. I told hime I'm 40 and enjoy modern rock. He just stared at me and said, "You are NOT 40." Uh Yup I yam.

But as for your sleeping needs I am aware of that. I've wanted to call you many times, but at this point I don't know your schedule anymore and I don't want to wake you and have you come through the phone at me. ;)