Tag Archive for: insomnia

Time for a Change?

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There are two kinds of people in this country: those who love Daylight Saving Time, and those who don’t.

There’s a third group, I suppose: those who can’t decide, even though the reality of it has been around for nearly sixty years.

The U.S. tried it twice before, during World Wars I and II, in an attempt to minimize the use of artificial lighting and save fuel for the war effort. That exercise likely lay the seed for its permanent adoption by Congress in the Uniform Time Act of 1966.

And yet today, not all states have approved the legislation. 

Both Hawaii and Arizona (except for the real estate owned by the Navajo Nation) remain on Standard Time year-round. Meanwhile, 20 states have passed laws or resolutions aiming to stop the time change. However, they cannot implement the change without approval from Congress.

The debate lingers on, like an all-day hangover.

Among those in the DST camp: Golfers. The sport’s aficionados are practically ecstatic when the clock rolls back. Earlier evening hours increase playing time on the links, and players tend to hang around the clubhouse longer in the evening, buying drinks and food. Caddies, country clubs, and public courses alike make more money.

So, good for golfers. Not so good for other businesses. It pretty much killed the drive-in movie business. Remember them?

Staying neutral? The nappers.

As a consolation prize to those who still need more sleep this week, there is National Napping Day, first declared in 1999 by a married couple who sought to promote the benefits of a daytime snooze. (No word on whether they napped together or apart.) It’s no coincidence that it falls on the heels of our mandated clock regression.

Nappers are apparently unfazed by the time change. It’s a fact that mid-afternoon naps have been an integral part of most cultures for centuries. In many countries, businesses still close for two afternoon hours, prime time for a little “afternoon delight,” which may or may not include a nap.

Nappers point to numerous studies that tout a 10-20 minute nap as the most effective way to combat midday fatigue. Improvements in alertness, productivity, and mood—along with decreased stress—have all been shown to improve with this type of snooze. There are even guidelines for how to nap productively. Some claim that a pre-Daylight Saving Time nap can avoid any post-time-change blur.

However…

On the other side of the debate are the grumblers, who offer a multitude of objections, such as:

Why try to mess with Time? Mother Nature brings us longer sunlight hours every Spring and Summer without all the fuss and bother of DST. Why force us to reset our non-digital devices in March, only to change them again every Autumn? And where’s the romance in an evening soirée that takes place mostly in daylight? It’s too confusing, and darn it, people hate taking their children to school in the dark!

Also, even though habitual nappers think they have the time-change-induced mind fog licked, napping can leave a person feeling groggy after waking, which makes it harder to get anything productive accomplished for the rest of the day. And it may lead to nighttime insomnia—possibly with regret over things you could have accomplished instead of sleeping.

Which side of DST are you on? For, against, or somewhere in the middle?

Gay Yellen’s award-winning writing career began in magazine journalism. She served as the co-writer/editor for the international thriller, Five Minutes to Midnight(Delacorte), a New York Times “New & Notable.” The success of that book led to her Samantha Newman Romantic Mystery Series.

 

 

 

Late, Late, Late Night Programming (aka This Is A Paid Advertisement)

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by Susan McBride, Pregnant Insomniac

I just can’t seem to sleep through the night any more (as if I ever did).  Nearly eight months pregnant, I plump three pillows beneath my head and have three smaller pillows positioned at various spots to support belly, back, and knees. Inevitably, I have to get up to pee and disentangle myself from said pillows and covers. By the time I return to bed and reposition everything, I’m often wide awake.

So that I don’t keep bugging Ed, I put on slippers and glasses and head downstairs. I free the cats from the basement, feed them, and fix myself a bowl of cereal (yes, even if it’s four o’clock in the morning).  Then I plunk myself in front of the boob tube, snuggled in a blanket, hoping somehow I’ll fall asleep on the couch.

Instead, I find myself fascinated by all the advertising. I’m trying to figure out what all the endless half-hour and hour-long commercials say about our society since most focus on a few things:  our weight and getting into shape, our undergarments, and stopping that dreaded process of aging.

If I was so inclined, I could order the Pilates chair for which “All My Children’s” Susan Lucci is the spokeswoman. Or I could call 1-800 to purchase any number of Zumba fitness packs, weights that vibrate, or that all-in-one gym that Chuck Norris and Christie Brinkley swear by.

But perhaps I don’t need all those workouts, not if I listen to the infomercials that insist my lumps and bumps are purely the result of ill-fitting undergarments. Apparently, if I order some magic bras–and a whole lot of Spandex to suck in the rest of me–I will lose several dress sizes without doing any exercises except those required to tug all the too-tight undergarments over my lumps and bumps.

And have you seen those T-shirt extenders that come in four different shades?  You pull them up to your waist so they cover the butt crack and belly exposed by your low rise jeans. With one of those belly bands wrapped around you and your shirt atop it, no one will ever know that your pants don’t fit. They’ll just think you’re super trendy, going for that layered look.

My favorites of all are the lotions, potions, creams, and cosmetics that swear they will take years off our faces, remove spots, tighten saggy skin, and turn us into Cindy Crawford. Not only does Cindy peddle her own formula–created by some fabulous dermatologist in France that she’s been seeing for twenty years who grows magical melons–but she’s got lots of celebs endorsing it as well. I’ve seen Leeza Gibbons (formerly of “Entertainment Tonight”) and Joan Lunden (once co-host of “Good Morning, America”) espousing the virtues of skin pick-me-ups, too. And then there’s Victoria Principal, who tells us about her “Principal Secret,” which I think, by the looks of her, has little to do with moisturizer and more to do with lots and lots of cosmetic surgery.

Though I have been tempted by that shampoo-less shampoo called Wen that Alyssa Milano swears by, I’ve managed to refrain from ordering anything during my late, late night TV viewing. Now if there was an infomercial for instant home delivery of chocolate-chocolate chip ice cream with bananas on top, I’d have that number on speed-dial.