Can You Make Up For Lost Sleep Over The Weekend?
This weekend we are going to do that ( insert expletive of your choice ) clock thing where we "spring forward" into Daylight Saving Time. I bet you've figured out I really don't care for the changing of the clocks. I don't like the "falling back" change either. I prefer my timekeeping like Ron Popeil likes his rotisserie, "Set it and Forget it."
Now that you've suffered through my personal point of view on time I can tell you why I am so cranky. This messing with the clocks messes with my sleep. I am an early riser. By early riser I mean I wake up shortly after midnight to come to work. So sleep is a commodity I highly value and I detest anything that messes with my ability to sleep.
Studies have shown that people who don't get enough sleep tend to die sooner than those who get an appropriate amount of rest. That's not a club I want to join. So, like you, when the weekend arrives I turn off the alarms and close the curtain and I sleep.
But, does getting more sleep on the weekend actually make up for the lack of sleep during the work week? A new study seems to indicate that it does. That's great news for folks with odd schedules like mine, parents of small children, and okay well any living breathing human being. We're all sleep deprived.
But, according to the study, you can make a deposit in your sleep bank to cover your overdrawn drowsy self. Except for this weekend when we jack with the clocks and nobody knows what time it is and we all have car crashes on Monday morning because we're on the road in the dark again.