{"id":1574,"date":"2013-03-03T09:00:03","date_gmt":"2013-03-03T15:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.barbdahlgren.com\/?p=1574"},"modified":"2013-03-01T00:16:43","modified_gmt":"2013-03-01T06:16:43","slug":"sleep-its-a-good-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/?p=1574","title":{"rendered":"Sleep – It’s a Good Thing!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Sleeping<\/a>On the way to church a mother told her children they would need to be quiet during the service. \u201cAnd why should we be quiet in church?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n

Her son replied, \u201cBecause people are sleeping.\u201d<\/p>\n

That may be true because statistics show they aren\u2019t sleeping at home. In fact they aren\u2019t sleeping much at all. In this 24\/7 world, people are so eager to work and play, they find little time for sleep. The results are problems, frustrations, anger, and stress. Even many driving accidents can be linked to driver fatigue. All can be linked to sleep deprivation.<\/p>\n

Not only does lack of sleep make people testy and accident prone, it makes them vulnerable to disease and infection. The human immune system breaks down. Hormones and metabolism become unbalanced. Studies show an increase in high blood pressure, obesity, alcoholism, depression, heart attacks, memory loss, and diabetes. In addition, poor sleep habits create mistakes and miscalculations. It affects concentration and coordination.<\/p>\n

Years ago the standard amount of sleep per night was 9 hours. People once read by candlelight or went to sleep when it got dark. Today it never has to get dark. With the invention of electricity and the light bulb people can have activity all night long. Video games, television, and computers provide us with scads of late night options. Grocery stores are open all night long. Telephone service is available all night long. Some people work all night long. We also have easy transportation. It used to take days to get across country. Cars, planes, and trains run all night long. It is comforting to know 80% of U.S. pilots report they illegally nod off in the air.<\/p>\n

Liza Minelli used to sing, \u201cI want to wake up in a city that never sleeps,\u201d referring to New York. Well, that can refer to just about any city in the U.S. now. And if you really don\u2019t want to sleep you can drink coffee, guzzle diet cola, take no-doze, or bathe in a caffeinated soap called Shower Shock. No, I didn\u2019t make that up. Sleeping Beauty and Rip Van Winkle wouldn\u2019t have even gotten a good nap if they lived today.<\/p>\n

Sleep is not without its drawbacks. Remember, it was while Adam was sleeping that God took his rib and made woman but that is the exception not the rule. Generally speaking, we need sleep \u2013 and lots of it. Experts agree that people need at least 7 to 8 hours sleep a night. Some feel it should be more. Our ancestors may have been right \u2013 around 9 hours might be best. Just because people have trained themselves to get by on less sleep doesn\u2019t mean they are functioning at their optimum level.<\/p>\n

Educational organizations like the National Sleep Foundation<\/a> can give people pointers on how to get more sleep but until people really buy into the idea of more sleep being necessary, nothing will change. Our bodies need to shut down and rest. It\u2019s therapeutic, healing, and replenishing. In fact old sayings like \u201cThe best bridge between despair and hope is a good night\u2019s sleep\u201d and \u201ca good laugh and a long sleep are the best cures in the doctor\u2019s book\u201d seem to be rooted in truth.<\/p>\n

The Bible says, \u201cI will lay me down in peace to sleep\u201d for God makes me dwell in safety. It\u2019s nice to know that our loving God who watches over us never slumbers and never sleeps. (Psalm 120:4) As for the rest of us, we better get our zzzzzzzs!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the way to church a mother told her children they would need to be quiet during the service. \u201cAnd why should we be quiet in church?\u201d she asked. Her son replied, \u201cBecause people are sleeping.\u201d That may be true … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1574"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1574\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}