Sleep has to be the most important thing in our lives that we understand the least amount. How does it restore our energy and our bodies? Why do we lose track of time when we’re doing it? Why do we so often hate when it begins and when it ends?I have the typical love-hate relationship with sleep. I love sleeping, but I hate devoting time to it. I’d sleep ten hours per night if I could, but I never do because I don’t want to give it that much time out of my day. Besides, if you're sleeping ten hours a day, you better be nine-years-old.I’ve probably slept less this summer than in any summer of my life. There have been at least two nights during which I got literally no sleep, and another night where my head didn’t hit the pillow until after sunrise. On dozens more nights I’ve slept a few hours, but found myself awake at odd hours. I’ve even written a few blog posts in the middle of the night.Summer is usually my least-rested time of year. I love to stay up late—as do my wife and kids—and take advantage of not having to wake up early to get the kids up. Instead I set my alarm for fifteen minutes before I have to leave, and then race to get ready and get to work on time.
I feel sorry for people who have insomnia. It must suck to lie in bed and try to go to sleep, but fail. I’m thankful I don’t have that problem. Usually I’m asleep within just a couple of minutes. Good thing, too. On the few nights in my life during which I haven’t been able to fall asleep, I’ve felt like I just might murder someone. If I habitually suffered from insomnia I’d be lying awake on a prison cot, no doubt.Sleep is also unique in that it’s perhaps the only basic bodily need that people brag about not fulfilling. No one brags about not having eaten all day, or managing not to pee, but we all know people who tout their ability to do without sleep.“I stayed up all night studying for that test.” Or, “I was so excited for today that I didn’t sleep at all last night.” I’m guilty of that as well. If you want me to bore you to hell, just ask me about the time that I drove our family eighteen-and-a-half hours to Disney World, and then went to the Magic Kingdom all day when we arrived. Thirty-two sleepless hours in a row that time.(Just to be clear, the boring part about that story is me talking about not getting sleep. The drive and the park were tons of fun!)But without a doubt the most common no-sleep story comes from new parents. “I was up all night with the baby,” which precedes the obligatory explanation of why the baby couldn’t sleep. I think many new parents wear those sleepless nights as a badge of honor.I’ve got four kids, and sleepless nights were never my experience. Sure I stayed up a night or two with each of my sons when we brought them home, but my wife nursed and the babies slept in our bed. She went years without sleep. I rarely had to give up so much as ten or fifteen minutes. Yet she still looks fifteen years younger than me.I’ve had some inopportune sleep instances, too. Like the time I dozed for a few seconds in the middle of the night while driving on interstate 90 in Ohio. Or the time in elementary school that I fell asleep at my desk after taking some test and woke up in a puddle of drool.We spend a third of our lives sleeping, which means that we’re completely out of touch with ourselves and the rest of the world for that length of time. With my obsession with time, I’ll get rather aggravated about wasting so much time if I think too much about it.Still, that aggravation has to be better than insomnia.
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