1Third

Club B.E.D

2007-05-27T12:42:00.001-07:00

I got to check this out the next time I'm in our nation's capital.

B.E.D.
A True Hot Spot

A True Hot Spot

In the heart of South Beach at:
929 Washington Avenue
Miami Beach Florida, 33139
USA

Voted as America's top nightspot (Discovery’s Travel Channel),
B.E.D. is an experience to savoir on a Wednesday night in the
ultra-hip SoBe area of Miami.

Vibrations and Wakefulness

2007-05-15T14:47:00.000-07:00

The following is an abstract that I found to very interesting:

Effects of short-term exposure to whole-body vibration on wakefulness level.

SATOU Y, ANDO H, NAKIRI M, NAGATOMI K, YAMAGUCHI Y, HOSHINO M, TSUJI Y, MURAMOTO J, MORI M, HARA K, ISHITAKE T.
Ind Health 2007;45(2):217-23.
Department of Environmental Medicine, Kurume University School of Medicine

Abstract:

To investigate the relationships between whole-body vibration and changes in wakefulness, We measured the change of a subjective wakefulness level and electroencephalogram (EEG). Subjects are ten healthy male university students. The subjects were exposed to whole-body vibration with frequency (10 Hz) and acceleration level (0.6 ms(-2) r.m.s.) for 12 min in the seated position. Subjective wakefulness level was evaluated using the questionnaire of VASS (Visual Analog Sleepiness Scale) and KSS (The Kwansei Gakuin Sleepiness Scale). For the electroencephalogram (EEG) measurement, AAT (Alpha Attenuation Test) which repeats three times each opened and closed eye for 1 min was conducted. Wakefulness levels were defined as the ratio of mean alpha-wave power during eyes closed versus eyes opened. VASS and KSS increased and subjective level of wakefulness decreased from pre- to post exposure in all subjects, regardless of vibration exposure. The objective wakefulness levels of AAT were reduced at the post-exposure test in all subjects. In the case with exposure to whole-body vibration was a significant difference from the case without exposure to whole-body vibration. It is suggested that a short-term exposure to whole-body vibration may cause a reduction of wakefulness level.

You might be wondering "how does this apply to anything useful?" As a narcoleptic I am lulled to sleep in cars very easily, so I already suspected that vibrations were soporific. Now I'm certain of it. This experiment doesn't set out to answer that specific question but it definitely has implications on the vibrations we expose ourselves to daily.

A fellow narcoleptic

2007-05-06T07:01:00.000-07:00

I was able to relate to sofiarune, the YouTuber in the above video. It's a bit long winded but that comes with being sleepy. Conciseness is not a gift of mine neither.

Sleep in Green Peace: Organic Mattresses

2007-05-05T14:43:00.001-07:00

I'll let you know when I find some American versions.

clipped from www.treehugger.com

Abaca Organic Mattresses

by Warren McLaren, Sydney on 04.28.06

Design & Architecture (bedroom)

Previously we went on a bit of search for organic latex and came up short. Now we learn that a Welsh company, Abaca, is on a similar mission. Their metal free Ramsey mattress already has its chemical free, natural latex core wrapped in layers of organic Welsh wool, and contained within an organic cotton cover. As best as we can make out, they’ve had the the wool and cotton certified as organic by the UK’s Soil Association. But the certification for the latex is currently ongoing. Such diligence does not come cheap. Ramsey mattresses start at £600, or £490 for a pocket spring version (without the latex). Alternatively you could give your existing mattress some extra environmental comfort boost with a organic wool/cotton mattress pad, starting at £85. Buy Organics sell them online, with the retailer John Lewis due to carry them in store. ::Abaca via IC Wales

Find of the Day

2007-05-01T17:46:00.001-07:00

I love Found magazine. There website posts a find of the day and what do you know, look what they found. The funny thing about it is the possibility that this person may not know that this photo exists since he was asleep when it was taken.

clipped from www.foundmagazine.com

How alert are you?

2007-05-01T17:44:00.001-07:00

This is a must for narcoleptics because of our sensitivity to sleepiness. When I found this list I realized that everyone else can benefit from being aware of their level of alertness. This is one of the 9 ways the Ririan Project presents as keys to improving personal productivity.

clipped from ririanproject.com

9 Effective Ways To Get 200% More Work Done

4. Know yourself.

Your prime time is the time during which you are most energetic and efficient. We all function on different ‘biological clocks.’ Some people feel most energetic and do their best work early in the morning. Others wake up and get moving very slowly, with top efficiency in the late afternoon. So you need to determine if you’re an early bird or a night owl, and schedule your projects accordingly. Work on your most important projects and tasks during the time of day when you feel most energetic and awake.

A Book That Really Puts You To Sleep

2007-04-26T16:42:00.001-07:00

clipped from www.uberreview.com

A Book That Really Puts You To Sleep

What a ‘novel’ idea, a book that is actually a pillow. College libraries will now turn into giant slumber parties.
Price:$102

[via Nerd Approved]

Slumber Concert

2007-04-26T11:59:00.001-07:00

This looks like fun.

clipped from www.random-good-stuff.com

Slumber Concert

A mattress company in Tel Aviv set up this classical concert in 144 beds.

McCain falls asleep during state of the union

2007-04-26T11:52:00.001-07:00

I'm sure you heard about John McCain's announcement that he will be running for President. I also hope you've heard about his Iran joke. But I but you haven't heard about this. Click here to see the clip.

clipped from thinkprogress.org

during the State of the Union?

MSNBC’s Tucker Carlson:

If you’re McCain, who will be over 70 by 2008, you’ll want to make doubly sure to demonstrate your alertness and vigor. You definitely won’t want to slump in your seat, out cold, when Bush starts talking about Iraq. And yet that’s exactly what McCain did tonight, napping on camera for ten agonizing seconds. Lack of self-control? An expression of contempt? Embarrassing in any case.

Miro + Sleep

2007-04-16T20:12:00.000-07:00

My precious disability

2007-04-15T08:37:00.000-07:00

I haven't talked much about my narcolepsy here. I wanted this blog to be about sleep not me, but yet I shouldn't be afraid to talk about my relationship with sleep. Sleep is awesome in so many ways but , (Deep breath)I'm not going act like it doesn't disable me. So when I ran across Disability Bitch I realized that being candid about my condition can be really liberating.

In her colum on BBC's Ouch, a website for modern people living with disabilities, Disability Bitch takes on "miracle cures." I really loved reading this:

Yes, I HATE MIRACLE CURES, and not just because I take pride in my little crippled identity and don't want to be a boring old normal and all that stuff.

This is so how I feel about my condition. Yeah it sucks, I won't deny that, but at least I know about the obstacles I have to overcome. And I don't have to make up some rags to riches story to make it seem like I have earned my privilege - but that's another subject.

You see, every bloody time the newspapers run a story about some tragic cripple being cured by some amazing new treatment, everyone who bumps into me in the street assumes it's only a matter of hours before I, too, will be saved from my hideous disabled existence in favour of a lifestyle less offensive to the world at large.

Amen, amen. Growing up Christian makes you the subject of prayers and laying of hands and all kinds of things that, frankly, I didn't want. My condition is hidden from strangers so I don't have the same type of story Bitch does, but I'm able to relate to her nevertheless.

Her rant takes a bit of a twist when she tells us about a neighbor that decided to stage a fundraiser to fly Bitch to the US where there is supposed to be a doctor that can cure her "little spasticated limbs".

He said I might even come back walking like him.
Readers, I ran home and locked the door tight. I don't envisage myself coming out until the rest of the human race has died.

Ouch!

