Sleep and Wellness, on the Eve of a Restless Holiday Season ("Let Go, or Be Dragged")

My freshman year of college was overwhelming.  I wanted it all, both academically and socially.  I wanted to get good grades, attend special lectures, as well as to be seen at every party and to hear every band that toured through town.

And so I did.

But, when you are poring over textbooks at the library until close to midnight, then rushing off to some all-night party,  then digging deep to find the discipline to be front row and center for the 8am classroom lecture, you have to sacrifice something.  Which, in my case, was sleep.  I sacrificed it nght after night after night for an entire year.  While I achieved the goals of having both a good report card and a festive social life, I only slept 3-4 hours a night consistently throughout my freshman year.

Although the bizarre heart palpitations I was feeling in the spring should have told me that my regimen was less than healthy, that didn't really convince me.  It was my face.  On spring break, I was riding in my mother's car and pulled down the mirrored visor to see if my hair needed a comb.  In the bright midday sunlight, I saw the reflection of my face, which looked like it had aged 10 years over the last three school quarters.  Vanity prevailed, and I started skipping a few parties in favor of some shut eye. 

So now, many years later, I am beginning to think that quality sleep is just as important (if not slightly more so!) than good nutrition in maintaining optimum health.  Honestly now,  if too few zzz's were wreaking that much havoc with the cells supporting my appearance, what was it doing to the cells supporting everything else???

I've spent most of this morning reading statistical data about cancer rates.  I'm sure that folks far more qualified than I have analyzed the same data with a more experienced eye.  They likely make a profession, and not just a morning, out of studying these statistics.  But in my unqualified opinion, the nations that seem to have the highest cancer rates tend to be nations of what I would call "do-ers"--folks who work hard, keep at their tasks, make time for extracurricular activities, and prioritize socialization and relationships. Do-ers do a lot, so would it be such a far stretch to imagine that they are so busy doing that they have to sacrifice some sleep?

There is no real science behind my hypothesis, so please take it for what it's worth.  But I think it's a hypothesis that could garner substantiating support, if someone continued to focus on the factor of sleep.  Serving to bolster my personal opinion is data that suggests that marathon runners tend to have a higher cancer rate.  Maybe the tax that 26.2 miles puts on the body requires a rest and repair time beyond the standard 8-ish hours that a lot of us get...?  But who has time for more than 8 hours?  (Many of us don't even have time even for that much sleep!)  An Israeli study indicates that women who do not get quality nighttime rest may have a higher incidence of breast cancer.  And I think about the too-many folks I have known who have gotten a frightening diagnosis---there is no real common thread among them (some are male, some are female, some are vegetarian, some are ominivore, etc.) except not a single one of them could ever be accused of being a slothful layabout.  They are all do-ers.  And maybe it seems like cancer and disease rates are on the rise because we have inadequate time to rest...the world we live in forces us into a mode of constant doing.  For example, most of us have to work really long and/or hard hours at stressful jobs to make ends meet.  Add to that the admonishment that we must move more to stay fit...so, dead-tired, we drag ourselves to the gym.  We have kids that have to be carted hither and yon for extracurricular obligations, adding hours and hours of high-stress commuting to our weeks.  And we get sucked in to the late-night adventure flick when we only meant to turn on the tube to unwind for a half hour before bed, ending up with yet another night of too-few hours of sleep.  It seems like we never get a chance to complete a full, resting repair cycle before we are up and at 'em again.

I say this to you even as I am about to embark on an overloaded couple of weeks.  You can probably imagine that the holiday season in the cooking business is a busy one.  I am nervous about the constant buzz of stress I know I will be feeling and I am nervous that I will run out of hours in the day to take care of very basic things I need to do for myself and those closest to me.  I am especially nervous about the inadequate sleep I will be getting throughout the holiday season and how that might have a long-term ripple effect on my overall health.

All I can do, I suppose, in the coming quiet of the early days in the New Year, is to try to shed stuff---obligations and expenses that must be fed by constant activity and income-generating maneuvers.  I'm sure my resolution will be something to the effect of "try to do more with less," or  "do less and sleep more," or the really great one I just heard the other day:  "let go, or be dragged."    Yep.   I'll be giving some things up, just as I had to give up some wonderful parties so many years ago.  I'm aware that I just can't have it all and have my rest.  But the sacrifice will be for the invaluable hope of standing strong, healthy, and disease-free for another glorious trip around the sun.