A Peek At Sleep

I do a lot of reading, and I found yet another "fact" about sleeping today. Seems there are new studies about how we sleep in the news every week. Americans are sleep deprived, the experts all seem to agree. That can lead of course to many health problems both mentally and physically.

Well just when you thought you had heard it all here comes this gem. Some experts believe that if you don't get enough sleep you can have weight problems. AND if you get too much sleep, that can also lead to obesity. Man...this is getting tough! Seems you have to get just the right amount of sleep to maintain proper weight and health. You know life is getting tough when you forget your instinct.

You know, my 50 pound Australian Cattle Dog Kona has the right idea. She just lays down anywhere and sleeps. She's not some old broken down dog either. She's 7 and in great health, and can sleep anywhere, anytime. My wife and I have a nice bed, nice sheets, comfy comforter and we sleep OK I guess. No real complaints. But Kona? That dog sleeps better in old laundry basket than any human I've ever seem. I actually get jealous watching that dog sleep. She just curls up, no blanket or anything. After 30 seconds you hear a large exhale and then she gets a good snore going in about 1 minute. (I have adopted the exhale technique.) Don't you wish you could do that? I have never seen any person that looks as comfy sleeping as a dog. So what's OUR problem.

As a nation take pills to sleep, pull the shades, put on soft music at times. We even throw on the Weather Channel or C-Span at times as a last resort. I've heard some say, "I'm just too tired to sleep" or "I don't have time to sleep." We buy electric blankets, and we keep Martha Stewart in business by buying 1000 count sheets sets. We have sleep numbers and letters, pillow tops, one-sided, two sided mattresses, super coiled box springs as well. There are beds that look like sponges, egg crates, and even some that NASA has developed, and we still don't get enough sleep? We've got problems!

Kona has two beds that cost 19 dollars each, one upstairs one down. But like I said she prefers the laundry basket. Kona also has a great idea that I think more of us ought to adopt too. She wakes up from a nap in the living room, stretches and then walks down to the laundry room and goes back to sleep! Think about that, she wakes up to take a nap-brilliant! Kona doesn't watch the news and hear all these sleep surveys, as a matter of fact I don't even know what her favorite show on TV is. Maybe that's why she has the brains to go to bed when she's tired! She feels no allegiance to Letterman, Leno, Kimmel, Lost, American Idol, Monday Night Football, or a Tribe or Cav's west coast swing. It's dark, she's had it, and she's going to bed!

Kona's life may not be practical for us humans, but there's something to be learned here. Sometimes there's just no substitute for a good nights sleep. So maybe tonight's your night. On that note, I'll wrap it up here, because as I look over my desk in my home office at 2:59 in the afternoon, Kona is laying on a braided rug looking over her shoulder at me and giving me that, "Hey could you hold it down please? Trying to sleep over here!"