Elevated Mattress on Craigslist

2007-04-13T09:26:00.001-07:00

I don't know what to think of this stunt. Just wow!

clipped from www.random-good-stuff.com

The Craigslist $35 - elevated mattress-sized space between rooms

This is for real:

Mr. Freeman posted an ad on the Web site Craigslist: "$35 — elevated mattress-sized space between rooms." He used a minimalist pitch. "Opening between hall and room available for long/short-term use, accessible by ladder, sheets and pillows not provided." The ad went up around noon, and by the end of that day, Mr. Freeman had a dozen potential takers. …

Bush Yawning

2007-04-10T16:43:00.001-07:00

I wonder if he's been able to sleep well.

clipped from www.flickr.com

101 Sure-Fire Ways to Get a Good Night Sleep

2007-04-10T15:12:00.000-07:00

Having difficulty to get a good night sleep? Spending several hours without sleep?

Improve sleep with good sleep habits. Lack of sleep can result in stress, lack of concentration, moodiness, memory loss, lower motivation and fatigue. It is important to get a good night sleep otherwise it may lead to different sleep disorders.

Here are 101 ways to get good night’s sleep for those who experience difficulty in getting sleep.

Sleep Routine:

Maintain regular bedtime routine. Try to go to bed at the same time and get up in the morning at the same time. Keeping a regular schedule helps the body expect sleep at the same time every day.

Maintain the sleep schedule even on weekends and holidays. Following the sleep schedule even on weekends does not disturb the internal clock of the body and helps to maintain circadian rhythm.

Get more information on circadian rhythm from http://www.talkaboutsleep.com

Regardless of how much sleep you had the before night, get up the same time in the morning. If the amount of sleep is reduced due to some reasons, don’t oversleep to make up for a poor night’s sleep.

Make sleep a priority and set aside adequate time to sleep. Don’t feel guilty about going to bed. Think sleep as the investment for health and productivity.

Keep a sleep diary and write about the wake up, nap and sleep timings of that day before going to sleep regularly. It is a good means to know about the sleep habits and patterns.

If feeling of tiredness leads to sleepiness during the evening, try to resist going to bed early than usual time.

Sleep Environment:

The bedroom should not be too hot or too cold. High temperatures can lead to disturbances in the quality of sleep. The optimum temperature is 60 to 65 degrees Fahrenheit. If the room is too cold, use humidifier or warm blankets.

The bed should not be too small or too hard. The bed should be large enough to sleep and convenient to turn or move to either sides. Switch to king sized bed.

Make sure that bed and pillows are comfortable for correct sleep. A firm bed will give entire body support and relax. Keep extra pillows to sleep on side.

Replace the mattresses for every eight to ten years. Old mattresses may cause allergies and back problems which interrupt with sleep.

Test different types of mattresses. Make sure that the mattress does not sag as it can lead to inadequate spinal support. Inadequate spinal support leads to back pain and prevents from falling asleep.

Remove any distractions from the bedroom. The room should be comfortable and neat.

Bedroom surroundings should be quiet and calm. There should not be any disturbance from outside noises. Use white noise machine or fan to block outside noise. If the noise is disturbing still, use double-pane windows or heavy curtains to block the noise.

The bedroom should be well ventilated. Keep bedroom windows open to get fresh air. Hot stuffy air blocks nose and leads to dry throat, cough or headache.

The light in the bedroom should be dim. The light may disturb sleep as it falls directly on the eyes. If lights from surrounding are disturbing, use curtains for the windows to block the light.

The bedroom should be used for only sleep and sex.

Don’t discuss about the bills or problems or watch television in the bedroom.

Remove illuminated digital clocks from the bedroom. Focus on the clock and time results in anxiety and stress and disturbs the sleep.

Don’t use too many or too few blankets. Use them depending on the temperature of the room.

Get more information on sleep environment from http://www.sleepfoundation.org

Sleep Aids:

Take warm bath before going to bed. It is a great way to relax the body. Don’t use too hot water as it may worsen the situation. Use bath salts such as Epsom salt or baking soda which will relax the body and help in removing toxins from the body.

Some people may not like taking warm bath; they can soak their feet in warm water for fifteen to twenty minutes before going to bed. Apply oil and massage each foot before going to sleep.

Use herbs in bedroom for relaxing. Use lavender oil in the bedroom an hour before bedtime. Place few drops of lavender oil on the pillow as it relaxes the mind and body.

Use the mood tracker to identify whether foods, beverages, certain activities or other substances have a negative impact on the ability to sleep. Mood tracker tells about the good things that promote sleep. Using mood trackers, the causes for sleep problems can be identified.

Drinking warm milk before going to bed helps in soothing the nervous system. As milk contains calcium, it works on the nervous system and makes the body relax.

Try a cup of herbal tea, as herbs contain all natural ingredients. Some of the herbs are catnip, fennel, and chamomile. These herbs will soothe and help in getting a good night sleep.

Bananas practically work as a sleeping pill. Bananas contain melatonin, serotonin and magnesium, a muscle relaxant.

Melatonin is a hormone secreted by the pineal gland in the brain which controls the body’s circadian rhythm. Darkness stimulates the release of melatonin and light suppresses its activity. If production of melatonin at night decreases, it results in lack of sleep. Try melatonin, a hormone which is used to promote and improve sleep. But don’t use it frequently.

Take oatmeal as they are a rich source of sleep induced melatonin.

Ear plugs helps in blocking the disruptive noises that interferes with sleep, if surrounding noise is disturbing.

Sleep masks block the light and provide complete darkness to sleep, if light is disturbing the sleep.

Relaxation Techniques:

Massage is a great way to relax tensed and tired muscles. Take help of bed partner to massage the body before going to bed. It can be a simple massage which involves massaging neck, foot and hands.

Deep breathing helps in relaxing muscle tension, lowers heart rate and helps to sleep faster. Do this exercise in the bedroom before going to sleep.

Meditation helps in clearing all the thoughts in mind. Concentrate on any object and clear the thoughts from the mind. Meditating before going to bed relieves from all tensions and helps in getting a peaceful sleep.

Use color therapy or chromatherapy to promote general health and to treat physical and emotional sleep disturbances. Use colors in the bedroom which has soothing, calming and relaxing effect.

Listen to music. Music is the best way to relax mind and body. Listen to soft and light music which helps to relax the mind.

Get more information on relaxation techniques from http://www.umm.edu

Pre-sleep Rituals:

Avoid drinking alcohol before going to bed. Alcohol can disrupt the sleep leading to poor quality of sleep.

Avoid caffeine before going to bed. Caffeine makes mind and body active and keeps awake.

Avoid colas, chocolates, cookies, cakes and other stimulants as they interrupt with quality of sleep.

Stop smoking as it releases adrenaline in the body and is a stimulant. It interrupts with quality of sleep.

Do not exercise before bedtime. As it stimulates the body, exercising before bedtime makes difficult to fall asleep.

Do not watch television or movies before bedtime or in the bedroom. It disturbs the sleep and makes it difficult to sleep.

Don’t take too much fluid two hours before going to bed. It may lead to urination frequently and the sleep will be disturbed.

Urinate before going to bed to prevent getting up in the middle of the night.

Avoid heavy meals before bed time. Heavy meals may make lying down feel uncomfortable. Heavy meals can cause indigestion and interfere with sleep.

Have dinner at least two hours before the bedtime.

Have light snacks before bedtime to avoid hunger during the sleep.

Carbohydrates such as muffins, cereal, bread, and yogurt help fall asleep.

Eat a high protein snack several hours before bed, as it provides L-tryptophan which helps in producing serotonin and melatonin.

Include fresh fruits and vegetables in diet, as it promotes health and good sleep.

Don’t consume fats, as fat takes several hours to digest. Consume low fat foods before going to sleep.

