Sometimes, I’m so jealous of Garfield’s life. This guy just sleeps all day and then wakes up and pounds lasagna.

And when I mention that I want to read more in 2014, I mean that I want to read material on a variety of topics. When I was younger I would read both fiction and non-fiction books just for fun. In the last year, I’ve primarily read non-fiction books for different professional development classes that I’ve been enrolled in. And I coupled those scholarly assignments with additional reading from a variety of blogs, which I think you’ve noticed in my randomly-updated Start the Weekend Right Series. All of the links that I post in the Start the Weekend Right updates come from blogs that I have in my Feedly RSS reader. Feedly has an option where you can bookmark an update from a website for future reading and, increasingly, I’ve been bookmarking articles that deal with sleep.

After reading many of those articles, I think that another one of my not-quite-a-resolutions for 2014 is to learn to be a better sleeper. I’m hesitant to write that my sleeping patterns are horrible, but I am writing this entry at 3:00am on an early Monday morning (I’m off from work this week, so being up this late doesn’t mess up my overall schedule).

Much like other areas of our lives where we know we need to improve, I know that there are certain things that I can do immediately to improve my sleep. For example, I know that if I adjust and recalibrate my diet, then there will be a direct impact on the amount of sleep that I get each night and, more importantly, on the amount of quality sleep that I get each night. Further, I know that if I work out more often during the day (especially in the morning), then my ability to fall asleep at a more decent hour will be improved. As it stands now, I typically sleep between 5 and 6 hours each night. On top of that, I wake up several times each night for different reasons from tossing and turning to going to the bathroom to getting some water to drink. The Harvard Business Review recently published an article about how some men announce how little sleep they get in act of hyper masculinity. I’m not walking down that path by a long shot – I genuinely want more and better sleep.

In 2014, I want to learn more about the causes of my sleep deprivations. The Week suggests that one of the major causes of getting less sleep is that we are exposed to too much light during the evening hours. In my case, this is definitely a problem as I park myself in front of my laptop for a few hours each night to do work to meet different deadlines. The folks over at Inc.com suggest that getting into a regular routine can help a person sleep better. For the last two months or so I’ve gotten into a routine of washing my hands before I go to sleep. This may not sound like a big deal (or it may sound like something that a person should already be doing), but elevating this action to a daily routine has helped me make the mind-body connection that it’s time to lay down and get some rest.

Getting poor sleep certainly is not a good thing for my health, either. As they recently wrote about in The Saturday Evening Post, there are real connections between a lack of quality sleep and an inability to shake off Type 2 Diabetes (which I’ve had for almost 5 years). The Post writes that an optimal amount of sleep to fight off diabetes is between 7 and 9 hours each night – I’m not even close!

There are other parts of the sleep puzzle that I’m looking forward to learning more about in 2014. For example, what affect does one’s circadian rhythm have on their sleep quality? Why is it that I often find myself wanting to doze off behind the wheel both on my way to work and on my way home from work, but not while I’m actually at the office? Does it matter if I hibernate on the weekends to make up for lost sleeping hours during the week? And just what is the real connection between not sleeping enough and gaining weight?

What I’d really like from all of this reading and learning is to be a better sleeper twelve months from now than I am today. Achieving that not-quite-a-resolution would be something worth truly celebrating.

Now, enjoy the links! If you come across any interesting links, then please share them with us in the comments section below.

Get your weekend started right by checking out these links, starting a new, free Feedly account, and/or adding the blogs above (and JerseySmarts.com, too) to your existing Feedly or other RSS aggregator account. Enjoy!

Now, enjoy the links! If you come across any interesting links, then please share them with us in the comments section below.

Get your weekend started right by checking out these links, starting a new, free Feedly account, and/or adding the blogs above (and JerseySmarts.com, too) to your existing Feedly or other RSS aggregator account. Enjoy!

Anyway, just like there are certain posts that I hold in the draft folder for an extended period of time, there are also concepts and ideas for other writing-based “stuff” that I keep in my mental draft folder for an extended period of time. I think I’m going to start posting some of that content on this blog as a way to get it out there and see if it piques any interest in my readers. I’m going to call this unplanned, sporadic series of entries “The Unfinished Tales” (and yes, this is a direct ripoff of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Unfinished Tales).

