Sleep, Glorious Sleep

I happen to love sleep. I adore it actually. My husband goes on an overnight hike once a month with friends of his during the full moon. They let the moon guide them and light their path and they walk all night long to a destination. A lovely idea and a nice way to bond with friends - but, how in the world do they let themselves give up on a night of sleep? This is the thing that I just don't get. There is simply very little in life that is more important to me now than sleep. Now, I will admit that my view might be skewed a bit by the four children under 7 that I have in my house. OK - so I'm sleep deprived most of the time. But, even before having these kids, I just simply loved sleep.

I learned something interesting about sleep recently. Apparently, the hours before midnight are more important for your health and your sleep than the hours that you sleep after midnight. So, if I sleep from 11-12, that hour was more important than if I sleep from 1-2am, etc. And, many, many people tend to go to bed very late. This effects, among other people, teenagers and young adults a great deal who tend to stay up much later and then to sleep in. Even if they sleep for 8 hours, as they might have, they are not getting as good a night sleep as they would had if they had gone to be earlier. Isn't that interesting? It makes for a good excuse to go to bed earlier - but then again, I never need an excuse! Excuse me, I'm off to bed...