Sleep is Good (if you can afford it)
I’d sleep for a month if I could. The point is, I can’t afford it. I am living a phase of my life in which I don’t sleep much. We have two kids. One is 4, the other is almost 2. Nights are crazy.
My problem is not sleeping fewer hours than usual, but interrupted sleep. Like sleeping for 2 hours (enough to get in the REM phase) and be awakened by one the kids screaming because he had a nightmare, or because he wants to play.
When I go to conferences, the first night I usually sleep from 8pm to 8am, with no interruptions. I wake up because I set the alarm, otherwise I’d probably sleep for the whole duration of the conference :)
A few weeks ago I stumbled upon a combination that made be nervous. My RSS reader collected some blog posts about the importance of sleeping well and the topic was also addressed in some of the mailing lists I subscribed to.
I am aware it’s a coincidence and not a conspiracy to make me nervous, but the only thing I could do was … unsubscribe. Drastic, I know. But why making it hard on me? I already don’t sleep a lot. I wake up, read some news, and you tell me it’s important to sleep? Come on.
This is pretty similar to a decision I made a few years ago. I used to read the news in the morning. I don’t anymore. The chances of reading something “negative” that influences my mornings or my productivity are too high. I am happy I made that decision.
And I feel a bit more happy to avoid, at least for a few years, contents about the importance of sleep. I’ll re-subscribe, when I can afford it.