Sleep Creep

Yesterday, I went and sleep in. I was displeased with myself, because I have done well over most of the past year at going to bed at a tolerable hour and rising at one as well. There have been necessary compromises sometimes in the area of an adequate number of hours sleeping, but I have at least managed to get up at 9 in the morning most days. I acknowledge that this is not early to people with real jobs, but for me it is.

Sleep is an interesting subject. There is still plenty that we don't know, I gather. We know some, and I know some of what we know. I've read someplace that an alarm invariably cuts you off from the amount of sleep you should be getting- that when you wake up naturally is when you should have gotten up. You can force yourself into more sleep if you are determined, but where you drift into consciousness of your own accord is the right time.


For me yesterday that was about 1 o'clock in the afternoon. I was, as I said, unhappy about that because it disrupts even the schedule of someone with relatively few fixed things to do and places to be. Here's how I like to do it on a blank day: I wake up at 9, get coffee and hash browns going, then shower. That's through about 9:30 or 9:40. I eat in the living room while watching some ESPN, then retire to the bedroom to start writing.

While in the procrastination phase, I watch Perry Mason and The Rockford Files. By the time that's through, it's noon and I'm hopefully ready to start producing. By 5 o'clock, I'm probably done, but will go longer if I haven't gotten enough done. If I am terribly unaccomplished, I will make a desperate charge late in the evening after I've been out with friends or for whatever other purpose. That's a distinct possibility for today as I write this, on account of the late start.