Vitamin B3, vitamin B12 and folic acid seem to improve sleep.

Don’t argue or fight with family members or friends before going to bed.

Wear comfortable and loose clothing. Tight fitting clothes do not allow moving freely in the bed.

Due to the fact that the feet have the poorest circulation, they often feel cold before the rest of the body. Wear socks before going to bed in winter but not in summer.

Sleeping with pet may cause allergies and interfere with night sleep.

Keep a glass of water near the bed so that there is no need to get up during night if thirsty.

Sex with partner before bedtime help in getting good night sleep.

Stop doing office works or house hold activities an hour before bedtime to calm mental activity and to avoid stress.

Avoid making phone calls or attending phone calls after going to bed.

Maintain good body hygiene otherwise untidy and unhygienic body may irritate and interfere with nighttime sleep.

Smell of foods or cigarette smoke can interfere with the quality of sleep. Remove the foods which are smelly and avoid smoking in the bedroom.

Reduce weight, as overweight can cause inconvenience in breathing and prevents a good night sleep.

Daytime Habits:

Don’t nap during daytime if there is trouble sleeping during night. Napping during daytime disturbs the body clock and it makes even more difficult to sleep at night.

Exercise regularly for half an hour regularly. Exercise in the late afternoon or in the morning. Exercise increases the body temperatures and has an arousing effect. Therefore body gets exhausted and helps to sleep and increases quality of sleep if it is done three to four hours before bedtime.

Get exposed to sunlight during daytime especially in the afternoon.

Drink eight to ten glasses of water, as dehydration of body leads to chronic fatigue.

Check iron deficiency, as iron deficiency tends to have problem with sleeping. Take sufficient iron to improve sleep.

Sleep Tips:

Don’t lie in bed for prolonged periods in the morning as that may lead to lethargy.

Don’t spend too much time if unable to sleep. Get up from the bed, leave the bedroom and try to engage in other activities like reading a book or novel, if there is difficulty in getting sleep for half an hour to one hour.

Don’t think about the problems and worries before going to bed as they disturb sleep.

Write down all the worries and problems on the paper if they are disturbing night sleep. And go to bed with peaceful state of mind.

Try to visualize and concentrate on any thing which makes the mind free from worries if the concentration can be on that object.

Sleep on back as it allows all the internal organs to rest properly and it is the best position for relaxing.

Don’t sleep on stomach as it causes pressure on all internal organs including lungs which results in shallow breathing.

Lie back and rub the stomach as it soothes the digestive system and helps in improving the function of digestive system and promotes good sleep.

If the bed partner snores, sleep in a separate room or use ear plugs.

Don’t suffer with pain. If pain is keeping away from sleeping, consult the doctor to reduce the pain.

For a restful sleep, put a pillow under the knees to relieve lower back pressure.

Stop the habit of watching the clock, counting the hours and remembering the hours as it leads to lack of sleep.

Avoid thriller, murder and suspense books and movies as they are stimulating and activate the brain.

Avoid doing mental arithmetic as it keeps the brain thinking and disturbing the sleep.

If sleepless nights or insomnia are consistent, change the sleep timings and consider going to bed later.

Always try to sleep at the same place regularly as the change of sleeping place may interfere with sleep.

Close the eyes and roll it upwards three times. This happens naturally when falling asleep and evidently triggers some sleep chemicals in the body.

To get a better sleep without the use of drugs, use light therapy. Light therapy consists of exposure to light for prescribed amount of time. It is used to promote normal sleep wake cycle and decreases sleep disturbances.

Consult the Doctor:

Consult the doctor before using sleeping pills or over-the-counter medications.

Get more information on sleeping pills and medications from http://www.helpguide.org

Don’t rely on sleeping pills everyday as they are addictive. Keep one pill beside the bed for emergency with doctor’s advice.

Make sure the sleeping pills won’t interact with other medications or with other medical condition.
If stress is the problem for a good night sleep, seek counseling and manage stress.
Don’t neglect depression as depression leads to lack of sleep. Take help of family members and consult the doctor.
If sleeping problem continues, consult a doctor to find out whether the sleep problem is due to any sleep disorder.

Ways to Overcome Other Sleep Disorders:

Sleep apnea is a sleep disorder which causes cessation of breathing during sleep. Sleep apnea should be treated by keeping the nasal passages open at night using nasal masks. Avoid alcohol, tobacco and other sedatives and lose weight. Surgery is one of the options to treat sleep apnea.

If restless legs syndrome (RLS) is the cause for the interruption of good night sleep due to the uncomfortable sensations in the legs like crawling or creeping, walk or stretch at the beginning and end of the day, massage the calf and legs regularly when legs feel uncomfortable. Life style changes and medication are important to prevent RLS.

If circadian rhythm disorder is the cause for interruption of good night sleep due to the disturbance of body’s circadian rhythm, the disorder should be treated with bright light therapy, chronotherapy and melatonin to get a good night sleep.

If parasomnias are the causes for the interruption of good night sleep with intense and infrequent acts, it is necessary to take the treatment with behavior modification, prescription drugs, or hypnosis.

If periodic limb movement disorder is the cause for the poor sleep due to the severe limb movements, it is necessary to take the medications such as dopamine agents, anticonvulsant medications, and benzodiazepines with the doctor’s prescription to get a good night sleep.

If night sweats is the cause for the poor night sleep due to the excessive sweating during night; avoid caffeine, spicy foods, alcohol, and saturated fats. Keep extra clothing by the side of the bed to avoid inconvenience and disturbance at the night, as the clothing due to night sweats become wet.

If fibromyalgia is the cause for poor night sleep due to the pain in the neck, shoulders, back and hands, it should be treated with medications, exercises that stretch muscles, massaging and heat applied to sore muscles.

If epilepsy is the cause for the interruption of good night sleep due to epileptic seizures, it should be treated with medications, epilepsy surgery, vagus nerve stimulation, special diet and alternative or complementary medicines.

GERD or gastro esophageal reflux disease cause persistent heart burn and severity of GERD can be experienced while sleeping or at night. Avoid spicy or acidic foods which cause heartburn or indigestion during nighttime to get a good night sleep.

If chronic illnesses such as diabetes, arthritis, kidney disease, multiple schlerosis and lupus are the causes for poor night sleep, they should be treated and controlled with the help of exercise, diet, and medications. Following a healthy lifestyle is also important for the treatment of chronic illness to get a good night sleep.

via SleepDisordersGuide

Sleep is Big Business

2007-04-06T11:05:00.000-07:00

The business of sleep is becoming increasingly lucrative. With growing awareness combined with the large number of undiagnosed cases of OSA, it appears that the cash will continue to pour into this industry. An online article from USA Today helped put into perspective the flood of new sleep-related products, advertisements, and marketing tactics that are becoming more commonplace.

According to the article, products that are steadily gaining more revenue off of Americans’ lack of sleep are popping up in the areas of body care, room scents, mood music, and beverages. No doubt, pharmaceutical sleep aid manufacturers are cashing in as well. According to the article, revenue for pharmaceutical sleep aids saw a rise in consumer spending of 29% from 2005 to 2006. Such revenue was in part driven by the large sums of money behind sleep aid advertising. USA Today cites information from TNS Media Intelligence stating, “In 2006, Sepracor’s Lunesta spent $298 million on advertising, and Ambien, from Sanofi-Aventis, spent $207 million. Rozerem [from Takeda Pharmaceuticals] spent $102 million.”

Via Sleep Review's Sleep Report

Clock Quote

2007-04-06T10:57:00.001-07:00

clipped from scienceblogs.com

ClockQuotes

Punctuality is the thief of time.

