Still standing...but what a week!

Whew! A good but tiring week, in more ways than one. First the snow, then the shoveling, etc. The last snow of the season turned out to be the real one, and just around the corner comes daylight savings time this weekend (springing forward and all). With a loss of sleep to boot! No more days like this to tempt you to sleep just a bit later...

I imagine it's been a busy, tiring week for Obama as well. The various proposed provisions of Obama's economic agenda--the stimulus package, its funding, the healthcare summit--amidst British PM Gordon Brown's visit, and fending off potshots from Senator McCain, who scorned efforts to fund research as pork (umm, didn't that backfire during one of the debates, when he scoffed at funding for a planetarium?) and wealthy people who claim to be fearful of his tax increases for them, even going so far as to deliberately decrease their income.

Times like these probably make O wonder whether he bit off more than he could chew, or climb over...

Spring Forward, to ... (Yawn?)

I barely remembered to perform my pre-daylight savings time ritual, to turn the clocks and watches forward before going to bed--it's just too traumatic, and disappointing to do it after you wake up in the morning; when I wait to turn them, I feel like I've truly wasted time.

Supposedly, there's an upside to this seasonal madness. David Prerau, writing recently in the New York Times, claims that it would be advantageous if daylight savings time began even earlier in the year, and, also ended later in the year. (See the March 31st editorial, "Spring Forward Faster" [free registration req'd].

I'm yet to be convinced, however, as people already don't get enough sleep. A book I read a few years (one which, ironically, contributed to a couple of sleepless nights itself), Stanley Coren's Sleep Thieves, was a frightening, ahem, wake-up call for our need for sufficient sleep, and the consequences of extended periods of sleep deprivation. In addition to information and profiles of people in other professions who often lack sufficient sleep, the author conducted an informal experiment, to determine how much sleep he actually needed to function well. It wasn't pretty.

In that spirit, I submit a few good links, with information on how to get good sleep, and another with information sleep disorders (and plenty of other sleep resources), links which I do not think are directly supported by manufacturers of sleeping pills. One is the article, "How to Sleep for a Better Tomorrow," a brief but useful compilation of good sleeping tips. Another is from sleep research pioneer William C. Dement, full of resources and information. A final sleep link, which contains 101 questions about sleep.

Now, hit the sheets!