Thursday, January 1, 2009

Smart Things About Sleeping Late (and waking up late)

Now here's the dosier to that oft-stated notion "early to bed and early to rise makes Juan a smart guy." And I won't argue, coz this is a product of research, until another research says otherwise.
Here are 3 smart things about it:

1. You may need more sleep than you think.

Research by Henry Ford Hospital Sleep Disorders Center found that people who slept eight hours and then claimed they were "well rested" actually performed better and were more alert if they slept another two hours. That figures. Until the invention of the lightbulb (damn you, Edison!), the average person slumbered 10 hours a night.

2. Night owls are more creative.

Artists, writers, and coders typically fire on all cylinders by crashing near dawn and awakening at the crack of noon. In one study, "evening people" almost universally slam-dunked a standardized creativity test. Their early-bird brethren struggled for passing scores.

3. Rising early is stressful.

The stress hormone cortisol peaks in your blood around 7 am. So if you get up then, you may experience tension. Grab some extra Zs! You'll wake up feeling less like tense than usual.

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