- Oscar Wilde

iTunes Sleep Timer

2007-04-04T17:03:00.001-07:00

This is a perfect download for people that like to go to sleep to music.

clipped from www.boingboing.net

iWannaSleep: sleep timer for Mac iTunees

Here's a brief plug for a piece of Mac software I use almost every day. iWannaSleep is a simple app that stops iTunes after a timer runs out. I often go to sleep listening to audiobooks, and I use iWannaSleep to set iTunes to stop playing the audiobook 20 minutes after I go to bed. iWannaSleep can also put your computer to sleep, shut it down, or run a custom AppleScript.
Link

Floating Beds

2007-04-02T17:27:00.000-07:00

I'm not Lazy, I'm Napping

2007-04-02T17:25:00.001-07:00

Tips on Guilt-free napping.

clipped from www.lifehack.org

Recognize that you’re not being lazy; napping will make you more productive and more alert after you wake up.

Try to nap in the morning or just after lunch; human circadian rhythms make late afternoons a more likely time to fall into deep (slow-wave) sleep, which will leave you groggy.

Avoid consuming large quantities of caffeine as well as foods that are heavy in fat and sugar, which meddle with a person’s ability to fall asleep.

Instead, in the hour or two before your nap time, eat foods high in calcium and protein, which promote sleep

Find a clean, quiet place where passersby and phones won’t disturb you.

Try to darken your nap zone, or wear an eyeshade. Darkness stimulates melatonin, the sleep- inducing hormone.

Remember that body temperature drops when you fall asleep. Raise the room temperature or use a blanket.

Once you are relaxed and in position to fall asleep, set your alarm for the desired duration

The Sleep Quiz

2007-04-02T17:20:00.000-07:00

Have you taken the sleep quiz yet?

If not you can do so here.

Hemingway & Sleep

2007-03-28T19:21:00.000-07:00

"I love sleep. My life has the tendency to fall apart when I'm awake, you know?"
-- Ernest Hemingway

Gaint Sleeping Head

2007-03-27T14:01:00.000-07:00

This sculpture is one of Ron Mueck's pieces. Here is some insight into what else was on display:

At the Brooklyn Museum the Australian artist Ron Mueck has delivered “A Girl,” the biggest human infant ever hatched. More than 16 feet long (weight unrecorded) and not yet unhooked from her hawser-like umbilical cord, she still has traces of birth blood on her wrinkled body.

You may have sensed by now that she is not a real baby. What she is is an extraordinarily lifelike sculpture made with exquisite craftsmanship by the 48-year-old Mr. Mueck, who is known for his ultrarealistic re-creations of the human figure in silicone and fiberglass.

via SUPERTOUCH

Sleep Is Good

2007-03-25T17:14:00.001-07:00

clipped from news.bbc.co.uk

Forget the old adage early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise. It is more likely to make him stressed.

Not only that, getting up early is also more likely to lead to muscle aches, cold symptoms, headaches and significantly worse moods.

Caffeine and Sleep

2007-03-25T17:13:00.001-07:00

Just in case you didn't already know, sleep and caffeine are related. Although this is no big revelation for many it's worth knowing a bit more about their relationship.

clipped from www.caffeinedependence.org

Studies have demonstrated that caffeine disrupts sleep. When caffeine is consumed immediately before bedtime or continuously throughout the day, sleep onset may be delayed, total sleep time reduced, normal stages of sleep altered, and the quality of sleep decreased.

Caffeine’s effects on sleep appear to be determined by a variety of factors including dose, the time between caffeine ingestion and attempted sleep, and individual differences in sensitivity and/or tolerance to caffeine.

Caffeine-induced sleep disturbance is greatest among individuals who are not regular caffeine users. Although there is evidence for some tolerance to the sleep disrupting effects of caffeine, complete tolerance may not occur and thus habitual caffeine consumers are still vulnerable to caffeine-induced sleep problems.

Sleeping Baby Photo Contest

2007-03-22T10:25:00.000-07:00

The Sleep like a Baby contest is a product of two sleep-minded mothers and I wanted to recognise both of them and their blogs. One is the author of, Sleep Solutions for Your Baby, Toddler, and Preschooler: The Ultimate No-Worry Approach for Each Age and Stage, Ann Douglas and she blogs at Sleep Solutions. The other person that helped put this together is Tracy Clark a photographer , wife and author.

The photo above won second place but was tied with another adorable photo. Tracy writes:

And this shot from My Dragonfly of sleepy sibling sweetness holds the magic of togetherness that every parent dreams of. Heavy sigh. What a captivating moment and an absolute perfect image! I could stare at it for days.

The first place winner is this glowing picture of a new born.

Although they announced the winners November 1 of 2006, you can still add your photo to the collection and check out the other submissions.

Commercial Snoring Aids Put to the Test

2007-03-21T13:36:00.000-07:00

Not too long ago Dr. Peter Michaelson, MD, an ear, nose, and throat surgeon at Wilford Hall United States Air Force Medical Center in San Antonio decided to put the over-the-counter snoring aids to the test to see if they helped any. He got a group of 37 people to test out the three of the most popular types of snoring solutions, Snorenz spray, Breath Right Strips, and the Snore-No-More pillow.

None of them delivered the promised relief. Read more about this study or listen to a podcast in which Dr. Michaelson and others talk about the issues around snoring.

Beer with Caffeine

2007-03-21T11:13:00.000-07:00

There are several new and not so new beers that have caffeine to keep the party going way beyond the point of drunken stupor. At least that's the way this Washington Post article presents the case after reviewing the possible effects caffeine laced beer could have on drinkers.

BBC reports that Budweiser's caffeinated beer was met not only with scepticism but with fear in UK.

Dysfunctional Beliefs and Attitudes about Sleep and Insomnia

2007-03-21T11:05:00.000-07:00

The following is an abstract from the Journal of Psychosomatic Research 2007;62(1):81-4. "The role of dysfunctional beliefs and attitudes in late-life insomnia." by ELLIS J, HAMPSON SE, CROPLEY M.

OBJECTIVES: This study examined the role of individual and combined sleep-related dysfunctional beliefs in late-life insomnia. METHODS: Older adults who responded to an advertisement in a magazine took part in a cross-sectional survey (N=382). Respondents completed self-report measures of dysfunctional beliefs about sleep (Dysfunctional Beliefs and Attitudes to Sleep Scale) as well as measures of their current sleep patterns. RESULTS: Overall, people with insomnia (PWI) endorsed more extreme ratings of dysfunctional beliefs than "good sleepers" did. However, some sleep-related dysfunctional beliefs did not discriminate PWIs from good sleepers nor were they related to experiencing a longer duration of insomnia. CONCLUSION: This article demonstrates that not all sleep-related dysfunctional beliefs are related to reporting insomnia and that some are not related to a longer reported duration of insomnia, possibly changing through personal experience. These preliminary results may have implications for tailoring the cognitive aspects of psychoeducational programmes for people with late-life insomnia.

Best and Worst Cities for Sleep

2007-03-16T14:27:00.001-07:00

clipped from www.bestplaces.net

Best Cities for Sleep Worst Cities for Sleep
1. Minneapolis , MN 1. Detroit, MI
2. Anaheim, CA 2. Cleveland, OH
3. San Diego, CA 3. Nashville, TN
4. Raleigh-Durham, NC 4. Cincinnati, OH
5. Washington, DC 5. New Orleans, LA

6. Northern NJ 6. New York, NY
7. Chicago, IL 7. Las Vegas, NV
8. Boston, MA 8. Miami, FL
9. Austin, TX 9. San Francisco, CA
10. Kansas City, MO 10. St. Louis, MO

The "Sleep in the City" study ranked America's 50 most populous metropolitan areas
based on five criteria: the number of days in the past month that residents reported
not getting enough sleep or rest, average length of daily commute, divorce rate,
unemployment rate, and overall happiness index. The happiness index was derived
from questions about a person's physical, mental, and emotional health.

