Like Alice in Wonderland, I give myself very good advice, but I seldom follow it. My worst sin in this regard is my sleep schedule. I know full well that an adult needs seven to nine hours of sleep a night. A full night's sleep restores the brain and body. Certain chemicals build up while you're awake and discharge while you're sleeping. There is probably nothing you could do that would improve your health and life more than getting enough sleep every night.
The problem is, most of us consider a full night's sleep a luxury. Particularly in this town there are people who have to be awake at all hours of the night and day for work. Statistically, most of us are working longer hours, and when it gets right down to the nitty gritty of the complicated Ricardian economics of balancing sleep, play and work, most of us take the most extreme budget cuts from sleep.
As you would be able to figure out if you weren't so sleep deprived, this is a bad idea. In the extreme, it leads to more accidents and injuries, critical errors and a weakened immune system. Even the lesser effects are no picnic: irritability, lack of focus and the proliferation of Starbucks to the extent that contractors are burrowing tunnels to the earth's core to provide more places to put them.
Caffeine, by the way, is an effective way to keep yourself awake longer than you should be. Caffeine blocks adenosine from reaching your brain. Adenosine is one of those chemicals that builds up during the day and eventually makes you feel sleepy. It still builds up, even when blocked, so eventually the floodgates are going to open and it's good night, Irene. There are strong arguments that regular caffeine is a really bad idea for reasons that are too numerous and complex to get into here.
Besides the conscious choice to shortchange yourself, there are numerous factors that cause us, as a nation, and particularly us, as a city, to wander around like extras in "Night of the Living Dead Slot Zombies." To begin with, most of us have our circadian rhythms shot all to hell. Circadian rhythms are the noises made by those horrible screeching bugs that climb out of the ground and squeal like a car alarm right outside your bedroom window and then leave their creepy discarded exoskeletons clinging to your trees. No wait, those are Cicada rhythms. Nevermind.
Circadian rhythms are basically the ebb and flow of cycles during the day, two of the more prominent ones being light and temperature. Working in a windowless cubicle or casino confuses your body and upsets those rhythms.
It should come as no surprise that stress can keep one from sleeping. Stress raises cortisol levels in your body, and sleep only comes when those levels are lowered. But, you know, try not to worry about that.
Finally, there's the simple matter of over-stimulation before bedtime. If you're hauling buckets of dishes or swinging from a trapeze at 10 p.m., it's mighty hard to wind down to get some serious pillow time before 1 or 2 a.m.
There is a simple solution to all these problems. Quit your job, move to a more temperate climate and start some good habits. Exercise regularly, go to bed not long after sunset and get up not long after sunrise. Avoid stimulants such as caffeine. Don't smoke or drink alcohol.
In short, join the Amish and go raise a barn.
For the rest of us who are staying in Las Vegas and actually living in the 21st century, I'll give you some ideas for improving your sleep in my next column. In the meantime, try to get some rest. You've been looking a little tired lately.
F. Andrew Taylor is a Las Vegas freelance writer. His column appears twice monthly. Contact him at fandrewt@cox.net.
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