Man, I didn’t get enough sleep last night. I feel like I’m in a total fog this morning. I drove about eight hours yesterday, going back and forth to a book reading, which, by the way, went great. I love doing those. But Jeez, that’s a lot of time on the road.
Now you’d think that when I got home at 11:00 p.m. last night, I’d be exhausted from doing all that, and you’d be right. But apparently, a little muscle in my left leg wasn’t as tired as the rest of me, and kept twitching just as I was about to doze off. Happens to me every now and then, and it’s irritating as all get out!
I like getting seven to eight hours of sleep a night. I feel pretty good when that happens. ‘Course I don’t do that without the usual interruptions. No, I generally wake up two to three times a night, sometimes every couple of hours. Yes, I look at the clock. But boy, if I get three or four hours uninterrupted sleep, that is a wonderful thing!
Charlie, on the other hand, sleeps through it all. How can I tell? The snoring, of course. Let’s just say, he keeps a running commentary going all night long. I can elbow the bejesus out of him, and all he does is roll over and get back down to business.
Now, if I get less than seven hours of sleep, we’re getting in danger territory. Less than six hours, like last night, and I probably shouldn’t leave the house. Heck, I probably shouldn’t be left alone in the house, for that matter. Is typing on my laptop considered “operating heavy equipment?”
So this morning, foggy as all get out, I’m tooling around on the computer, and I Google the twitchy leg thing. Turns out, the powers that be don’t really know too much about it, except that a lot of people, especially women, have it.
Then I wander over to WebMD, like you do (which FYI, is not for the faint of heart, let me tell you), and find a sobering little number called, “Ten Surprising Effects of Lack of Sleep.” I’ll give you the Cliff’s Notes:
First off, being sleep deprived impairs your judgment, your memory and causes accidents. No surprises there. What is surprising is that it can cause not only car accidents, but disasters, too, like Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. Yikes! Who knew? Even without an accident, “not getting enough sleep may increase your risk of death” because apparently it can lead to serious health problems. I’m not going to go into details here ‘cause it’ll just make me depressed, which, as it happens, is also one of the side effects of sleep loss, along with aging your skin, weight gain, forgetfulness and killing your sex drive. Sounds an awful lot like menopause, doesn’t it? Which is another things that effects your sleep. And we’re back to where we started!
It’s a good thing I have today off. I wouldn’t trust myself operating the register at the A&P. Well, I’m gonna go have a little lie down before I try to pull myself together for a cookout over to Shirley and Juniors. It’s a potluck, and I threw my dish together this morning. Luckily, I can make Ambrosia Salad in my sleep!
That’s it for now. Catch you on the flip side!
IDA’s PODCAST: Effects of Sleep Loss
Upcoming Shows & Book Events:
September 4 Ida’s Havin’ a Yard Sale, ACT ONE Festival 2014, 8:00 p.m. Portsmouth, NH
September 5 Ida’s Havin’ a Yard Sale, ACT ONE Festival 2014, 2:00 p.m. Portsmouth, NH