SLEEP

SLEEP

      I will never forget how important sleep is. People will make lists of what you need to survive in dire situations like, I don’t know, a zombie apocalypse or what have you (weapons, food rations, shelter), and what you need to stay healthy (healthy food, exercise, medicines). However, all of that is pretty much useless if you don’t get any sleep. I found this out the hard way when I decided to make plans on my days off and instead ended up getting nothing done. Always, I would have a late start getting around to doing what I wanted to accomplish. By the time I got started, I would consider myself done because I couldn't concentrate and instead occupied myself with entertainment late into the night.

   That only continued until I was ambushed. One moment I'm in the middle of one of my favorite shows, the next I'm unconscious seeing desserts and alligators until the sun peeks through my blinds nudging my retinas oh so gently. It's a ninja I tell you! It comes by night and leaves by day--more specifically noon--and I can barely remember how it got there. I can stop these attacks though, I later discovered. If I wanted to have energy for the greater portion of the day then I would have to rise earlier, and to rise early I'd have to sleep early. A sleep schedule was the solution I needed.

    In my Psych class I learned that sleep affects our bodies a lot! Sleeping doesn't only give us an opportunity to acquire energy to be used for waking hours, it has a highly significant neurological effect. Without at least the proper eight hours the hippocampus, i.e. main memory center in the brain, loses information. You see, the idea that you'll forget something when you sleep is actually an old wives' tale. It's the reverse! You actually remember things because the information that you take in during the day is stored in your noggin when you sleep. That would bring me back to my original statement.

   What would be the point of having all of that stuff in the middle of an apocalypse if you're low on energy, can't concentrate, and keep forgetting where HQ is? There wouldn't be one. I now know and embrace the fact that I am a morning person and will continue to work hard to keep myself healthy by getting a good night's rest, which is actually what I need to be doing now...