Monday 1 September 2008

Kid Napping


You can never measure the exact time you fell asleep. It has to be a rough estimate, based on what you remember doing right before losing consciousness, and how you could connect that with a series of digits. The human mind cannot concentrate well enough in a drowsy state to focus on such things as clocks and watches to tell you whether you dosed off at 12:05 or 12:10. Naturally, you wouldn’t think you’d be able to recollect that time in your head in any case; you were too busy trying to get to sleep.

I don’t know why, but that sort of thing is a grievance to me, and I’d wish there were a way to bypass outside interference to find out for yourself when you drifted off.

For as long as I can recall, I haven’t – for a sustained period of time – required to sleep for an eternity to feel refreshed on my waking. The average time I awake is probably around 7 o’clock; that’s outside of school term time. Factor in the need to arise earlier in order to ready oneself for educational relief, and that average winds back an hour or so. And the approximate times at which I hit the sac can vary greatly. What I mean by that is I could go to bed at 10pm, or 2am, and it simply wouldn’t matter which is was; I would, more often than not, wake up around that mean rousing phase. I’ve definitely subsisted off around 0-4 hours before, and felt perfectly fine the following day (though eventually, later in the week, I do succumb to the need for an excess few hours). I'm lucky in that regard, as the moment I wake up - providing I move about and get up fully - I feel fully alert without caffeine or a stimulant within 5 minutes.

Most teenagers my age find it difficult to drag themselves out of bed any time prior to 10 in the morning, if given the choice to sleep in that late. Realistically, a lot of human beings worldwide would do the same thing. A couple of friends have said to me in the past that they’ve only woken up at 4 in the afternoon multiple times. Granted, they did usually go to bed at around 3am…Another chum will take naps throughout the day on his return home to retain energy. But there are other friends who find sleep hard to come by at all – one in particular has complained in the past that she can go months without having a decent night’s sleep. From what she’s described to me, her sleeping patterns are far worse than any I have experienced.

I would really love to be able to know when I took my last glance at the world before slumber seized me with a firm grip day in, day out. Would learning of a trivial thing like that interest you? Unlikely, I’d assume. But could you imagine the aid the precision would give us in everyday life? Minimal, I know. Woah, I’m putting forward a very weak argument in favour of this.

But one thing I know for sure is that practically no-one will ever be reading this article at this time of day. You’re all greedy sleepers!

I woke up at 5:30 today, and found that I'd left the television on! And in all honesty, I shouldn't have just mentioned that, since my parents may read this, and charge me for the rise in the electricity bill total cost. I may be alert, but my sense has yet to prevail.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

POWER NAPS RULE!!!