I disappeared because it was Labor Day weekend and I needed a break. I took a break from blogging and from P90X. I know, I know! It's "bad" that I didn't work out. I'm supposed to be doing this intense daily workout program, right? Taking a day off isn't acceptable. Well, check back tomorrow for my reasoning behind my days off. In the meantime, I'm going to talk about the importance of sleep. I've mentioned it before a few times, but I feel like I need a reminder, so maybe you do, too.
Many of us claim that we don't have the time for sleep. We have work, exercise, cooking, friends, family, etc. all demanding our time and attention. It's difficult to say no to friends when they ask you to go out. If you have kids, you probably have a harder time taking care of yourself because you put your children first. However, there's one thing you need to remember... you need to take care of yourself before you can take care of others. Think about the safety presentation/video on airlines. Have you forgotten that they always say that if the oxygen masks are needed, you should put your own mask on before you assist someone else? If airlines have learned this, shouldn't we?
I bet most people you know have pulled an all-nighter at one time in their life. My first all-nighter was at a slumber party with my friend KM. We had tried to stay up all night at my birthday (maybe my 15th birthday), but ended up falling asleep for a couple hours. KM's birthday was a few months later and we decided we were definitely going to stay up all night. There were a bunch of girls over, but KM and I were the only ones crazy enough to attempt an all-nighter. We were especially crazy because we were both singing in church the following morning. And by singing in church, I mean that during service we had to sit front and center (literally... we were some of the shortest girls in the choir) in front of the entire congregation. So we stayed up watching movies and talking until her mom came down to the basement to wake us up for church. We got to church early for rehearsal and were still buzzing off of caffeine and sugary snack foods. However, during the middle of the service, we started to crash. My head kept bobbing and I couldn't keep my eyes open. Our solution? We pinched and poked each other to stay awake, and somehow managed it through the service. Why was it so important that we stay awake? One of the boys in our choir had fallen asleep during a service and the hymnal on his lap had slid off and smacked onto the floor; everyone jumped and stared at him. We didn't want to have the full attention of the church on us, too. We survived church without any embarrassing moments and headed home, where I immediately passed out. My entire day was wasted because I was so sleep deprived.
So what to take from that story...
Choice: It was KM and my choice to sacrifice our sleep; we had no reason to stay up all night.
Sleep substitute: TV/Movie and talking. Though talking and maintaining our friendship is important, it's not necessary to do all night, and watching TV is purely entertainment and is unnecessary in life.
After-effect: By staying up all night, it was difficult to perform the next day, not just in the singing sense, but also in basic day-to-day activities for a high-schooler like chores and studying, or even basic functions such as listening or staying awake.
Getting enough sleep is YOUR decision. YOU have to choose to give yourself enough time to sleep. YOU have to prioritize your sleep over the latest episode of Survivor, or whatever popular reality show you love. Think of it this way... what do you absolutely need to live? Sleep or one more TV series episode? This should be a simple choice. Would you give up food in order to watch TV? What about water? Sleep is just as vital to life as food and water. Okay, so you're a student studying for tomorrow's exam? Though I'm guilty of this myself, staying up late to study may not be the most beneficial activity. Stage 3 sleep aids in consolidating declarative memory (that you would be using for exam studying), whereas REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep helps with muscle memory. So by staying up and cutting into your Stage 3 slow-wave sleep, you may be harming your ability to remember what you studied. Such a dilemma!
Even a single night of sleep deprivation can be detrimental to your health. One night of partial sleep deprivation, which results in increased cortisol levels, can impair insulin sensitivity in addition to hampering the body's stress response. For those who don't know, insulin resistance is a component of Type II Diabetes. According to the US National Library of Medicine, metabolic syndrome is another term for insulin resistance and is defined as "group of risk factors that occur together and increase the risk for coronary artery disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes." Yikes.
I think my biggest issue with getting enough sleep is what I feel I ought to do. I've had lots of days like today where I got less than ~3.5 hours of sleep and then spent 10+ hours at work, followed by 2 hours of class and blogging. And when I'm in the midst of a workout routine like P90X (and blogging about it), I feel obligated to do the workout even when that means giving up my sleeping time. My other excuses for cutting into sleep time: there are chores that I ought to be doing, or studying I should do because I'm behind schedule, or socializing I want to do with friends. In short, I need to do some prioritizing. And the lesson you can take from this is: Go the F*** to Sleep, read to you by Samuel L. Jackson. If you are offended by Samuel L. Jackson or the f-bomb, don't click on the link or watch the video.
Reference:
(1) Donga, Esther. "A Single Night of Partial Sleep Deprivation Induces Insulin Resistance in Multiple Metabolic Pathways in Healthy Subjects." The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. June 1, 2010, vol. 95, no. 6, pp. 2963-2968. <http://jcem.endojournals.org/content/95/6/2963.full?sid=b7ac906e-efdc-4dae-82f0-637cc6705ad9>(2) Leproult, R. "Sleep loss results in an elevation of cortisol levels the next evening." Sleep. 1997 Oct; 20(10), pp.865-70. <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9415946>
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