SLEEP
We sleep for 1/3 of our lives. Or so say the experts. Yet most of us spend a lot of time walking around sleep deprived.
Bears eat an outrageous amount of food then hibernate for months at a time. Even giving birth to their young'ins, completely oblivious to the munchkin's arrival. Must be nice. To sleep for months that is. But if they, too, are sleeping 1/3 of their lives, would that mean that a short 4 month nap allows them to stay awake for the other 8 months of the year? I dunno.
Infants sleep around 20 hours a day. They are really throwing the curve off for us, as they spend over 80% of their day asleep. As do their much older generation...senior citizens. They are habitual nappers. They seem to always get their full 8 hours of recommended sleep each night, after having had several naps during the day.
Something happens to us around the end of puberty. We begin a habit, one that stays with us for most of our lives.
First, it's that extra bit of independence gained with each passing birthday. "I'll sleep later" is a phrase heard by many younger people. Sleep is lost when Exam time comes. Which is made only more elusive by that "REALLY GREAT PARTY!" But it doesn't get any easier when our schooling ends. We are now hard-working, income-earning adults who need that stress release at the end of the week.
Eventually we find that someone special. We are finally spending more time in bed, but usually NOT to sleep. After endless days and nights in bed, (only getting out to eat or pee), we learn we are expecting an "addition" to our twosome.
We spend countless hours day and night hovering over the toilet, because "Morning Sickness" is a misnomer, afterall. Dad-to-be is also short on sleep as he is out running to all-night convienence stores, drive-thru's and pharmacies. We spend the last days of our pregnancy unable to get comfortable...thinking of all we still have to do...and wishing our "bundle of joy" would hurry up and get here.
Once we bring Junior home, we think we will finally be able to sleep, since Junior is expected to sleep at least 20 hours each day. But again we are fooled, as we find sleeping more than 30 minutes at a time, nearly impossible.
This eases with time, but just about when we start to sleep more regularly, Junior gets sick and we find ourselves in the ER all night long...followed by days of tending to his every whim as if he were an infant again. A 3 hour nap feels like a piece of heaven. It will be years before we are able to sleep "normally."
Time passes much too quickly and before you know it, Junior is a teenager with enough hormones to fill a football stadium. You both spend hours awake each night, waiting for him to come home. Wishing he'd call. Constantly worried for and about him. It doesn't end when he moves out.
You find your empty nest much too quiet now. You're exhausted from boredom and need to take a nap. Just a small one, though. But as each birthday passes, you find that 8 hours of sleep at night just isn't enough and you are now taking longer and more frequent naps.
It's unfair. Sleep is wasted on the young and old. When you were getting lots of it, you didn't know to appreciate it, and now you're forced to wait to get any.
Tick.
Tock.
Tick.
Tock.
Tick.
Tock.
Bears eat an outrageous amount of food then hibernate for months at a time. Even giving birth to their young'ins, completely oblivious to the munchkin's arrival. Must be nice. To sleep for months that is. But if they, too, are sleeping 1/3 of their lives, would that mean that a short 4 month nap allows them to stay awake for the other 8 months of the year? I dunno.
Infants sleep around 20 hours a day. They are really throwing the curve off for us, as they spend over 80% of their day asleep. As do their much older generation...senior citizens. They are habitual nappers. They seem to always get their full 8 hours of recommended sleep each night, after having had several naps during the day.
Something happens to us around the end of puberty. We begin a habit, one that stays with us for most of our lives.
First, it's that extra bit of independence gained with each passing birthday. "I'll sleep later" is a phrase heard by many younger people. Sleep is lost when Exam time comes. Which is made only more elusive by that "REALLY GREAT PARTY!" But it doesn't get any easier when our schooling ends. We are now hard-working, income-earning adults who need that stress release at the end of the week.
Eventually we find that someone special. We are finally spending more time in bed, but usually NOT to sleep. After endless days and nights in bed, (only getting out to eat or pee), we learn we are expecting an "addition" to our twosome.
We spend countless hours day and night hovering over the toilet, because "Morning Sickness" is a misnomer, afterall. Dad-to-be is also short on sleep as he is out running to all-night convienence stores, drive-thru's and pharmacies. We spend the last days of our pregnancy unable to get comfortable...thinking of all we still have to do...and wishing our "bundle of joy" would hurry up and get here.
Once we bring Junior home, we think we will finally be able to sleep, since Junior is expected to sleep at least 20 hours each day. But again we are fooled, as we find sleeping more than 30 minutes at a time, nearly impossible.
This eases with time, but just about when we start to sleep more regularly, Junior gets sick and we find ourselves in the ER all night long...followed by days of tending to his every whim as if he were an infant again. A 3 hour nap feels like a piece of heaven. It will be years before we are able to sleep "normally."
Time passes much too quickly and before you know it, Junior is a teenager with enough hormones to fill a football stadium. You both spend hours awake each night, waiting for him to come home. Wishing he'd call. Constantly worried for and about him. It doesn't end when he moves out.
You find your empty nest much too quiet now. You're exhausted from boredom and need to take a nap. Just a small one, though. But as each birthday passes, you find that 8 hours of sleep at night just isn't enough and you are now taking longer and more frequent naps.
It's unfair. Sleep is wasted on the young and old. When you were getting lots of it, you didn't know to appreciate it, and now you're forced to wait to get any.
Tick.
Tock.
Tick.
Tock.
Tick.
Tock.
posted by Zette at 10:50 PM
1 comments
