Spiel on Sleep

These days, every day is some day like Fight Procrastination Day, and every month is some month, like National Biscuit Month! On our intranet, I noticed that the month of May is National Sleep Comfort Month, and there is an organization called National Sleep Foundation (NSF).

Whenever I come across an unusual organization like this one and Texas Quarter Horse Association (used to see their office on my way to work in my previous job), I wonder how a hectic day in these offices would feel like. I find it hard to imagine employees in these places running around in the last minute to meet project deadlines. They probably feel the same way about my line of work.

Anyway, I thought NSF is a neat website. I realized the importance of well-rested body almost the hard way last month. While driving back from Houston on US 290 around midnight, I became the subject of Highway Hypnosis and fell asleep on the wheel for half-a-minute or so. It was a surreal feeling - I remember seeing a couple of traffic lights about 30 seconds ahead, and the next moment they were gone! I immediately pulled over and rested for a few minutes. NSF says that we are capable of performing some complex tasks (like sleep walking) while sleeping.

While I was working in Vadodara, my childhood buddy Ravi Ram used to complain that he was having trouble in falling asleep. NSF is a really neat site for the seekers of Morpheus. Here are some sound sleep facts.

• We (both young and older) need about 8 hours of sleep a day.
• Turning up radio, cracking windows open, or cranking up the AC to beat the sleep while driving, just doesn't work. In fact, this can harm us. Best thing to beat fatigue is to pull over and rest.
• If you wake up in the middle of the night and can't fall asleep for 20 minutes or so, the best thing is to get up and do something relaxing, like reading a book, until you feel sleepy again.