What is Daylight Saving Time Really Saving?

2007-03-12T14:17:00.000-07:00

The Boston Globe created a multimedia illustration of why America's daylight savings time was 3 weeks early this year. The difference is not felt in the morning for most people but rather its benefits are based on the utility of having another hour of sunlight before darkness.

The LA Times has an article entitled "Daylight saving is just a waste of time, some say" in which the author of Spring Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving Time, Micheal Downing has this to say:

Most of the nation will turn its clocks ahead at 2 a.m. Sunday, three weeks earlier than usual. In November, the fallback is a week later than last year.

The idea: Align daylight hours with the time that most people are awake and reduce the need for artificial light.

"That was theory," Downing said. "It didn't work."

Human behavior gets in the way, he said. When the sun sets later, people do more outside the home. That usually means they get in the car and burn more gasoline, using as much energy in the long run as they would have if darkness had fallen earlier, said Downing, a Tufts University lecturer whose book "Spring Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving Time" was published in 2005.

"It has always been a beloved target for baseball and the golf and retail industries," he said. "People shop more after work if there are extra daylight hours."

Sleeping Postures and Personality

2007-03-10T15:36:00.000-08:00

The Foetus: Those who curl up in the foetus position are described as tough on the outside but sensitive at heart. They may be shy when they first meet somebody, but soon relax.
This is the most common sleeping position, adopted by 41% of the 1,000 people who took part in the survey. More than twice as many women as men tend to adopt this position.

Log (15%): Lying on your side with both arms down by your side. These sleepers are easy going, social people who like being part of the in-crowd, and who are trusting of strangers. However, they may be gullible.

The yearner (13%): People who sleep on their side with both arms out in front are said to have an open nature, but can be suspicious, cynical. They are slow to make up their minds, but once they have taken a decision, they are unlikely ever to change it.

Soldier (8%): Lying on your back with both arms pinned to your sides. People who sleep in this position are generally quiet and reserved. They don't like a fuss, but set themselves and others high standards.

Freefall (7%): Lying on your front with your hands around the pillow, and your head turned to one side. Often gregarious and brash people, but can be nervy and thin-skinned underneath, and don't like criticism, or extreme situations.

Starfish (5%): Lying on your back with both arms up around the pillow. These sleepers make good friends because they are always ready to listen to others, and offer help when needed. They generally don't like to be the centre of attention.

Although this might sound a lot like palm reading this is actually from a BBC report and has been studied by accredited doctors. This particular article is based on the work of Dr. Chris Idzikowski. You can read more about Dr. Idzikowski and his work here.

Tips for Sleeping Well

2007-03-10T15:33:00.001-08:00

I found this to be a short and pretty way of explaining something that can get quite complicated.

clipped from health.yahoo.com

Sleep Tight All Night
Quality of sleep is as important as the quantity of sleep. Often we think we sleep for eight hours, but unless we are getting good quality REM sleep, which is when the body truly rests, we will awake feeling as if we hadn't slept at all. Here are the ways to be sure you are getting quality sleep:

1. Do not eat late. Your last meal should be no later than seven in the evening.

2. Do not exercise just before bed. You should engage in no strenuous exercise for at least two hours before bed.

3. There should be no pets in the bedroom. Sleeping with pets often causes restless sleep.

4. You might try this sitting meditation a half an hour before bed: Sit comfortably at the edge of a firm seat with your back erect and your head tilted slightly downwards. Place your arms gently over your lap and breathe slowly, deliberately, and gently. Keep your eyes slightly closed. Do this for 15-20 minutes.

Sleeping Outside of the Box

2007-03-07T13:02:00.000-08:00

These photos come from Adero Designs, a German company I stumbled upon. I'll be able to tell you more about these amazing innovations when I return from Austria in June hopefully with some German proficiency. In the meantime I'll let these photos do the talking.

Sleeping in Heavenly Peace?

2007-03-05T20:43:00.000-08:00

"The whole Armor of God Pajama set will help your children to depend on God to protect them from their fears, doubts, and uncertainties at night so their sleep can be restful and peaceful."

There is something very twisted about this whole thing, yet I can't quite put my finger on it. Perhaps its that these pajamas make visible the fears many (christians and non-christians) associate with sleep, while also being a caricature of how we often go about dealing with these fears.

Interview with Sleep Doctor

2007-02-28T12:17:00.000-08:00

There are not a whole bunch of sleep advocates on the web so when I discovered theinsomniablog.com I was quite impressed. This blog is not run by the typical sleep doctor nor by the typical insomniac. Dr. Breus is the author of Good Night: The Sleep Doctor’s 4-Week Program to Better Sleep and Better Health through out his career in sleep medicine he has been on several TV shows, and has been in several publications. He is truely dedicated to educating and informing the public about this precisions 1third of our lives. Below is the interview with the Dr. Breus.

1third: How long have you been a sleep specialist? Why did you choose to go into that specialty?

Dr. Breus: I have been a sleep specialist for the past 8 years. Meaning I passed the sleep boards at age 31, but I was studying sleep about 2-3 years before that. I chose it as a field of specialist for several reasons: 1) Just plain old curiosity. I had always wondered what happened when you fall asleep, and now I know; 2) It was the only area of psychology where I could change people’s lives almost instantly; and 3) it was fun, new and exciting -- some major research finding occurs each year in this field.

1third: What is the thing you like most about sleep and sleeping? For example, is there an aspect, benefit, or quality that you like the most?

Dr. Breus: There are several reasons why I personally like to sleep. First, it is simply a time out from everything else. I have a great life, but I also need a break sometimes, and in a house with 2 kids, 3 animals and 1 wife it can be hard to find some time on my own. I also like sleep because it really helps my thinking process; I certainly solve problems in my sleep. Finally, I like dreaming. Although I do not know what they really mean (and no one does), it is a great escape.

1third: Why is it so hard for so many people to get a good night’s sleep? What are some of the main factors at work when a person becomes an insomniac?

Dr. Breus: This is a tough question to answer, and one that science has not quite figured out yet. I personally believe there are many reasons why we do not sleep. The number one reason is, of course, stress. I would guess that 75% of my patients who have sleeping problems like insomnia have either anxiety or depression as a major problem contributing to their sleep. Next is the environment. Many people do not sleep in a space that really allows for great sleep. Most bedrooms are too noisy, lighted, and cluttered. I talked about this a little recently on The Insomnia Blog.

1third: Why is sleep so important to an individual's health and well being?

Dr. Breus: Another great question that we really do not have a good answer for. We know that all living creatures have some period of inactivity in their day, but we really do not know why. We know that people heal better when they sleep better. We also know that every single organ system is affected by sleep. Everything from immunosupression (the ability to fight off disease) to treatment for cancer is affected by sleep.

1third: How do people know they have a sleep problem? What are the signs that indicate that they should see a doctor?

Dr. Breus: One great thing to try is my In-Depth quiz on the website at www.yoursleepcoach.com. It is an educational quiz designed to let people know exactly how many signs and symptoms of a diagnosable sleep disorder they may have. You can print the results and take them to your doctor if you want. The next step is to check in with your body. If you wake in the morning not feeling refreshed and ready to meet the day, then you may not have a sleep disorder... but you may have what I call "disordered sleep".

1third: Do most insomniacs seek help or do they tend to seek coffee and over-the-counter aids instead of professional help?

