Category: Health (Page 3 of 4)

WSJ: Stop Worrying About Sleep

WSJ: Stop Worrying About Sleep

Everyone knows that getting eight hours of sleep is the key to health and happiness.

Everyone should know to doubt anything that everyone knows.  The knowledge that “everyone knows” is built from half-assed news reports, advertising and unverified assertions made often enough.

Thomas Edison only slept 4 hours per night, but he was a dick.  Nikola Tesla slept about 2 hours per night, but he wasn’t mentally or emotionally stable.

The trick is to know that everyone is different, and to pay attention to what works for you.  I do well at 1 1/2 hour intervals.  I can sleep for 6, 7.5 or 9 hours and feel refreshed, but if I do 6 hours for more than a few days, it takes a toll.

But one of the worst things you can do about your lack of sleep is to stress out about it, say scientists and doctors. Forcing yourself to try to sleep better will backfire.

“The more you focus on going to sleep, you’re not able to sleep,” says Dr. Reena Mehra, director of sleep-disorders research at Cleveland Clinic. “It works against the individual.”

People obsess over mundane human requirements like sleeping, drinking water or eating at specific times due to some news article they’ve read or heard about on NPR.  It’s best to not obsess over things humans have done for thousands of years. 

USAToday: National Coffee Day

Coffee is a wonderful thing, I wish I’d known about it sooner.

My mother had many wonderful attributes, but cooking wasn’t one of them.  She had her own way of doing things.  She thought it would be a good idea to make a pot of coffee, then pour it into a pan and leave it simmering on the stove.  This was decades before Keurigs, microwave ovens or Mr. Coffee.  Did the percolator coffee maker keep coffee warm?  Don’t know.

On rare occasions, the coffee boiled off in the pan.  Burned coffee has a horrible smell in the same way that burned popcorn does.  This ruined coffee for me and some of my siblings.

About the time I turned 55 years old, it occurred to me that walking around school with a can of diet Mountain Dew seemed juvenile.  Adults drink coffee.

I developed a protocol to get over my aversion.  I stopped drinking any caffeinated beverages, except bottles of Starbucks Mocha Frappuccino.  Those are like chocolate milk, so I had only one per day for about a week.  That was to get my over the dislike for mocha.  After that, it was two weeks of Starbucks Iced Coffee.  This was to get my brain to associate mocha with caffeine.

After that, I went to black coffee.  Becoming a coffee snob has no appeal, so I get Aldi coffee and make it in a Keurig.

The benefits of coffee are significant.  About 20% of coffee drinks are compelled to take a dump after the first cup of the day.  I’m one of those lucky people.  I like the predictability of it. 

Big Cereal convinced us that breakfast is the most important meal of the day.  If I had breakfast, I was hungry around lunch time.  If I skip breakfast, I’m hungry around lunch time.  Why bother?   Having coffee in the morning means skipping breakfast is automatic.

Coffee gives a boost to initiative and clarity of mind.  When you get over about 50 years old, less appetite and more energy makes coffee worth the effort.

I get that “judgement free zone” is supposed to mean that a pudgy dotard like me won’t feel intimidated by the fit young people, but I am judging people all over the place.   I respect the chunky rascal on the treadmill, trying to get hammered into shape.  I appreciate the crotchety bastard who just finished the rehab regiment after cardiac surgery.  He can’t lift much, but he’s lifting.  It’s the other people.

What’s with the zaftig frau who only works out on the lat pull-down machine because her legs are spread as her ghetto booty faces the room.   I was on the bike for a half-hour, and she never did anything else.  Does anyone besides Sir Mix-A-Lot like big buns or is that just something people lie about on social media?

There is also the scrawny college kid who wears his over-the-ear headphones over his hoodie.  I’ve never seen him do anything except walk from the front of the gym to the back, then to the front again.  He is there pretty often, and it always seems like he’s looking for a ride home.   Maybe he just hasn’t found a ride yet.

Lycra doesn’t look as good as people think it does.  

The Joe Nautalrock fella who camps out on one machine, leaves his stuff, comes back 5 minutes later, and keeps that up for a half-hour isn’t very considerate.  There are tons of machines, so it doesn’t matter, but still.

I’ll judge people, but Howie Chizik taught me to always be polite, so I won’t say anything.

Current trends are expected to continue.   At 40 years old, hitting the gym gets you results.    At 50, you’re attempting to slow the decline.  At 60, you hope to retain full functionality.  At 70, you’re just plugging leaks.  If you are over 40, whatever shape you are in today, is probably the healthiest you will ever be.  It’s like this scene from Office Space.

It doesn’t matter what a person intends to do tomorrow, it’s what is actually done today.  Inertia means people keep doing what they’ve always done and entropy means that isn’t enough.

I’ve always wanted to be in better shape to perform better when I do the fun stuff.  I’ve joined gyms, bought equipment and worked out at school.  The only thing that has ever been effective is working out with a buddy.

After I was awarded that Breakthrough money, I offered to buy Boch a gym membership if he agreed to make me work out three times per week.  He took the deal, and we were successful.  After that year, it fell apart.

My brother recently retired, so we both joined Planet Fitness.  We just finished our third week, and so far, so good.