Why You Should Sleep Instead of Reading This

Waking up early seems pointless and unproductive. People are sloppy in the mornings. Most drearily drag themselves out of their blanket protected havens, envious of those who pompously prance in the AM hours. Many people are physically capable of waking up early it's just do not see the point in putting themselves through that self-inflicted discomfort. Obviously this can be counteracted by sleeping longer which I will also briefly discuss. However waking up early provides so many hidden benefits lots of people ignore.

About 1/3 of the average person’s life is spent sleeping. The importance of this sleep cannot be stressed enough as its effects ripple through our daily lives in a variety of aspects. Memory storage is greatly affected by the amount of sleep one gets per night. According to Harvard, sleep acts like a disk defragmenter to the brain. During sleep the brain will process information gained throughout the day and ‘file’ them appropriately. This subsequent ability to quickly retrieve and remember information would be very useful in a workplace environment as well as for children in school. Sleep also affects your quality of life. Obesity is directly linked to the amount of sleep people get. In a 16 years study of 60 000 woman, those who slept under 5 hours a night were 30% more likely to gain 30 pounds in the 16 years than those who slept 7 hours a night. This increase chance of weight gain results in an extra 50% (for all people not just woman) of diabetes. Of course sleep did not burn calories that prevent obesity, but those who slept less would be more likely to be too tired to exercise and probably would replace their lack of energy from sleeping with food leading to weight gain. If this is not making you sleepy, perhaps the threat of your life will. Stanford boasts that people who sleep “six or fewer hours a night had about a 70 percent higher risk of dying than did people of similar age who slept seven or eight hours a night.”. This shows that sleep doesn’t only affect your memory retention, recall, and weight but also the length of your life. As many will already know because of personal experiences, people seem to become ill-tempered when sleep deprived.

Although it is obviously advantageous to get the appropriate amount of sleep per night, the reasons for changing sleeping patterns to wake up earlier with the prerequisite sleeping hours are hidden. In the initial hours of the day, everything is quieter. Because of the more equal temperatures of the ocean and the land (for coastal places) wind causes less disturbances. During the day the land will quickly heat up and cause the air above it to also heat up while the ocean will remain a more constant temperature. Because the hot air will rise, the colder air over the ocean will move in to replace it. This air current is what we call wind. During the morning the ocean and the land will be more likely to be similar temperatures. The lack of wind will lessen the stressful hissing that would encompass one’s house if they were to wake up later. Later is also when the crying children wake up. Nothing is worse than waking up to a child screaming about why his or her breakfast is too cold. This yelling and blaring environment is not optimal for waking up. Early in the morning everyone else is asleep. This obvious fact seems to escape many people. Because everyone is asleep there are no cars on the road. Not only would this mean the noise pollution of them is not tainting the air, but also that you could beat the traffic to work and actually be on time for work/school for once and evade having to search for relevant excuses about why you were not there ten minutes ago. And with nobody woken up yet you can proceed with your morning with minimal distractions. Finally you can retrieve your newspaper without being intercepted by that stereotypical chatty neighbour that wants to invite you to that brutal dinner party you’re trying to avoid. Other errands can be completed thoroughly because of the time you have made for yourself by waking up early. Toast and cereal is too plain for people that are astute enough to spring out of bed so soon. No, breakfast for the early risers consists of golden French toast that gives a unique aroma that lingers for the rest of the morning. Cheap, discoloured oatmeal can be replaced stunning strawberries and smooth whip cream swathed atop a heavenly Belgian waffle that mimics the success you will have today because you woke up early this morning.

People do not understand the irrefutable importance of sleeping for the required hours a night. Lack of sleep has serious health side effects. Your abilities to recall memories as well as learn are diminished if you do not get enough sleep. Consequences such as obesity and diabetes can be attributed to absence of sleep. Emotional problems and even death can result from that extra movie you watched last night. And although sleep is important it is beneficial to go to bed early to wake up early. This way you avoid regular troubles and have a stress-free morning. In the mornings too many people instinctively smash the snooze button on aggravating alarms around the globe. Don’t be one of those people.

Don’t agree with me? Leave a comment.