In advance of putting together this, the first of hopefully many Unfinished Tales entries, I’d like to note that there is a lot of stuff floating around my mental draft folder. For example, I might post a portion of a middle chapter of a book that I’d like to write at some point or I might write the beginning of a dialogue for a short story or a screenplay. There are a lot of thoughts that pass through my head when I’m in a creative mood. I guess we’ll find out if any of this stuff is actually worth anything… so here we go!

This is an opening dialogue either to a short story, short film, or a play. I’m thinking of turning it into a short story, but who knows. Here we go:

Gilbert: If you could just shut your hole for five minutes I might be able to collect myself and get some shut eye.

Ben: Why should I be quiet? You don’t deserve a good night’s sleep! HA HA HA!!!

Gilbert: SHUT UP! What gives with you, man? I’m exhausted, I can’t focus, I can’t think straight – and yet you insist on running your mouth. Enough!

Ben: I’ll never be quiet. You don’t deserve calmness. You don’t deserve relaxation.

Gilbert: And who the fuck are you to make that decision? You’re a miserable bastard who can’t see past his own self-loathing to let the light of life shine in and brighten your day. You’re a horrible, pathetic miser.

Ben: HA! You dare talk to me like that? Do you forg-

Gilbert: That’s right I dare talk to you like that! You never stop your complaining. You’re constantly going on and on about bullshit that doesn’t even exist. You’re a scumbag and you only exist to aggravate and annoy. I know your fucking game so stop the crap, let it go, and give me some peace.

Ben: No.

Gilbert: Why not? Why must you be such a thorn in my side?

Ben: Because I know.

Gilbert: You know what? You don’t know shit except how to be a miserable fuck. Screw off.

Ben: I know what you did. I know all of it.

Gilbert: You don’t know shit. You don’t even know what you’re talking about.

Ben: Do you forget? Do you forget that I was there with you?!

Gilbert: *Looks down; attitude switches to a more solemn mood.* Shut up.

Ben: That’s better. Don’t forget what I know.

Gilbert: But why must you constantly harass me with history? What do those memories have to do with getting some rest right now?

Ben: Do you acknowledge that past?

Gilbert: What?

Ben: The past! Do you acknowledge that it exists?!

Gilbert: Well, what the fuck do you want me to do? I know what you’re talking about, but I don’t let it weigh me down. I can’t change the past, but I can chart a better course for the future!

Ben: Don’t give me your bullshit! I know everything you’ve done and you should be the miserable one! YOU did this!

Gilbert: I didn’t – I didn’t do a… ugh… Just leave me alone.

Ben: *Stares even more intensely at Gilbert.* You did this.

Gilbert: Please… let’s just end it for today. I can’t think straight any more.

Ben: You did this…

Gilbert: …I know.

[ Change scene to Mark laying in his bed. A clock on the nightstand reads 3:12am. He is exhausted and alone and his sheets are tossed and turned. ]

Mark: No more thoughts tonight. Please God! No more… I just want to get some sleep.

I’ve been thinking of ways to operationalize different versions of this dialogue for a while now. I really think that it would work best as a short story about a character named Mark who wrestles with his inner conscience about his past. Granted, above certainly reads like a script for a play or a short film, but I think there could be something here if there was a strong narrative built around the short story format. I’ve been working on that format for some time now, so if I ever get this short story finished – be on the lookout because I’ll post details here first!

Is Your Sleep Debt Growing?

Or is your debt growing because of your sleep?

Your sleep shouldn’t cause your debts to grow. But poor sleep habits and poor mattress choices can give you financial nightmares.

How Can Sleep Debt Be Expensive?

Asleep at work?

Most Americans get by on 7 hours of sleep a night. But studies have shown that the average optimum amount of sleep is closer to 8. You’re probably running a sleep deficit or ‘sleep debt’ right now. But it’s just an hour a night, what harm could it do?

The effects of sleep deprivation of just one hour can be seen the next day. Just look at what happens when we move the clocks forward by an hour in the springtime. In the days following the first Monday of the change to Daylight Saving Time there’s a spike in heart attacks, workplace injuries and fatalities.

Also, drivers whose nightly sleep averages 6 to 7 hours a night are almost twice as likely to be involved in car crashes as those who snooze for an extra hour. And you’ve surely heard about how lack of sleep is associated with many diseases from obesity to high blood pressure.

Even if you avoid sleep related bodily injury and the obvious financial penalties associated with them, you haven’t avoided financial mayhem.

