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Resolution for 2016: Sleep More, Snooze Less
Here’s the problem: being lazy will kill you. But so will not sleeping. From the LA Times:
…a new study says that spending too much time in a chair and depriving yourself of necessary sleep should join a short list of behaviors known to increase your risk of premature death.
Sitting, and then not sleeping enough, is sort of my entire lifestyle. But in 2016, that’s going to stop. I hope.
[S]moking was the most dangerous single risk factor among the six studied — the small number of people for whom smoking was their only vice were 90% more likely to die during the course of the study than were people with practiced clean living across the board. People who reported high alcohol consumption — more than 14 alcoholic drinks per week — as their sole risk factor did not seem to be putting their lives in danger. But for those who combined heavy drinking with smoking, the risk of premature death was nearly tripled. And when lack of sleep was added to the mix, the odds of an early death were nearly five times greater — even though lack of sleep by itself had only a slight effect on mortality.
Okay, I’m never going to give up my wine. Or my old fashioneds. Or my cigars. So I guess 2016, for me, is going to be the Year of the Full Night of Sleep. Or not, because apparently that can kill you too:
Some combinations were more deadly than others, the researchers found. Those who blended insufficient exercise with prolonged sitting were 2.42 times more likely to die during the study, and those who were also guilty of sleeping for too many hours were 4.23 times more likely die by the time the study ended.
So, the study proves this: everything is going to kill you. Which means that my resolution for 2016 is pretty much worthless and I should abandon it now.
Which was sort of my goal all along.
Published in General
A person can’t just sleep too many hours, they have to be guilty of sleeping too many hours?
That would explain why I didn’t sleep well last night.
A friend (who is a realtor – which might explain the #1) sent me the following list of the most common resolutions. They were (in inverse order):
10. Get in shape
9. Lose weight
8. Get a (better) job
7. Stick to a budget
6. Pay down debt
5. Quit smoking
4. Be more organized
3. Spend more time with family
2. Take a trip
1. Buy a house or move
My reaction? This is also the top ten list of New Year’s resolutions which will not be kept. This year my resolution is not to make resolutions.
And guess what? Deaths are apportioned like births – one to a customer. Forgoing a pleasure to avoid death is futile. Everyone dies of something eventually. What matters is how you spend the time between birth and death.
Seawriter
Cemeteries are full of people who’ve overslept. Still oversleeping in fact.
An excellent post, and one I’m in full agreement with.
But I’m just going to keep on Googling, and so . . .
Study links 8 Hours’ Sleep to Shorter Life Span,
My mother (God rest her soul), did not believe in allergies, insisting that they were some sort of insidious American plot to feather the nests of the doctors and the insurance companies (a belief that I try to hew to every time my arms and legs swell to Elephant Man proportions as a result of exposure to poison ivy or poison oak), and she always said that she COULD NOT WAIT until the study appeared in the American press averring that peanut butter and chewing gum caused cancer.
So, Mum, here you go:
Peanut butter/Cancer Risk
Chewing gum/Cancer risk
Somewhere, she’s laughing.
And so am I.
Sounds like a phoney-baloney study to me Rob – I’d keep falling asleep in your chair. My grandfather lived to be 92, and as a child I though he was of one part with his recliner.
Exactly. When driving across country I used to see signs raising funds/awareness for one disease or another claiming it was the #1 cause of death of some subset of the population, which would invariably elicit from me the comment to my wife: “Well, gee, something has to be, right?” (yes, she has the patience of a saint)
But foregoing a pleasure to defer death may be prudent. It may also simply be prudent and disciplined, which I have always thought to be pretty standard aspects of conservatism.
*Snork* Huh, what? Did someone say something? Guess I’ve been hitting the caffeine too hard again.
Despite all studies: World Death Rate Holding Steady at 100%.
Rob, you wrote an article about sleep and didn’t make a pitch for Casper Mattresses (coupon code Ricochet)? No wonder the advertising is left up to James.
Except reincarnation.
Just finished re-watching the movie, Made in Heaven, from 1987. That’s a lovely film.
Here’s my suggestion for a much more useful resolution:
In 2016, whenever you read the words “a new study says,” either a) stop reading immediately or b) look up the paper to see for yourself what it really says.
I haven’t been keeping track, but I can’t remember the last time I saw a newspaper report about what “a new study says” that accurately characterized the study or the conclusions one might reasonably draw from it.
I’ll take a look at it. Thanks for the recommendation.
I would like to suggest one resolution for the Ricochet technical staff. How about making 2016 the year that Search is made to work? You know, that little box at the top of every page that says Search but actually doesn’t. Yes, I know there is a way to search Ricochet (go to Google.com, type in your search term followed by site:ricochet.com). But shouldn’t a site like this have a built-in search feature? Or if it’s just not possible to make it work, how about making a button that says “How to search Ricochet” that takes you to a page telling you how to find stuff from an external search engine?
Since death is guaranteed for all of us, my single resolution for 2016 is live life to it’s fullest. Eat, drink and be merry, sometimes in excess.
We only get one turn on the merry-go-round; might as well make the ride worthwhile.
Sure, but recent studies show that even those lazy slobs get out of bed every four years or so. Apparently, politics is very good for your health.