Marsha Maung:: Freelance graphic designer and writer

The extra couple of hours of sleep, it seems, may not be the best thing for your body, I’ve just discovered. Why am I interested in the topic of sleep?

 

1. I suspect that my kids lack sleep (Joshua’s dark under-eye circle and Jared’s constant yawning could have something to do with it

 

2. My inability to wake up in the morning in time to send my kids to school on time could ALSO have increased my interest in the topic of sleep.

 

It seems that Eskimos sometimes sleep for 14 hours a day. Lucky them, I get something like 5 or 6 hours of sleep a night…if I am lucky. Sometimes, I have endure a full day with 3 hours or no sleep at all per day! And like they say, while no sleep is no good for the body, the Eskimos may not be leading all-that-healthy a lifestyle either.

 

Everything done is excess is no good and without a smidgen of doubt, if you don’t get enough of something (vitamins, food, water or sleep) it’s also detrimental to the mind and the body. Therefore, it’s important for kids to get about 10 hours of sleep and adults 8 hours of sleep per day. But Napoleon said that a man needs 6 hours of sleep, a woman need 7 hours of sleep and a fool needs 8. So, you decide.

 

And the most amazing thing is that most of us think that we are getting enough sleep because we can function during work. but researches in the US takes on a different view. They seem to think that the reason why people tend to sleep longer hours during weekends or holidays is because they are sleep-deprived during the week day – which is logical, if you ask me. Therefore, you start yawning while driving, it’s your body telling you that you need to spend more time sleeping.

 

During Victorian times, people used to think that sleeping 8 hours = idleness and laziness. During those times, men sleep 6 hours and women tend to sleep about 15 or 30 minutes more than men. It’s an acceptable fact that women sleep a little bit longer than men although they, during those times, are required to do less work (yeah, like housework is not really work, right? Bah!)

 

And preschoolers? It’s funny that my kids still continue to take naps even when they’re already BOTH attending preschool. I’ve read somewhere that preschoolers typically need about 10 – 12 hours a night! My goodness, then I have been doing everything wrong! Joshua and Jared sleeps at about 12 midnight and then wakes up about 8 in the morning. Which works out to be 8 hours of sleep a night. No wonder they still need an afternoon nap. By Western standards, I am probably a terrible parent! But I do intend to turn this around. soon, I will be reducing their afternoon nap to nothing and getting them to bed about 10 so that they can wake up bright and smiley in the morning. In fact, experts think that we can replace afternoon naps with a little bit of quiet time or reading…and maybe just lying down on a mat, listening to music or watching a little bit of educational TV. Hhhhmmm….I’ll try to work this one in.

 

And that works for me too. People who’ve lived with me know that I have this problem going to sleep and waking up. The funny thing is that even if I had enough sleep for a night, I STILL have problems waking up in the morning. I give the saying ‘Sleeping Like A Log’ a brand new meaning. My mother-in-law, mother and grandmother used to say that I sleep like the DEAD.

 

But all this is about to change. I no longer have the maids and my mother-in-law thumping over my leg and face to wake me in the morning so that I can send the kids to school. I only have the alarm clock that I can’t hear (the clock is really loud, by the way) to wake me.