"Our Sick Society"

Paul Krugman's "Our Sick Society" was very interesting. He talks about how the poor health of Americans is correlated with our stressful lifestyle. He compares our health to the health of the English. A statistic that stood out to me was that the to me was that the "richest third in America is in worse health than the poorest third of the English". These numbers alone show how unhealthy our lifestyles are here in America. Last week we talked about how poor sleeping patterns are correlated to how stressful our jobs are because of how hard we work ourselves. Krugman suggests the same theory. He states that full time British workers work five weeks more per year than full time Americans. Although we cannot really say that sleep is the sole factor to why our health is significantly poorer, these statistics definitely suggest that it does play some sort of a role.

Paul Krugman, “Our Sick Society,” NYT, May 5, 2006 (http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2006/05/paul_krugman_ou.html)

Random Sleeping Patterns

Something that has really caught my attention is how random my sleep patterns are. Some nights I will sleep a solid 7 to 8 hours, other nights I wont get but 4 to 5 hours of sleep. One thing that does not change is how tired I feel even if I do get those few extra hours of sleep. This feeling made me think of  the sleep debt, the term we heard in last weeks video. I am constantly depriving myself of sleep and I cannot ever pay it back effectively. It all comes down to putting myself to sleep at a reasonable time. This has been difficult mostly because of the late hours I am forced to work. I am curious to see my if my sleeping patterns will effect my upcoming midterm grades.

Vacation

The article that really surprised me this week was the New York Times article on vacation in the states. The article touches on Americans and how we deprive ourselves from vacation time for a variety of reasons. The article says that we worry ourselves out of taking too much vacation. This past summer I interned for the Chamber of Commerce. I distinctly remember employees talking about how they hated coming back from vacation to a million emails so often they would keep themselves updated throughout their time away. The employees at the Chamber were very tenacious people who definitely overworked themselves. This is something that worries me as I begin to start thinking about a career after school.

Ezra Klein, “Keeping up is getting us down,” LAT, July 15, 2007 (http://articles.latimes.com/print/2007/jul/15/opinion/op-klein15)

A Good Nights Rest

The past week, swimming has really kicked it up a notch. Practices are getting tougher and tougher and the pain never seems to go away. My sleep has definitely been affected by it too. I am beginning to fall asleep faster than ever. I have been falling asleep no later than midnight the past few days and I haven't slept this good in a while. Now, I am still exhausted during the day from practice, but I am not woken up so easily at night anymore. Since I have been getting better rest at night, I have had more motivation to gradually finish my homework instead of doing it the night before. This should definitely pay off in the long run.

Sleepy Adults Feel Effects Every Day

An article that really stood out to me was "Sleepy Adults Feel Effects Every Day". In this article, we are given a report on research done on adults reporting that they get less than seven hours of sleep. The reports states that the amount of adults that get less than seven hours of sleep has increased from 1984 to 2004. The article also touches on some interesting statistics: 48% said they snored, 37.9% reported that they unintentionally fell asleep during the day, and 4.7% reported that they had fallen asleep while driving. Falling asleep while driving is a scary thing to think about. The article also talked about loss of productivity on the job due to sleep in jobs like child care, lifeguarding, or operating heavy machinery. Falling asleep while working any of these jobs is very dangerous for not just yourself but others too.

Todd Neale, “Sleepy Adults Feel Effects Every Day,” Medpage, Mar. 3, 2011 (http://www.medpagetoday.com/Neurology/SleepDisorders/25180)

Procrastination

Running on three hours of sleep is probably one of the worst feelings ever. Recently, I procrastinated a bit too much on some homework and it backfired. I fell asleep at around 2:30 after doing homework due the following day. Now, 2:30 may not sound so bad, but when you have a 2 and a half hour practice in about 3 hours, things start to sound a bit worse. This completely ruined my energy and practice was not as productive as it could have been. Fortunately, I was able to get all the work done and my grades are still hold up okay for the moment, but if I keep procrastinating like this my grades and swimming will take a huge hit.

Sleep Patterns in College Students

Something that was very interesting to me was the research on the sleep patterns of college students. What was interesting was how closely it correlated to me in the past few weeks. The mean times that the Forquer reported in her studies were 12:24 on the weekdays, and 1:54 on the weekends. I definitely fall asleep two to three hours earlier on the weekdays. The study also reported that 33% of students took more than 30 minutes to fall asleep. This is a huge problem for me as well. Sometimes it'll take me longer than an hour to fall asleep. It can be very frustrating and stressful. Something that would be very interesting would be research on the correlation between students' sleep patterns and their grades.

LeAnne M. Forquer et al., “Sleep Patterns of College Students at a Public University,” Journal of American College Health 56.5(Mar/Apr 2008): 563-65.

Getting Ready for Practice

While the past few weeks have been filled with random bed times and late wakings, things are about to change drastically. This week we have started morning swim and weight training. Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays are morning weights, and Tuesdays and Thursdays are morning swims. Each practice starts at 6 and can last up to 7:30. Getting a good nights rest is going to be very important if I want to be able to train effectively. Going to bed before 12 is going to be very tough, but I will not be able to handle 6 hours of sleep every day.

Sleep and Memory

Something from class that really blew my mind was the correlation between sleep and memory. After watching the clip from 60 minutes, I was amazed by the findings of the research done. I could not believe that by getting a good nights rest can actually enhance your memory the next day. This finding completely negates the motives of the countless college students who pull all nighters just to learn something for a test the next day. What topped it all off for me was when I looked back at times when friends who pulled all nighters for their final tests have done significantly worse on the final than on previous tests that year.

Sleep Patterns

Lately, my sleeping patterns could not be more random. Some nights I sleep a solid eight to ten hours, other nights I will sleep no more than six hours. This has definitely affected me. During the days I get minimal amounts of sleep, practice and class could not be more exhausting. On the days where I get good rest practice and class are not so exhausting, but at the end of the day I am still very sleepy. I am still very much affected by the days that I get very little sleep a few days after even if I do get a good nights rest. Without weekends, I would not be able to make it through practice or class everyday.