Sleep and the good life

My book club is reading Robert Sapolsky's Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers: An Updated Guide to Stress, Stress-Related Diseases, and Coping, which I suspect may come up here again - last night I couldn't stop reading bits aloud to E, much to his annoyance. One of the chapters is on Sleep and Stress, and notes that in 1910 (before electric lighting) the average American got nine hours of sleep per night. That's down to 7.5 hours today (or should I say, tonight), but lately I am right about at 1910 levels, which feels fantastic.


I go up to bed around 10, am asleep between 10:30 and 11, and get up about 7:30. It's hard to imagine how I could ever sustain that with a regular job - much less with kids - but for now I hope to keep it up. The only downside is a certain amount of guilt about whether I could be achieving more, but Sapolsky's book is helping to bolster my conviction that I'll come out ahead (and significantly happier) this way. (Another fact, from the chapter on Stress and Aging, is that elderly people are happier than younger ones - they aren't as bothered by negative images or events, and enjoy positive ones more. Amazing!)

This weekend overall has felt like a near-perfect life balance: propping up the tomatoes and reading for my Budgeting class, playing hockey and going out to dinner at Sitka and Spruce yesterday; talking to friends in Boston and Berlin, leafing through the NYT, working on my paid probation project, and jogging with my friend B today. Tonight we'll go next door to M's to try out her corn chowder - which means I'd better get started with dessert coffee cake and salad soon. Hurray for the glorious fall, and for as many more months as possible of this relaxed pace!