10 Hours of Sleep a Night?
Is that even reasonable or healthy?
A 1998 article from The New York Times recently caught my attention. The article, written by Dr. James B. Maas, examines the power of sleep.
One notable segment:
Before Thomas Edison’s invention of the electric light in 1879, most people slept ten hours each night, a duration we’ve just recently discovered is ideal for optimal performance. When activity no longer was limited by the day’s natural light, sleep habits changed. Over the next century we gradually reduced our total nightly sleep time by 20 percent, to eight hours per night. But that’s not nearly the end of the story. Recent studies indicate that Americans now average seven hours per night, approximately two and a half hours less than ideal. Amazingly, and foolishly, one third of our population is sleeping less than six hours each night. Are we losing our minds?
What would it be like to sleep for ten hours each night?
Most of us would say that we are too busy, or have too much going on, to get more than seven hours of sleep. I even know some college students who only get five or six hours of sleep per night.
Are we really too busy to sleep more, or are we just filling our life with distractions? If you reduced time on your phone and watched less TV, would you be able to find more than seven hours to sleep?
And, most importantly, would more sleep increase your productivity?
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© Aaron Schnoor 2020
