Sleep

Sleep... oh how I miss a good snooze. Not that getting up in the middle of the night is all that bad, in some ways it's kind of magical. It's just that my Cinderella clock doesn't strike at midnight - it strikes at 6:30 am - a bit too early for me to wake up for good, when I've already been awake 3 times during the night.

So, in honor of my long lost friend, who hopefully will be returning soon, I have made a little list of facts about sleep.

1) Sleep is your brain's best housekeeper. When you don't get enough sleep, there are proteins in your brain cells that do not get folded proplerly (compare it to a teenager's messy room. Yikes!) So sleeping helps keep things neat and tidy, so your brain can function. Now when I'm cranky and tired, I tell Travis that my proteins didn't get folded properly, and I need a housekeeper (aka a nap).

2) Sleeping a continuous 6 hours causes a release of growth hormone (which has received a lot of press lately. Someone should have told this to Roger Clemens a while ago.) HGh is pretty cool - it helps decrease body fat, and maintain muscle tissue.

3) A lot of of animals use a sleeping technique where they can rest or sleep half their brain at a time. If you ever get a chance to watch ducks sleep, it is pretty cool. They can sleep with one eye open (hence the Metallica song on my list - I detest Metallica, but how cool is it that they wrote a song about unihemispheric slow-wave sleep!). One half of their brain checks out, while the other is totally active, keeping watch for predators, or for Travis trying to get rid of them before the triathlon. Although they say that humans can't do this, I'm still trying to perfect the technique.

4) A new baby typically results in 400-750 hours lost sleep for parents in the first year...but so worth it!

5) The record for the longest period without sleep is 18 days, 21 hours, 40 minutes. The record holder reported hallucinations, paranoia, blurred vision, slurred speech and memory and concentration lapses.

6) Experts say one of the most alluring sleep distractions is the 24-hour accessibility of the internet. What am I doing blogging? I'm going to bed.

*I got some of the cool stuff on this post from a radio lab podcast on sleep. If you want to think I'm really smart, then don't listen to it. But if you are curious and want to hear more, go to this link.