Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Molly @ 8 weeks (sleeping like an angel).

“Poor sleep has a price. Millions of individuals struggle to stay alert at home, in school, on the job - and on the road. Tragically, fatigue contributes to more than 100,000 police-reported highway crashes, causing 71,000 injuries and 1,500 deaths each year in the United States alone.”
– A statement from the Sleep Foundation.
The average life span of a human in our society today is 66 years. The optimal sleeping time set by scientists and doctors all over the world is 8 hours per day – that means, in an ideal reality, we should get 190080 hours of sleep. That’s also equal to sleeping for 7920 days straight—almost 33% of our lives! Sadly or thankfully – depending on how you see it, our world ain’t any Utopia. We don’t live in an ideal world – we don’t live in a perfect world. A lot of people don’t get to sleep and poor sleep has a price.

We are not ignorant of the fact that there are men every day in business suits generating each and every denomination of money there ever was. We aren’t oblivious to the fact that there are students just like you and me fussing over the ala-Empire State building stack of projects and requirements (that we usually do deliberately at the last minute) our tutors ask us to do. All these hullabaloo that we’re all oh-so-deeply immersed in, usually sends us to a completely alternate universe. Well, maybe not completely, but alien enough to make our minds forget about time, and forget our sleeping times. We are all so caught up in the importance of getting that promotion (for those who are working) or needing that mark (a HD grade on a project) so badly (for the students) since it’s practically dictated by our society that these things are essential.

Though, it is true these are crucial, we tend to forget the equally vital. We disregard the other side of life. The side where we actually have to live as the normal animals that nature has dictated us to be. As I’ve read in Wikipedia and as, I’m sure, the nearest Biology teacher (or any other sane person to you) will say, regular sleep is necessary for survival.

Sleep increases our mortality. Those people sleeping for 4-6 hours have practically the same fatality rates as those who are moderately obese, so as those sleeping for more than 9 hours. People who sleep 8 hours a day, have a better chance at living – decreasing their risks of accidents and giving them a better immune system.

Though, I’m not telling you to completely disregard your efforts for your promotion or your project, I’m simply saying that we should prioritize and mark sleep in our organizers, even our imaginary ones. I’m pretty sure that cutting your chatting time short, or your SDO sessions with your friends wouldn’t hurt. Moreover, I’m sure you’d be more relieved to start your projects right away when it’s given. End procrastination and SLEEP.


And here I am, finishing up this article,

the clock blaring – 3:00 am.

I’m going to die early. Definitely.

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3:36 AM