Sleep

This morning you might have eaten breakfast, you might have exercised, you might even have gone to a full service spa. This afternoon you may have eaten lunch, maybe you had to work, or even gone to the zoo. This evening you maybe had dinner with your family, pulled weeds in your lawn or worked on your hobby. All of these things may or may not have been important, but the thing that you did without realizing it that is the most important thing you did today was to wake up. I could write about the deep-rooted philosophical nature of the fact that you woke up, but I am not feeling very deep today.

Instead, I want to write about the importance of sleep mostly from observation. The first distinction I will make is quality sleep versus quantity sleep. I have heard that some people have sleep apnea sleep or fall asleep all the time and never feel rested. I can't really comment on these medical cases. So leaving aside any medically related sleep problems, I will comment on my observation of normal people sleep. Sleep increases your ability to remember, I don't care what you've read about ginseng, sleep will help you remember everything clearly as long as you get it in your head in the first place (but that is a different topic.) Sleep increases your energy, instead of relying on caffeine or other harmful drugs, try using the natural chemicals created in your body for providing that extra boost. Sleep increases your awareness/ your ability to focus. I have seen hundreds of people that are sleep deprived that just make mistakes, simple mistakes like walking, like talking, like calculus. (Despite what you may think, real world calculus cannot be done by anyone in their sleep.) The same thing goes for people that are overtired. Construction worker are the worst on this, they work all day and they are "almost done" with a job for six hours. They fall asleep in their truck late and wake up to find a crappy job that they have to redo. Sleep reduces irritability. When you have had a good night's rest, you will find that you are far more patient, more understanding and appreciative. You are also less aggressive, less annoyed, and less condescending. Sleep increases coordination, as evidenced by my daughter. I have observed on many occasions that as she gets more tired, she tends to fall down more, this typically ends in injury, Motrin, and sleep.

I am sure that there are other benefits to sleep, however, I am far too lazy to list them all. I am unmotivated to think critically because I am lacking sleep. Probably you also lack the ability to think clearly, otherwise you wouldn't be reading this blog. So do me a favor and get some sleep.