Get Some Sleep!

Scientists recently completed a study that proved that people look better when they have had a solid eight hours sleep versus when they are sleep-deprived. Really? They needed to spend money on a research study to prove that? They could just come to my house. Time lapse photography would show a steady increase in the pigment under my eyes, the frizz in my hair and the general frazzled nature of my appearance since I have become a parent of two.

Right now I am writing about sleep because it is all I can think about. I eat, drink and sleep, sleep. Because I can’t remember how long it has been since I have had a good night’s sleep. (Lack of sleep affects your memory, you know.)

I thought I was done with sleepless nights once my youngest stopped nursing every two hours and started sleeping through the night. But lately it seems one won’t go to sleep and the other won’t stay asleep or vice versa, so every night is disturbed.

After struggling with sleep issues with child number one (like many first-time parents), I was determined to be strong with my second child no matter how much crying out had to be done. I was, and she was great about going to sleep and staying asleep for much of her short life. But recently illness and vacation combined to shake the routine. My sick toddler reached out to be held and coddled as she snuffled her way to sleep before being placed in an unfamiliar crib, and we did it just so we could make it through our time away. We all know what happened next. She refuses to give up the pleasure of being rocked to sleep, and I don’t have the heart to let her cry it out as she continues to struggle with cold and cough.

To top it off, a few times a week she has been waking up during the night and staying up for hours. One day it was 11 pm until 3 am. Another it was 3 am until 11 am! Later in the morning of the 3 am wakeup call, we sat watching Sesame Street together. As some sort of cosmic joke, the subject for that morning’s Elmo’s World just happened to be “sleep”. As Elmo shouted, “Elmo’s thinking about sleep today!” I thought, “Me too, Elmo. Me too!”

Apparently others are thinking a lot about sleep as well. I recently opened a Sunday magazine to see “Go Back To Bed” listed as one of the top ten suggestions for a successful new year. The next day the AAA newsletter landed in my mailbox with the headline “Before driving, get your Z’s”. The article stated that 2 out of 5 drivers admit to having fallen asleep at the wheel at some point (with 1 in 10 experiencing this in the past year), which is pretty scary to think about. It reminded me of a moment I had in the car just a few days ago, when I found myself on a street with little memory of getting there. I remembered getting off the highway and waiting several cars back from a red light, but I couldn’t recall actually getting to the intersection and choosing a direction to turn, which explained why I found myself on the wrong street after having turned the wrong way. I’m just glad I was on the right side of the road.

Lack of sleep can be a danger to us on the road and off. It affects memory and concentration, slows reaction time, increases risk for heart disease and stroke, fosters a desire for higher-calorie foods, and negatively affects your mood and ability to handle stress and anxiety (just ask my family) among other things.

So, as the start of the year ushers in my usual list of resolutions – eat better, exercise more, get organized, get together with friends more often – I am first resolving to make rest a priority because otherwise none of those other things will get done. And as one doctor put it, “There is no substitute for sleep but sleep.”

Apparently, I should have kicked off my resolution on January 3rd, which is “Festival of Sleep Day”. But it was also the first weekday after Christmas vacation, so I don’t think many people were sleeping in that day. Sounds like poor planning – probably done by somebody who was sleep-deprived and forgot to look at the calendar.