snain and sleep

February 17, 2002

Today's Reading
The Birds of Heaven: Travels with Cranes by Peter Matthiessen

This Year's Reading
2002 Book List

Speaking of humidifying the environment, it's raining, it's snowing, it's raining, it's snowing, wait a sec, I think it's doing both.

I slept past noon. The first news item I read after doing this cited a study finding that the body only really needs 6 hours of sleep, that 7 is normal, and that people who sleep 8 hours a night die sooner. Uh oh. It likened oversleeping to overeating. Oh good, now it's not just the memory of my mother telling my teenage self I would never be able to function in the real world if I didn't stop sleeping in the morning. Now it's an official scientific finding. I can picture the public health announcements now. Get up you lazy slugabed! Sleep in on a Sunday and die young! Sleep equals death! Now I lay me down to sleep ... and even if I don't die before I wake I darn well better not get 8 hours of sleep lest I die before my time.

As with all science journalism in the popular press, I am a teeny bit skeptical. Remember, 50% of Americans die of heart disease but 100% of Americans die. That startling heart disease statistic was my major clue that science journalism is not giving us all the facts. That particular story (about 50% dying of heart disease) said nothing about how long the people lived. Umm, if somebody is 95 and dies of a heart attack in his sleep is that the same as a fit jogger of 39 dropping dead on his morning run? How long are we supposed to live anyway? And more importantly, what are we supposed to die of?

Anyway, back to this sleep thing. People who got 7 hours a night lived longer than people who got 8 hours a night. Was that the only difference between the two groups? Were the 8-hour sleepers as healthy as the 7-hour sleepers? Did they have jobs? Maybe the reason they could sleep 8 hours was they didn't have jobs they had to be at by 7:00 or 8:00 AM. Maybe the reason they were sleeping 8 hours was they had some debilitating disease. How old were the subjects they studied? It's fairly well known that teenagers need more sleep than adults (something about those raging hormones of puberty). So is getting 8 hours of sleep only a risk factor for adults?

OK, and about this oversleeping being just like overeating... are we going to now have 12-step programs for people who are addicted to sleep? Are we going to have treatment programs? Are we going to have a wake-up call industry similar in size and scope to the diet industry?

Oh woe is me. I slept for 12 hours and I am doomed. Oh, but does it count if it's just because I've way underslept for the past month, and I have a sinus infection, and it's gray and gloomy out?

My name is Janet, I'm a sleep addict. Set the alarm for 6:00 AM.