New sleep center

I found out about Sleep Garden, based in Menlo Park, California, from reading a blog at Sunset Magazine, where I used to work. Funny.

This guy, Robert deStefano, started the online shop and consulting biz with fellow insomniac Mary Kelley. It's a good thing they've worked out their sleep probs, I think, 'cause otherwise that would be one grumpy work duo.

bt: 2:46 a.m. wu: 8:12 oob: 8:37 t: 5 h 26 m score: ouch! no more crazy freelance deadlines.

Afternoon study

Two economists recently documented that students get better grades in classes taken in the afternoon rather than morning. The pair, Angela K. Dills from Mercer University and Rey Hernandez-Julian from Metropolitan State College of Denver, looked at more than 100,000 grades from one academic year and published their data in the Economics of Education Review.

They found that for each hour after 8 a.m. that a class begins, the average student grade grows by 0.024 points. My GPA is a perfect example, and the 8:30 a.m. start of my introductory physics class is the reason I ended up an English major. Okay, that's one reason.

bt: 10:52 wu: 7:53 t: 8 h 1 m score: not bad!

Sleeping my way to a flat stomach

Everyone has heard by now about the 2004 study that linked lack of sleep to obesity. Even an hour of lost sleep a night, the scientists reported, made a significant difference.

So here's my plan: I'm going to go home right now, make myself some cocoa, and curl up on the coach. When I wake up, I expect to see some high-def abs under my shirt. Cause I may not be core at the gym but I am a rock hard snoozer.

Pretty soon, people will be mixing me up with that chick in the photo. Can't wait!

bt: 2:00 am wu: 7:52 oob: 8:12 t: 5 h 52 m score: flabbifying. grumpifying. horrifying.

Huffy validation

Arianna Huffington hearts blogging. She hearts cheese. She told Jon Stewart so on Wednesday Night. But her secret passion is...sleep.

Hello? Lady? This here is the blog for you. Throw some mozzarella around this place fast.

Docs need to rest too

Yesterday the Institute of Medicine recommended that medical residents not be allowed to work more than 16 hours. Yeah, that's right, in a row. Because these people, who are making critical decisions about your and my health and well-being during those hours let me remind you, get TIRED after working all day.

Hello? I mean, yeah, I'm all for it. But who ever thought that doctors, or soon-to-be M.D.s are superhuman. Of course they're tired!

The idea is residents will get more time off for sleep ... "in order to reduce potentially deadly medical errors."

Gee, thanks, Institute of Medicine! My, uh, undying gratitude to ya.


bt: 11:47 wt: 7:56 oob: 8:02 t: 8 h 8 m score: not bad!

Blasting up memory

Researchers at the City University of New York have documented a boost in memory and creative thinking after napping. I say, duh. But it's nice to have evidence of the things you already know.

The key to really get your mind going sharp is to have uninterrupted sleep. You need to get into the deep sleep, the non-REM stuff. And you need to wake up at the right time—preferally as you're finishing some good dreams.

bt: 1:57 wu: 7:32 oob: 7:34 t: 5 h 35 m tally: oddly, feels ok

Happy sleep

What makes the difference between good sleep and bad?

Last night I slept under seven and a half hours, about the usual, but I woke up so much easier. Maybe just because it was Saturday morning and I didn't have to be anywhere in a hurry. Or maybe because I got the same amount of sleep but went to bed and got up later, which would be my first choice every night if I ran the zoo.

I wonder.

bt: 2:30 a.m. wu: 9:44 oob: 10:00 t: 7 h, 14 m score: enough...?

Zzzzz

Zz
bt: 12:06 wu: 7:30 oob: 7:44 t: 7 h 24 m score: almost enough?

Wordy dreams

Has anyone studied the effect of video games on sleep?

I (it's embarrassing to admit) couldn't stop playing Scramble last night... When I finally did tear myself away (I wanted to boost my IQ, dammit!), I tumbled into bed, only to have weird Scramble words floating through my brain. So much so, I couldn't nod off. Listing all the possible word permutations of A E T I S N is not at all conducive to nice dreams.

bt: 12:06 wu: 7:26 oob: 7:45 t: 7 h 20 m score: not enough!

The foundation

Dr. Daniel Lewin, a clinical psychologist with the National Institutes of Health, views good sleep as the foundation of physical, mental, and emotional health. It's really everything, the backbone that holds our worlds together.

"The first time when a child separates from parents is at bedtime," Lewin says. "The process of going to sleep at night has a lot of complexity and beauty, loss and separation. Right around six months of age, as an infant learns to crawl, separation anxiety or stranger anxiety develops. That's also the point at which sleep can really go awry."

He specializes in child development, working with little babies as well as teenagers. He also teaches at the George Washington University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C. His work documents something that we all know from experience: when you don't get enough sleep, you get a lot stupider. Kids in his study do much worse on cognitive tests when they've been deprived of sleep the night before. And kids who already have sleep problems "fall of a cliff" on the tests afterward.

bedtime: 12:05 waketime: 7:13 out of bed: 7:44 snooze tally: 7 h, 8 m score: not enough!

The Grumps

Yesterday I could not say one nice word. I was impatient with my son in the morning. I wanted to throttle my coworker, and considered quitting my job just so I wouldn't have to see some of them ever again. I snapped at my husband. Again. And again.

What up with me?

I realized I'd tossed and turned all night. Anxiety dreams. Scary dreams. Lots of interruptions. Who knows why (residual grumpiness: I'll blame my husband) but it sure is remarkable how much sleep, or lack of it, affects you.

Good thing I zonked last night. Who knows what kind of obnoxiousness I would've got myself into otherwise.