Day 8 – On sleep

Sleep is important. Duh! So why can’t I get it right? Most of us need our 8 hours, but many of us don’t get it. Some need less. Many people say they need less but are “BS”ing us. Yeah, I don’t sleep much. I only need 2 hours a night. That’s how I have time to be a CEO, a tri-athlete and do a cooking show on cable twice a week. Yeah, that’s Bike Billy. I’m a fan.

The other thing about sleep is the timing. Hours before midnight count double. For example if I fall asleep at 11 and wake up at 6, I get my 8 hours (24-23 = 1*2=2+6=8), as opposed to 7 hours (24-23= 1*1=1+6=7). I love math. You can explain anything with it.

I need 8 hours, but find it hard to get consistently. And yet every New Years I keep telling myself the cornerstone of everything is sleep. I think the problem with sleep is that in anticipation it seems so boring, and the beginning is so hard, and yet at the end it becomes so exciting, important and earth rattling. In a way it’s kind of the opposite of food and sex. In these activities it’s all about the anticipation (many hours), preparation (up to an hour), and beginning moments (10s of minutes).  Then we’ve had enough. We are spent, can’t possibly go on.  I think this happens with sleep but rarely. We can always use more. We can always go on. Most of us have an equally infinite, lack of, and capacity to regain, sleep.

When it comes to going to bed I am a super procrastinator. Work. Internet. Sometimes TV. Puzzles and games (a waste for sure but I’m hopelessly drawn to it). Even the getting ready for bed becomes an act of procrastination. The wart on my pinky toe, which both my wife and doctor have been nagging me to take care of, becomes infinitely intriguing at 11:45 pm, when it’s times to go to bed. This is equally true about the old collection of razor blades on the top shelf of the medicine cabinet, which always seem to call for evaluation and reorganization in the minutes before midnight.

Alcohol and sports have been the key distractions this holiday season. I had a business trip on the 3^rd and was in bed reading before midnight and even put down my book before my wife did at around 23:30. But then the next night I needed to polish of the really good South African Shiraz leftover from our dinner party. And then just one extra finger of scotch to put a coda on the evening. It’s the holidays after all. At bed at 1:45, up at 9:45.

The next day was worse. Dinner party. More wine and more scotch. And then wildcard weekend! Ravens vs. Colts. Cheese heads vs. Vikings. If you're in CET time zone the late game kicks off at 2:30am. And when that‘s done there's the game of backgammon. The e-mails to check. Just one story on yahoo. Just one video on YouTube. And, oh, that looks  interesting . . . and then its 5:45 and I wake up at 10:30am. Next night it’s Washington vs. Seattle. Bed at 2am up at 11am. And finally, I wasn’t planning to watch BCS final (tide vs. Irish) but my schedule was off and  I couldn’t sleep . . . to bed at 00:45, up at 3;00, and back to bed again at 4:30am, up again at 9:30, but too tired, so back to bed until 11am. From now on in its early to bed, early to rise, makes a mane healthy wealthy and wise. Never did understand morning people . . .