Sleep debt is also associated with lower productivity, increased impatience and difficulty concentrating. None of these traits will help you pay off those student loans faster. And definitely save those important investment decisions for days when you’re well rested.

How can you tell if you’re running a sleep debt? It’s easy. If you’re sleepy in the day, particularly around 2:00 to 3:30pm, you need more or better sleep.

But Don’t Good Mattresses Cost A Lot?

So now it’s obvious to you that you need a great night’s sleep to boost your productivity and keep healthy. But one of the reasons that you don’t sleep very well is that you hate your bed. And every ad that you’ve seen lately screams that you need to ‘replace at eight’ and spend as much on a mattress as you would for a small used car.

The ads are wrong. Good sleep can be cheap. You don’t necessarily have to replace any mattress more than 8 years old. And you don’t have to take out another loan to be comfortable at night.

The proof is in the same October 2009 Consumer Reports mattress survey of 17,000 subscribers that catapulted the expensive Tempurpedic brand to a national obsession. They found that “any new mattress beats an old one.” And for those who said that they often had sleep problems, 78% said that any new bed improved their night’s rest.

The study also found that among problem sleepers, Tempurpedic (memory foam beds) and Select Comfort (adjustable air mattresses) provided the most relief. On the other hand, Spring Air and Sterns & Foster buyers (both are lower cost inner spring mattress brands) were in the 10% of the survey takers that said that their new mattresses made their situation worse.

But buying a Tempurpedic or Select Comfort bed is one way to increase your debt. They’re expensive! So…

How to Get Good Sleep Cheap?

Determine if you need a new bed or if a much less expensive mattress topper will work for you. There are two instances where you can get away with buying a topper. The first is if your bed’s not sagging more than a half an inch. The second is if your mattress is too firm.

In either case, go online and buy a topper that’s 2 to 3 inches thick. You should be able to find a queen size for under $200. Here’s some memory foam mattress topper reviews and quick advice on what to look for in a pad.

If you do need a new bed because your old one is worn, you will have to spend a bit more. Buying a used mattress is not recommended, particularly since bedbugs have made a big comeback in recent years.

So what are the best mattresses for your budget? We’ve already seen that the lower cost inner spring beds actually made some people’s sleep worse. And unfortunately with airbeds, you do get what you pay for. Inexpensive air mattresses leak and you could end up sleeping on the hard floor. That leaves memory foam mattresses as the best alternative for people looking for good cheap sleep.

The good news is that the ‘any new bed is better than the old one’ rule also applies here. Buyers of inexpensive memory foam beds are almost as happy as those who buy the pricey Tempurpedic brand. Better news is that good quality budget memory foam beds are very easy to find online. Just google “best mattresses under 500” for reviews and recommendations.

Sleeping Smart Cuts Debt

Reduce both your sleep debt and financial debt by sleeping more and making better bed choices. And the side benefits are that you’ll also be more productive and have a better social life.

So what are you going to do today to shrink your sleep debt?

Bio: Nancy Ulrich writes for Memory-Foam-Maniac.com and is a local business consultant for web, mobile and social media marketing.

The impetus to write this entry comes from the fact that I often find myself ramping up my quality productivity as the day goes on. Sure, I hit the 3:00pm slump just like the rest of us (we’re actually biologically engineered to need a nap at 3:00pm – more on that in a coming entry). However, I find that as I begin to wind my day down from 9:30pm to 10:00pm, there are often times when I feel like I can really dig into a project and get something completed.

I’ve complained numerous times on this blog about how much I hate my commute. Not only is it physically draining and exhausting, but it eats up a large portion of each day. I think I’ve gotten to place now where I’m ready to pounce on certain action items at 10:00pm – once my body has recovered from the exhaustion of commuting and working all day. And while that might be good information for me to know, it is not necessarily something that I can act on when I have to get up again the next morning and get back to work!

I’ll figure something out. I think that an all-nighter (in my case, I’m talking about staying up until 2pm or 3pm) is necessary every once in a while, especially when you think you can knock out a bunch of tasks during that extra time frame.

But many people, and experts, praise the benefits of a siesta or a power snooze. Confessed nappers include Albert Einstein, Winston Churchill, Thomas Edison and Presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton.

Napping, writes James B. Maas, a Cornell University sleep expert, “should have the status of daily exercise.”

Well hey, if Reagan, Clinton, Edison, and Einstein were doing it – then maybe we should all be taking naps more regularly!

