Wake Up!

     How many hours of sleep do you get? I've heard everything from 3 - 12 hours a night. And how many hours of sleep do you really need? I've heard from 5-10 hours. I've also heard from "experts" that the optimal amount of sleep is 7-9 hours a night and most say 8. Well, I say... are you crazy! I physically could never do that, unless I was on my sick bed.
     I kept on hearing that you should get at least 7 hours and that 8 hours is best. I kept on thinking, "Is everybody else getting this much sleep?! Am I so odd?!" If I get more than 5 hours, I start to not feel so good. If I would get 6 hours, I would feel sick. And if somehow I would get 7 hours, I would feel like I got run over by a truck!
    When I was younger, I could sleep more, but the older I got, it seemed that I did not need as much sleep. And don't get me wrong - I like sleep. And I can go to sleep right away! My wife tells me that she does not know how I do it. I just tell her that it's time to sleep, and within 30 seconds, I'm out! And between 4-5 hours later, I wake up totally refreshed. If I just lie there and go back to sleep, I wake up feeling worse, wishing I had gotten up before.
    Well, a new study came out in July saying that 7 hours is now better than 8, and that getting "8 hours or more has consistently been shown to be hazardous." Yea! Maybe I'm not so strange. And maybe grown adults that are getting 8 hours or more are a touch lazy... I'm just saying, maybe.
   Another study done earlier with 1 million people over the course of 6 years showed that 6.5 hours is more ideal. It also showed that getting 5 hours sleep per night was better than getting 8 hours! Getting over 7 hours of sleep can result in an increase in back aches, head aches, sore eyes, weight gain, sleeplessness, stress, etc., etc.
    Other factors do come into play like sickness, medications and other drugs, and erratic sleep patterns. Also eating junk and drinking too much soda, coffee, or alcohol can result in needing more sleep. Pretty much: Live right and take care of yourself, and you will need less sleep. And with less sleep you will have more time to do more of what you want! A person who goes from getting 8 hours sleep to 6.5 will have well over 500 more hours of living in a year's time! Better to live life than to sleep it away!