Wednesday 19 March 2014

Why I don't feel bad for going to bed at 10

(or sometimes before...)



I listen to a lot of podcasts, usually when walking in town or on public transport, and one of them caught my attention this week. It was on the Harvard Business Review podcast and it really resonated with me. Here is a blogpost on the HBR that is related, but as I am not sure how to link to a podcast on itunes (anyone?) you can search for it, if you want to hear it, it is episode 359: Attacking the Sleep Conspiracy of the HBR IdeaCast.

It resonated for several reasons, but one of them is very simple: it gave me a reason to continue to go to bed at 10! I have many friends and acquaintanced who find my bedtime hours weird, and it is often a topic of discussion, especially here in Greece. 

There is a certain "glamour" attached to staying up late, burning the midnight oil and being so busy that you have no time to sleep. I have chosen to reject it in my life, as for me the benefits of 8 hours of good quaality sleep are obvious, but now I have science to back me up. 

Russell Sanna, who is the executive director of the Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School talks about a culture-shift in sleeping behaviours, similar to the shift that happened in cigarette smoking and healthy eating. I have often thought of that - yet it was just wonderful to hear it from someone, well, ahem, qualified. 

So tonight I have all the more reason to go to bed early, turn the light off before ten and feel good about getting my full eight hours of sleep, knowing that I am doing something good for my health!

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