I have tried to observe my sleep pattern and have realized that I am not getting sufficient sleep. It has become habit whether there is work or not, I am sitting late with my computer. why am I like this? Even with a very good customer who works with me in the Pacific evening to help me work Indian morning, why I am doing this? I have learnt this habit of going to bed late. I always take pride with hitting bed at 2 AM and get up to life at 6 AM and the ability to work 50 hours at a stretch whenever the situation warranted. Can my work not slow down? Even during the stretch, does my work provides extraordinary value to me ?
I did some reading about sleep and found the following: Sleep is composed of two stages: REM (Rapid Eye Movement) and non-REM. The former helps in mental consolidation while the latter helps in physical repair and rebuilding. During the night, you alternate between REM and non-REM stages 4-5 times. The earlier part of sleep is mostly non-REM. During that period, your pituitary gland releases growth hormones that repair your body. The latter part of sleep is more and more REM type. For you to be mentally alert during the day, the latter part of sleep is more important. No wonder when you wake up with an alarm clock after 5-6 hours of sleep, you are mentally irritable throughout the day (lack of REM sleep). And if you have slept for less than 5 hours, your body is in a complete physical mess (lack of non-REM sleep), you are tired throughout the day, moving like a zombie and your immunity is way down (I’ve been there, done that L)
In addition there are more reasons to sleep atleast 7 hours very night. Short sleep duration (<5 or 5-6 hours) increased risk for high BP by 350% to 500% compared to those who slept longer than 6 hours per night. Individuals who slept less than 5 hours a night had a 3-fold increased risk of heart attacks.
Seem that if you are not getting enough sleep (7 hours), you are playing with fire. So when Mrinalini asks me to come to bed in the night, I am going to go to bed.
Who was responsible for this habit? It is me. I am interested in multiple activities and I do not prioritize my time for the activities. I do not want to fail and want to give best to all and in the process sacrifice my personal needs of sleep. When I come home from work, it is 8 PM and my wife and kids want to go to bed by 9 PM. I miss my time to socialize and to satisfy the need to socialize, I start connecting with my first wife(computer?). The computer never gets tired and keep me entertaining with things to read and does not ask me any questions. I keep reading, check emails, write blogs, back to reading and so on. OK I hit bed late, can I get up early and compensate? My kids need to go to school and I have commitment to get up early that is not negotiable. The only place to work to get more sleep is the time to hit to bed. This also demands me to come home early in the evening and that means prioritization of the day activities. Let me start working on them
But let me try to plan and get ready for the new year resolution.”Early to Bed, early to rise”. I would like all my friends who see me online late at night to push me to go to bed. Guys ! it is going to be fun to unlearn an existing habit and I need all your help.
Srini - who am I? 