Group P Choice: Sleep

            Sweet, dream-filled, precious sleep. On an average, we spend an entire third of our lives sleeping. I will probably only spend a sixth of my life sleeping. As much as I love my good ole friend sleep, it rarely ever happens. Let’s see; last night I only got a staggering 4 hours and 10 minutes of it. Running on empty? Absolutely. There is really not much I can do. I just always end up not getting enough sleep. I can usually function on 5 or 6 hours, but only a couple of nights in a row. I succumb to naps way too easily and I hate them. I tried to cut them off completely, but it happens. If I need to, I try to keep it at 27 minutes, which is effective, according to our pals over at NASA. I also found a neat little website that is a bed-time calculator. If you say you’re going to sleep now, it gives you the most effective times to wake up. If you need to wake up at a certain time, it gives you the most effective times to go to sleep. Its purpose is to make sure you wake up at the end of an REM cycle which lasts for 90 minutes. A good night’s sleep consists of 5-6 of these. It’s when you wake up in the middle of a cycle that makes you feel like utter crap. What scares me the most about my lack of sleep is how much my mind feels like mush and how nervous I am of falling asleep while driving. It has yet to happen (knock on wood), but I really need to start getting those hours in. When I do sleep, I have some pretty cool dreams, if any at all; nothing usually goes bump in Joe’s night.