The Barometer Online

Issue date: 3/7/08 Section: Forum

Media Credit: Tim Pfarr

So are you ready to set your clocks forward this weekend? Yeah, me neither - losing an hour of sleep sucks. In fact it's probably enough to piss me off about a week in advance. Why? Because sleep is effing amazing - you get to just lie there in a state of decreased consciousness for hours on end. It's like taking mind-altering drugs without the whole "drug" part. But really though, sleep is important, and a lot of us don't fully realize that.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that accidents due to lack of sleep cost Americans $12.5 billion in productivity and property loss each year. Over 1,500 people die each year due to fatigue-related crashes. And maybe that is a minor statistic to the number of people who die of cancer (about that many die every day), but those sleep deprivation-related deaths could easily be prevented.

And if you can somehow overlook the facts, you'll feel like garbage for the rest of the day if you don't get enough sleep. But if we talk about sleep, we should get back to the beginning.

There are four stages of sleep - the first being the lightest and the fourth being the heaviest. About 90 minutes after falling asleep, rapid eye movement (REM) starts and dreaming begins. From there, our bodies get into a rhythm of shifting between REM sleep and non REM sleep. REM sleep accounts for about 25 percent of a given night's sleep - so you're only dreaming for about 25 percent of the night.

The amount of sleep we need to feel awake varies with age: newborns, in their first two months, need anywhere from 10.5 to 18.5 hours of sleep each day, then from months two to 12 they need 14 to 15 hours of sleep each day. (That much sleep sounds nice, doesn't it?) From there, the amount of sleep we need continues to decrease to 8.5 to 9.5 hours a night for adolescents and 7 to 9 hours a night for adults and old farts.

Speaking of old farts, why does it always seem like old people go to bed at like 6 p.m. and wake up at about 3 a.m. and go for a walk to "start their day?" Maybe I'm missing something, but when I'm old I plan on sleeping in every day. And if anybody tries to wake me up early I'm throwing a lamp at them. Crazy old people… and putting them behind the wheel of a car is like giving a toddler a hand gun - bad idea.

Continued...

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