Sleep more, get smarter
Today, Reuters published an article, “Lack of sleep may be deadly, research shows”.
Clearly lack of sleep leads to grumpiness. You must have had a bad night or two in your time? The French call a night where you can’t get to sleep a white night.
Getting enough sleep is important if you are going to adopt the slow lifestyle. A UK member of the International Institute of Not Doing Much (IINDM) who writes The Art of Tea has been struggling with how to arrange his life so he can stay longer in bed.
William Demnet, in his book, The Promise of Sleep, cited a study where Harvard graduates did better by sleeping more and studying less.
This makes a lot of sense to me. The mind needs time to process, to incubate input. But the fast-paced, rushed lifestyle thinks of sleep as an impediment. I blame the likes of Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Edison for this sort of ‘always on’ mentality.
I’ve been reading, How to be Idle, by Tom Hogkinson. He makes a compelling argument for staying in bed longer in the morning. In fact, I’ve been trying it out and I recommend it, too.
If you’re the sort of person that goes in for creativity, then allowing yourself to be in that early-morning hypnagogic state or even lucid dreaming will only help you listen to your muse.
Of course, if you’re cosmetically challenged, then remember what Sophia Loren said about sleep being a natural beauty treatment. Sleep more, get smarter.
Thanks for the mention!
May I even be so bold as to suggest that lack of sleep is the source of many of the ills of the Modern World? Margaret Thatcher was known to proudly declare her ability to get by on only four hours a night… nuff sed!
I am most pleased by your mention of the study cited by William Demnet… It seems counter-intuitive to suggest that we can do more by working less (as encapsulated in the French phrase “Travailler moins, produire plus”) – but this is an item of simple wisdom which is far too often ignored in the “Do Everything Yesterday!” culture which we seem to have become caught up in. Did the great thinkers of antiquity rush around like blue-arsed flies? Well maybe… but I suspect not!
Creativity most definitely requires long periods of rest… relaxation… reflection… meditation… Personally, as a writer, I need to spend time emptying my mind of all the mush that accumulates, before the words can flow more freely in…
I have taken to meditating/dozing on the half-hour train journey to work each morning… most refreshing!
On the other hand, there is something to be said for the quiet contemplation and meditative solitude of getting up with the birds and watching the sun rise.
This is all rather academic for parents of young children who, like my 19-month-old this morning, begin forcefully naming your facial features at 6a.m.
The following article from the BBC is also rather worrying, since it suggests that too much sleep is measurably bad for you (or at least for civil servants): http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7009927.stm
With so much advice on what is and what is not bad for you - two sets which are sadly not mutually exclusive - it seems possible to find evidence to support any lifestyle.
Love it.
Sleep when tired. Eat when hungry. Wash when dirty. Dry when wet.
Go slow.
Mad Gringo, you are a guru!!
I’ve attained lucid dreaming recently, without effort, and find that I am much more rested in the morning compared to nights without lucidity.