Sleep is under rated. So so under rated.
And unfortunately we are sleep walking towards significant
health problems and shorter lives, by not having more of it. Excuse the pun.
As working hours get longer, social lives busier, and social
activities more plentiful, we are developing a ridiculous macho attitude
towards sleep.
Nothing makes me roll my eyes more when I hear of people
boasting about how little sleep they had before a working day.
This is especially the case in industries like investment
banking. Where staying in the office as late as possible, and getting as little
sleep as possible, is a marker of how much of a man you are and how valuable an
employee you are.
And as this recent news story demonstrates, it can often
result in tragic consequences: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24049679
In the Far East, the problem is far worse. Much longer
working hours, much less annual leave and free weekends to rest those weary
eyes. There is an acceptance in Hong Kong, for example, that most people
working in office jobs will regularly get home just before midnight, before
having to wake up at 6am again the next day.
I have a friend in Japan whose boyfriend is a heart surgeon.
He only gets 5 hours sleep a night. I don’t know about you, but if I was about
to go into hospital for a heart transplant, I wouldn’t want a sleep deprived
surgeon operating on me.
And neither do I want bankers, whose very actions have a
significant impact on the global economy, going into work with no sleep
whatsoever.
Unfortunately for me, I have inherited my mother’s need for
long and undisturbed sleep. Anything less than eight hours a night messes with
my concentration levels, irritability levels and causes me to do things I would
never normally do.
In fact, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t jave written this blog if I
wasn’t so damn tired today.
I will also be likely to be inheriting my father’s type 2
diabetes in my later years of life, which will almost certainly add to my
exhaustion. Lucky me.
I take a dim view on people who regularly survive on five
hours or less sleep a night, and seem to think that because they can do it,
everyone else in the world can. Hey guess what, Usain Bolt can run 100 metres
in 9.58 seconds. Surely YOU can do it as well.
I don’t know the exact health implications of not getting
the required amount of sleep each night. But I’m pretty sure it will age you
quicker, increase your risk of strokes and heart attacks – oh and probably take
a few years off your life.
But hey, if boasting about how little sleep you get makes
you think you’re billy big bollocks, then by all means please continue.
I’ll see you at your early funeral.