Taking more naps is one of those things that you have to be disciplined at if you really want it to make an impact. If you lay down for a quick 30 or 60 minute nap, then you absolutely must wake up at the end of that time period and get back to work. If you don’t, then you may run the risk of not being able to perform at an acceptable level for the rest of the day. Lord knows that when I take a nap sometimes I wind up dragging ass afterwards. It’s not fun.

Plus, in my napping experience it seems that if I sleep for an extra hour during the day, then I toss and turn in bed at night for an additional hour. That’s not fun and it’s a useless waste of time.

Unfortunately, I don’t think that napping during the middle of the day suits me right now. Maybe when I’m less busy and there is less on my plate I can give it a try, but for now I’ll stick to working my butt off during the day so I can have a restful sleep at night.

The first thing that I noticed was that there weren’t that many people at the gym, even though there were cars all over the outside of the building. Bear in mind that the size of this building is no larger than your typical Verizon Wireless store, so when I say that cars were “all over” the outside of the building, I mean that there were 6 or so cars. Honestly, I expected that because I assume that a lot of people workout early in the morning. However, when I walked in the door the place was near empty. The owner was there, someone he was training, an older woman, and some guy working out. That’s it.

This is in line with what I’ve seen in my general observations of this place – namely that there aren’t too many people who go there during the off-peak hours. I suppose an extension of this observation would be that the 6:15am hour is considered “off-peak” at this place! Weird.

So here I am at about 1:00pm today and I’m feeling alright. Most people believe that working out in the morning is a good idea. I guess I could get into it, but my schedule is so weighted towards not going to sleep until midnight or later that getting up early each morning would be a challenge. We’ll see what happens…

As for something like Twitter, I have no idea why anyone would be so crazy about that service. From what I can tell, Twitter allows people to post periodic updates on what they’re doing. If you’re “following” (i.e. “friends with”) that person, then you get updated as to what they’ve uploaded.

Really?

Is that what we choose to spend our time doing these days? How self-important must someone be to think that they need to update the world on their status every few minutes? Better yet – who has the time in their day to put up so many updates?! “I just got to work,” “My job stinks,” “Can’t wait for lunch break,” “End of the day is coming,” “Driving home now,” “Making dinner,” “Getting ready for sleep to do it all again tomorrow.”

SHUT UP, ASSHOLE! No one gives a shit about following your tweets about your mundane life!

The big competition in social networking sites seems to be Facebook and MySpace. I think what draws people to Facebook is that it isn’t as flexible as MySpace and, thus, not as potentially annoying. There is nothing more aggravating than going to someone’s MySpace page and having them blare the latest death metal song at you or some type of mopey, stupid love song. If it wasn’t for the fact that one or two of my family members are on MySpace and not Facebook, I’d delete my MySpace account completely and stick to Facebook.

I’ve begun to think about whether or not my LinkedIn profile is even worth it. LinkedIn is supposed to be for people who are trying to reconnect, but generally in a business sense. However, Facebook pretty much offers the same service. So I’m not sure if it’s worth it to keep a LinkedIn page up and running. Sure, I have some nice recommendations of my work on the LinkedIn page, but I can always get that somewhere on Facebook.

Anyway, I wonder what other people think about the social networking sites. Do we really need to have so many of them out there or have we reached overkill? I think it’s probably time to thin out the number of social networking sites out there…

Well, in preparation for the pending snowstorm most of my co-workers and I decided not to go to work today no matter what the weather. This was actually a decent decision since I woke up around 5:30am to check outside and we had about 4 inches of snow and absolutely no trucks on the road clearing for the morning commute. I think that the entire state figured that it needed a snow day and thus the truck drivers were given some extra time to sleep in while the snow accumulated. I should note, though, that as I’m writing this I’m looking outside of my window and the roads are completely cleared in my part of Tinton Falls and there is actually some traffic moving around outside.

The one thing that annoyed the hell out of me this morning was the local college where I teach part-time. I’m signed up for their emergency alert system which is very helpful when the college shuts down due to inclement weather. However, someone must have been going crazy over there this morning because I got two phone calls on my home line, two phone calls on my cell, two text messages, two e-mails on my work e-mail, and two e-mails on my home e-mail. I thought that was a bit overboard for 5:45am so I took myself off of their notification lists.

For those of you who are either off today because of the weather or working from home – enjoy it!