Sleep Is a Currency

Sleep Is a Currency
            I was lying in bed this week, awake well before my alarm as is often the case. I was practicing my habit of recent years, which is to stay in bed resting until I get to around eight hours of rest, even if I’m not sleeping. 
            I was struck with one of those catchy thoughts that always seem to come during half-asleep moments, forcing me to try to commit the thought to memory and hope I’ll remember it when I get up, or to write it in an e-mail to myself from under the blankets using my cellphone.
            “Sleep is a currency we pay for good health,” a voice in my head declared with conviction. It seemd like an odd phrase to pop in my head with such certainty, but it made sense.
            For decades, I thought I couldn’t afford to take a full night’s sleep. The pressure to stay up late to meet work deadlines after getting my sons to bed, and then waking up early to get a bit more work done before getting them up for school was too great. I spent weekends working as well, also without sleeping more than five or six hours most of the time. This went on for decades.
            In recent years, as I see people hitting one health bump after another, I realize I can’t afford not to get a full night’s sleep. Sleep time is when our bodies heal and rebuild, whether it’s from daily activity wear and tear, or to recover from injury, surgery, or medical treatments. Sufficient, good quality sleep can also help us avoid some health problems in the first place.
            We must pay the sleep piper in exchange for sleep’s beneficial healing properties.
            I don’t know if it’s just coincidence that this thought hit me as daylight savings time was looming. Studies in recent years indicate that messing with our natural circadian clocks, which follow the rise and fall of the sun, is not conducive to good health.
            Despite repeated discussions of leaving clocks the same year-round, most regions are still changing our clocks twice a year, to the detriment of our sleep patterns.
            The “spring forward” time change in spring is especially frustrating as it feels like we are losing an hour. Thankfully that downside is countered by the joyous arrival of spring flowers such as daffodils and tulips.
            This week’s Hike Notes from the archives is Queen Wilhelmina Garden, a small area in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park featuring a traditional windmill and artfully cultivated flower gardens, with tulips featured each February to March.
            Give yourself a little extra patience in the week after the clocks change, and counterbalance the sleep disruption by watching for spring flowers! Keep putting one foot forward!
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This week’s hike from the archives:
Hike Notes 129: Queen Wilhelmina Garden