Dr. Breus: Most do both. Usually those with insomnia will try an OTC or coffee for a certain period of time, and when that ultimately fails they will talk to their health care professional. This person sometimes will be well educated enough to work with them in different areas, but more times than not will give them a prescription. After a few months of this is when I usually get the call that this patient is not doing too well with sleep and is there something I can do to help.

Bed Jumping

2007-02-23T11:41:00.000-08:00

I just got back from my first real adult Mardi Gras. We had such an awesome time that I forgot to jump on the hotel bed and take a picture. Bed jumping looks like so much fun. Maybe next time this can be the highlight of some horribly boring trip.

Our Insomnia

2007-02-21T11:37:00.000-08:00

Check out this viedo on insomnia.

Via TheIncomniaBlog

Counting Sheep

2007-02-15T10:43:00.000-08:00

Check out this new way of boring yourself to sleep.

Good news for slackers: naps can help the heart

2007-02-12T14:56:00.000-08:00

Daytime snooze cuts risk of fatal heart attack by 37 percent, study finds

This story is a part of MSNBC's coverage of stress so once you read it be sure to schedule a nap.

Relax is in good health

2007-02-12T12:00:00.001-08:00

A few days ago I posted my discovery of Relax magazine and presumed incorrectly that the magazine went out of business. I am glad to report that this not the case. Relax is doing very good and the publisher should be commended for the foresight and courage the magazine demonstrates. It is no small feat to publish a high-end magazine with no investors and still have enough to give back. Please take a moment to check out the 2006 issues online here.

try doing this before you go to sleep

2007-02-11T21:04:00.000-08:00

It worked for Nancy so it should work for you too.

Cute Sleepy Animals

2007-02-11T13:49:00.001-08:00

Why are they so darn cute?

Goodby "Good Morning America"

2007-02-10T10:51:00.000-08:00

We all know that the internet has been taking traditional TV audiences and shrinking the profitablility of TV. Here is another story about this trend that may change the way we wake-up to media. This week the LA Times had a story on the way this trend is effecting morning shows, whose demographic is made up of mothers.

It's difficult to trace the exact cause of the drop. It comes after two popular morning hosts, Katie Couric and Charles Gibson, left their shows to be evening news anchors. At the same time, the advent of "mommy blogs," the growing popularity of online news sites and the ever-more-frantic press of daily life appear to have led many women to forgo the morning ritual of watching TV.

Relax Magazine

2007-02-10T10:03:00.000-08:00

I just discovered Relax, a home and lifstyle magazine based on the idea of slowing down. Here is a little bit of why it exists:

Our mission is to help readers to find balance as they juggle careers, families and home life. We offer content and valuable resources that will inspire our readers to slow down and focus on what really adds meaning to their lives.

Sleep is a skill

2007-02-09T11:50:00.000-08:00

I was pleasently surprised to come across this Child-Works, a sleep consulting firm. Here is a little bit about its sleep philosphy:

This philosophy is based on the notion that learning to sleep is a skill, just like talking, sitting up and walking. Sleeping well is a family issue and we believe that the child is not the soul focus of the sleep problems.

They have a lot of links, articles and books they recomend for parents that are trying to teach that life long skill of going to bed.

Why a sleep blog?

2007-02-09T11:00:00.000-08:00

The fact that most people spend 1/3 of their lives asleep is worth meditating on.

Not only meditating on, but its also worth writing about and talking about, which is why this blog exists.

When you take time to examine and explore this 1/3 third of life the rest of life will be better for it.

Here I’m not just talking about sleep, as you might have noticed by now. Sleep cannot be easily disconnected from the world around it and the environment that allows it or disallows it. Therefore, I don’t want to separate sleep from the night, from alertness, or from wellness. They are connected in meaningful ways and that relationship deserves to be deeply understood. Likewise I think an appreciation for sleep is inline with an appreciation for slowness, relaxation, dreams, creativity, death, stillness, inaction, peace, physiology, and circadian rhythms.

I like to think of words of Gandhi “"Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever." These are truly wise words to live by. In thinking of sleep, as I so often do, I can’t help but wonder if it is worth thinking of sleep as an inevitability that we should be prepared for each day, and dreams as a lesson we learn, and unusually forget, each night. Is that too much value to give sleep? Is it too much meaning for this 1/3 of life. Perhaps it is.

Top Ten Most Annoying Alarm Clocks

2007-02-08T16:25:00.000-08:00

This Sonic Alarm is number two on the list of ten annoying alarm clocks.

The Sonic Alarm will wake pretty well anything up. Simply pull the pin, yell an emphatic “fire in the hole” and lob the grenade into the sleeper’s room. After ten seconds a very annoying and piercingly loud noise (there are three volume settings) will blast out from the alarm. That’s not all however, what makes this especially great is that to stop the alarm the sleeper has to find you so you can put the pin back in.

Some things you didn't know about sleep

2007-02-07T12:40:00.000-08:00

These are some points that were interesting in Discovery's article "20 Things You Didn't Know About Sleep":

6. In 2004 Americans filled more than 35 million prescriptions for sleeping pills.The number of adults aged 20 to 44 taking pills to help them fall asleep has doubled in the last four years.

7. More than 100,000 car crashes in the United States each year result from drowsiness. Drivers talking on cell phones increase the rate by 6 percent, so don't call someone if you get tired.

11. Let's sleep on it first: In a gesture of integration with the European Union, Spain has launched a campaign to eliminate the tradition of siestas, or afternoon naps.

12. Thanks in part to their afternoon naps, Spaniards sleep an average of 40 minutes less per night than other Europeans. Spain also has the highest rate of workplace accidents in the EU and the third lowest productivity rate.

16. Dreaming is connected to bursts of electrical activity that blow through the brain stem every 90 minutes during REM sleep. Over a lifetime, an average person spends more than six years dreaming, clocking more than 136,000 in all.

17. But nobody knows why we dream.

Lights = Warmth?

2007-02-07T11:10:00.000-08:00

I wonder how much warmth all these lights create? Could it ? . . . No of course not. But, well if lights = warmth then this could mean that light pollution is playing a role in global warming, however small and unsexy it my be?

I am familiar with the concept of light pollution, in which the city lights make seeing difficult for people like air traffic controllers. But I didn't know that some people suspect that this type of mass electrification can be deadly. I also didn't know, until today, that Seattle has been able to put a halt on the net emissions caused by powering its city's lights.

Intrigued, I did some brief research and it looks like my theory doesn't quite stand up. The main effects of light pollution are:

Energy Waste
Interference with astronomical observations
(Negative) Effects on human health and psychology
Disruption of Ecosystems

That being the case, even if the lights don't directly contribute to global warming, I am nevertheless alarmed by the harmful phenomena and the relative obscurity of it. One organization that is working to raise awareness of these issues is the National Dark Sky Week.

Clock Shirt

2007-02-06T14:39:00.000-08:00

I am kind of surprised this is not an American product since so many Americans are convinced that time=money.

These unisex clock shirts can be bought through an Australian company. If you go to the Latest Buy web page you'll end up taking an outdated stroll down memory lane.

You remember Flavor Flav from the rap group Public Enemy, right? He was the "zany, kooky and straight-up wacky" one who wore big clocks around his neck (and top hats) to prove he could always "tell people what time it was"?

It was funky, fun and completely functional...and though Flavor's time may have come and gone, his contribution to the clock-watching community lives on in spirit – which brings us to the f-f-freshest arrival on the timepiece scene - the Digital Clock T-shirt - which is a kind of space-age homage to the man who made "yeaaaah, BOY!" one of our favourite catchphrases.

I guess all I can say is "yeaaaah BOY!"? Yeah right.

via Lastest Buy and GearLive

Exhausted Japanese business men

2007-02-06T14:13:00.000-08:00

via Magical Urbanism

What a sofa bed

2007-02-02T14:46:00.000-08:00

This is so cool and so european. Check out how this sofa

can become this bed.

