A Quiet Mothers Day

Well my weekends are for sleeping in as I’m a night owl not an early bird and whether the recommendation is to keep the same arising time or not I had no intention of getting up at 6 a.m. if I don’t have to weekend mornings:

Study shows late sleepers stay sharper throughout the day compared with early risers

By Leah Zerbe

05-01-09 RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—If you like to sleep in and you’re sick of your significant other giving you a hard time about it, tell him or her about a study investigating the productivity of night owls and early birds that was published in the journal Science last week. Rising with the roosters, the study shows, doesn’t necessarily mean you’re more on top of your game.

THE DETAILS: Researchers from Belgium and Switzerland used magnetic resonance imagings (MRIs) to monitor brain activity of healthy young adult volunteers (16 extreme morning people and 15 night owls) who spent 2 nights in a sleep lab. After a night’s sleep, the volunteers were asked periodically to perform tasks that required sustained attention. All of the participants slept 7 hours a night, but the early risers woke up about 4 hours earlier in the day than the night owls.

The results showed that both groups performed similarly on the tasks for most of the day. But 10 hours after crawling out of bed, early birds showed lower levels of activity in parts of the brain relating to attention when compared with night owls. The early birds also felt sleepier and didn’t react as quickly during tasks. Researchers say early birds could be more sensitive to sleep pressure—the body’s need to get some sleep—than night owls.

WHAT IT MEANS: If you’re the type of person who likes to work out late at the gym or start a house cleaning campaign after the sun sets, you’re probably a night owl. And the good news? Sleeping in for a bit in the morning probably won’t make you less efficient during the day—and you even may be better than early risers at staying awake when you have to as the hour grows late. So follow your inner clock if you can. If you’re a night owl whose work schedule doesn’t match your preferred sleeping habits, though, be careful about spending extra hours in bed on weekend mornings. Sleep experts say that keeping the same wake-up time every day is an important strategy for avoiding insomnia.

This morning (after staying up until 1 a.m. to finish my library book – and yes it was that good) I was attempting to sleep in but was awoken by the prodigal son who phoned at 7:30 a.m. (after all he’d been up for over two hours so it wasn’t too early) to wish me happy Mothers Day. This combined with the cards which had arrived from Red Deer and Halifax this week and the e-card from Sweden which I will view on ‘real’ internet aka high speed at work was a nice great way to start my special day. I dug out my seedling starter kit so that I can plant the pansies, summer savory, and other herbs which were in my Halifax card so that will be a fun project.

Spent a nice peaceful day as compared to some previous Mothers Days when breakfast in bed – oh my – was on offer. Since they’re all (mostly) out of the house now it is more the norm to have some alone time, but still much appreciated. The dog and I managed a breezy walk in between showers, checking out the freshly mowed lawns of the neighbours while I was relieved to not have one to mow myself.

The library book I’m referring to is the one I mentioned before called Where the White Horses Gallop by Beatrice MacNeil and is a story about the Cape Breton Highlanders in WWII and life at that time. Really good and quick read – the kind you get through in a weekend as it moves along so well. Highly recommended.

So as the workweek looms and I head off to the district facility tomorrow while I cover for everyone else and me…. I think I will distract myself this evening with a scrapbook page or two.