Living with Narcolepsy

2007-02-02T14:03:00.000-08:00

This week Newsweek's website published the story of a narcoleptic's journey to diagnosis. Before the diagnosis sleepiness had become a normal aspect of Sarah Shonyo's everyday life.

Her friends were very supportive although they don't pass up the obvious opportunity for cheap laughs.

My two best friends immediately e-mailed me a cartoon depicting a job applicant sleeping in an interview and the employer saying, “It says here you have narcolepsy. What’s that?” and then assured me that they would be more than willing to hold my ponytail at dinner to keep my forehead from hitting the table. Another friend told me about a policeman from his hometown who had narcolepsy. After his condition became known, he was referred to by the locals as “Officer Fally-Downy.”

At this point Sarah never fell down as or loss muscle control as a result of narcolepsy. To my knowledge about half of narcoleptics don't develop sever cataplexy. Eventually however Sarah did developed cataplexy.

Its kind of warming to see her friends making light of the situation because laughter is a powerful medicine, but I can only hope that laughter doesn't trigger Sarah's cataplexy. Such irony would not be laughable.

Sleep With Me

2007-01-30T17:04:00.000-08:00

This video is by a British band that calls themselves Girlfriends. The group and director both deserve an award because the video is by far the best YouTube video that dealt with the topic of narcolepsy. In "Sleep with Me" we see the Barnaby Legg fight a loosing battle with narcolepsy.

If you are interested in checking out the other the less notable YouTube videos to get a better understanding of this rare yet intreging sleep disorder go right ahead.

43things

2007-01-29T15:03:00.000-08:00

The website 43things.com lets visiters discover what is important in thier lives and it helps them reach goals. When I stumbled upon this site that had over 800,000 people who submited thier answer the the question "What do you want to do with your life?"

In the FAQ they explain that:

"Other people often have great ideas. You can get inspiration from others. Adopt a goal as your own or set up your own goals from scratch. Either way, 43 Things can help you document your success, share information, and make progress on what matters to you most".

One the homepage right below the space where you shold put your goal there is a hyperlinked list that includes things like "buy a house", "graduate from college" "have a CAREER instead of a job." The very first statement in this cloud of dreams and ambition was Phil's goal to "sleep soundly."

This was one of 30 things Phil wanted.

It didn't take too much soul searching for me to entered "publish a magazine." I found that there were 51 people on 43things.com that were doing and/or wanting the same thing. This is a pretty cool concept website.

Lets get back to Phil and his need for sleep; I did some investigating and it looks like 900 users want "more sleep" and 861 users want "sleep!". This is very interesting but everyone should want sleep, in one sense or another, so this doesn't really tell us something. The thing that is really heart breaking is that a little over 500 people put sleep as their top goal in life. I can't help but laugh at the irony; as narcoleptic of course. Although I'm hesitant to pity these sleep deprived people there is something very twisted about this situation.

Wait a minute, to date there are 4,666 people that have "wake up when my alarm clock goes off" as a major goal in their lives. Maybe they should think about aiming for something more like "not need an alarm clock."

Chasing Dreamtime

2007-01-29T13:51:00.000-08:00

This award winning travel book is based on the real-life story of Neva Sullaway and her derailed attempt to sail around the world which landed her in the boat-hoping in the South Pacific.

"While poised at the brink of her physical and emotional limits in the stark Never-Never, Sullaway catches a glimpse of the elusive Aboriginal concept of Dreamtime and her darkest demons unfold into wings of flight. For Sullaway and the reader alike, reality can never be the same again."

A Philosophical Approach to Getting Out of Bed

2007-01-29T13:38:00.000-08:00

The following is from Slow Down Now:

Americans are fantastically well educated. If they are not getting extra masters degrees at night, then they are taking classes on how to do something practical. Where I live, in the San Francisco Bay Area, you can find a class on time management, travel to foreign parts, or Tantric sex. The energy to do all this is only to be admired.

I’ve seen classes advertising how to massage your pet, operatic singing for the unmusical, and how to adjust an insurance claim. Although these might seem compelling, especially insurance adjusting, which promises hours of fun, I’ve never seen a class for someone like me. I need something basic. If we need to learn to dress for success, then surely we need some prerequisites.

I’m talking about how to get out of bed. Most of us manage to get out of bed, eventually. Employers expect as much. But while some people can rise in the morning with grace, facility, and aplomb, others get out of bed only after much effort. We in the latter group give birth to our daily consciousness only through gargantuan struggle. We may glimpse a waking state long enough to reach out and silence the alarm clock only to submerge again beneath a sea of dreams.

It’s not always easy to know if you’re awake: you could be dreaming. It may seem of no consequence that you find yourself on public transport nude, making a speech to a group of penguins, or flying above a giant teacup. Only on reflection do you realize that you only dreamt you were awake.

In the seventeenth century, the philosopher René Descartes spent a lot of time mulling over the problem of whether he existed or not. He famously said, “I think therefore I am.” He thought he did exist. So he must have tackled the am-I-awake-or-not question.

If you are aware you are lying in bed, then the mind will eventually pose another profound question: “Should I get up?”

Great minds have thought deeply about this question. In 1650 Blaise Pascal turned away from his studies in mathematics to contemplate the “greatness and the misery of man.” He decided, ”Most of the evils of life arise from man’s being unable to sit still in a room.” It only follows then that lying in bed must be a virtue.

Marcel Proust stayed in bed for almost a decade due to real or imagined aliments. His bed became his workplace. You probably had to be ill in bed to read Marcel Proust’s one-and-a-quarter-million-word novel, In Search of Lost Time. But Proust was a genius because he knew how to slow down. He took seventeen pages to describe a man trying to get back to sleep in his bed.

The great bed of Ware, mentioned in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, was made to accommodate twelve people. Just to think about it makes the mind boggle. If you go to Rye House in Broxbourne, England, you can see it today. But imagine getting out of the middle of that bed on a full night. It would be worse than being strapped into the center seat on a crowded and turbulent flight after drinking too many cups of tea.

Of course, getting out of bed can be dangerous no matter what size bed you happen to be in. Augustus Caesar was superstitious about it. In ancient times, it was unlucky to set the left foot on the ground first. Even today, we ascribe grumpiness to getting out of bed on the wrong side. In ancient Rome, augury and omens were taken seriously. This sort of thing has gone out of fashion. But if you wake up to large black ravens sitting on your bedposts, or you see a plague of frogs out the window, I say, beware. Some days it is better not to get out of bed.

But virtuous as it may be to stay in bed, there are those who would argue to the contrary. If I were a Stoic, I would leap from my hard bed and run naked into a nearby mountain stream. I would be bursting with vigor and manliness. I would be valiant. I would be an example of moral rectitude. However, when I consider, from the warmth of my early-morning bed, I come to the conclusion that I may not really be a Stoic.

I find lying in bed is the most efficient place for some early-morning thinking. There is evidence to back this up. Scientists tell us that we achieve beneficial mental states between sleep and wakefulness. Sleeping longer can even make you more intelligent. In William Demnet’s book, The Promise of Sleep, he cites a study on students at Harvard. They were encouraged to sleep an extra hour-and-a-half. At first, they objected because of their busy course schedules. But they went along with the program. The result: grades went up. The bad news is that sleep debt lowers IQ points. I wish I had known that when I was at school. I would have stayed in bed even longer.

I did stay in bed quite a lot when I was an art student in England. I lived in a vast, cold 1850’s house. It had been made into flats in the 1930’s by sectioning off one floor from the next. I lived on the ground floor. The large rooms were originally the receptions rooms and library. There were gargoyles in the hallway. A massive curving stairway simply ended in the ceiling.

An elderly woman in another part of the country owned the house. I paid rent to an agent who never, in the eight years I lived there, came to visit, or repaired anything, or increased the rent.

The miniscule rent must have been fixed some twenty years previously. It was impossible to heat the cavernous rooms. I occasionally found wood to burn in the huge fireplaces. In winter, ice would form on the insides of the shuttered windows. Getting out of bed was a near impossibility. I would sleep under all the blankets and coats I owned. I even wore a hat. I remain eternally grateful to a few of my fellow female art students who generously helped me stay warm under such trying nighttime winter conditions.

Life has a habit of being more demanding. We have to go to work. It is at these times that we resort to the alarm clock. I know that using such a word is offensive, but I don’t know an appropriate euphemism. As everyone knows, alarm clocks were invented in the depths of Hell. We humans should be gently born into each new day; not confronted with shock, terror, loathing, and fear.

If you have an alarm clock, you can’t help but look at the beastly contraption. You make rules for yourself. You’ll stay in bed for just five more minutes. Then, in the spirit of heroic self-discipline, you tell yourself you’ll get up in just one more minute’s time. You count the seconds backwards, five, four, three, two, one. Now it’s when you get into fractions that it becomes tricky. You know you have the self-discipline to get up very soon, but you might as well stay in bed just a fraction longer, at least until you reach the limit of your ability to do mental division.

According to Zeno’s Paradox of the Arrow, you might never have to get out of bed. Two thousand, six hundred years ago, Zeno of Elea pointed out a few problems with the common notion of time and space. He argued that a moving arrow will never get to its target. We see that it does. That’s the paradox part. The theory goes something like this: the arrow must travel half the distance to its target, and then half of that again, and so on. So in his theory, the arrow never gets to its target, and you never get out of bed.

I admit that logic isn’t my strong suit, and in my opinion, it’s overrated. I tried this argument on an employer once. He was not the type to muse, to ruminate, and consider. But I thought I had made a convincing and erudite case. He thought I should find another job.

If only we had getting-out-of-bed classes so many problems would go away. We wouldn’t need to wake up bleary eyed and grumpy. We would rise with grace and finesse. We would see each morning as a new life. All would be sweetness and light. The air would be filled with birdsong. There would be benevolence in the hearts of us all.

Come on, this is California! Some university, surely, is offering a master’s degree in Gettingoutofbedology, isn’t it?

Lazy Daisy

2007-01-28T13:35:00.000-08:00

Check out this commercial for a narcoleptic doll. Since I have narcolepsy I'm not sure if I should be infuriated, disgusted, bemused or amazed.

A View of Sleep From The Outside

2007-01-28T13:05:00.000-08:00

I have recent found the blog A Blog Around the Clock, who is by a fellow that goes by the name of Coturnix. He was born in Eastern Europe and when he came to America he had some interesting observations on the way American's treated sleep.

One thing I noticed upon arriving to the States is that nobody here seems to have any notion of "sleep manners". I have seen (and experienced) many times people barging into the room containing a sleeping person, switching on the lights and TV, talking, even talking to the sleeping person, all the while not being even aware that this is a Big No-No, very inconsiderate, and extremely rude. When confronted, the response is usually very defensive, stressing the person's individual right to do whatever he/she wants and not bother about being considerate about some lazy bum who is sleeping at an inappropriate time. Whoa! Stop right there!

First, individual rights are assumed to mean that you can do whatever you want as long as that does not hurt another person in some way. Waking someone up is harassment - of course it hurts someone. Second, there is no such thing as inappropriate time. If you can, you sleep whenever you can. There is no appropriate or inappropriate time. What do you do if someone is working the night-shift (like my wife often does, and I sometimes do, too)? That person will sleep during the day, so you better shut up. Third, what is this about sleeping being a sign of laziness. The "owls" are constantly being treated as lazy, though they are more likely to be sleep-deprived (cannot fall asleep until the wee hours, then being rudely awoken by the alarm clock after just a couple of hours) and spend more hours awake (and presumably productive) than "larks" do. If you are asleep, this means you need it. If you are rested enough you cannot physically remain asleep or go back to sleep again. You are wide awake. Thus, when you see someone asleep, it is because that person needs sleep right there and then. Sleep is not laziness. Laziness is "lots of front-porch picking".

Pretending that sleep-need does not exist is also institutionalized. I am not talking just about night-shifts and rotating shifts (those will kill you), night flights, being available for communication 24/7, stores open 24/7, etc - those are part of a modern society, will not go away, and we just need to learn how to adjust. I am talking about the building standards. With a huge proportion of the population working at night, why do windows have no blinds? Some old manors do, but new buildings do not. Never. Some have fake blinds, just for show, screwed into the outside walls on the sides of windows, yet cannot be closed. There are no built-in black curtains, or roll-down wooden blinds. It is difficult to find such curtains in stores if one wants to install one. What is going on? I have never seen, heard, read about, or experienced another country in the world in which sleep is not sacred, and blinds are not an essential part of a house.

I see some striking parallels between the way this society treats sleep and the way it treats sex. Both are sinful activities, associated with one of the Seven Deadly Sins (Sloth and Lust). Both are associated with the most powerful biological needs. Both are supposed to be a taboo topic. Both are supposed to be done in private, at night, with a pretense that it is never actually happening. Education in sleep hygiene and sex hygiene are both slighted, one way or another (the former passively, the latter actively opposed). Both are thought to interfere with one's productivity - ah, the good old Protestant work ethic! Why are Avarice and Greed not treated the same way? Raking in money by selling mega-burgers is just fine, and a decent topic of conversation, even a point of pride. Why are we still allowing Puritan Calvinist way of thinking, coupled with capitalist creed, to still guide the way we live our lives, or even think about life. Sleeping, whether with someone or alone, is a basic human need, thus a basic human right. Neither really detracts from the workplace productivity - au contraire: well rested and well satisfied people are happy, energetic, enthusiastic and productive. It is sleep repressed people, along with the dour sex repressed people, who are the problem, making everyone nervous. How much longer are we going to hide under the covers?

Perhaps not that long. It appears that we are slowly waking up to sleep problems (pun intended). More and more companies are allowing naps, and even providing nap-rooms. More and more school districts are moving high-school morning schedules later, as during teenage years, under effects of sex hormones, the circadian clocks are all temporarily "owlish". Adolescents are not crazy and lazy - they physically cannot fall asleep at a normal bed time, and physically cannot awake and feel rested early in the morning (elementary and middle school kids can, as their hormones have not surged yet).

Abstract:

To investigate the relationships between whole-body vibration and changes in wakefulness, We measured the change of a subjective wakefulness level and electroencephalogram (EEG). Subjects are ten healthy male university students. The subjects were exposed to whole-body vibration with frequency (10 Hz) and acceleration level (0.6 ms(-2) r.m.s.) for 12 min in the seated position. Subjective wakefulness level was evaluated using the questionnaire of VASS (Visual Analog Sleepiness Scale) and KSS (The Kwansei Gakuin Sleepiness Scale). For the electroencephalogram (EEG) measurement, AAT (Alpha Attenuation Test) which repeats three times each opened and closed eye for 1 min was conducted. Wakefulness levels were defined as the ratio of mean alpha-wave power during eyes closed versus eyes opened. VASS and KSS increased and subjective level of wakefulness decreased from pre- to post exposure in all subjects, regardless of vibration exposure. The objective wakefulness levels of AAT were reduced at the post-exposure test in all subjects. In the case with exposure to whole-body vibration was a significant difference from the case without exposure to whole-body vibration. It is suggested that a short-term exposure to whole-body vibration may cause a reduction of wakefulness level.