Bread and data

Insomnia

And we made your sleep a means
for rest.
And we made the night as covering.
And we made the day for livelihood.
-Koran, 78:9-11

[This bed has lost all its privileges to be called a sleep station; it's now a mini library, a dining,  phonebooth, film center,  work place, and now, the least of things I do on this bed is sleep—which is exactly what it was meant for.]

There is peace in moderation. It has been just three months into the pandemic and I think I've exhausted all my sleep for the year. I now find it hard to sleep during the night, and even if I later manage to sum up a sleep, it'll be by the later part of the night and very short. This continued for a series of nights through the lockdown. It became more apparent to me when I was Facetiming with my Mom and she confidently pointed out the dark circles around my eyes, she made it so that I wasn't getting enough sleep and did prescribe for me a lot of beauty sleep.
Maybe it's just me, but I just seem to function better and get more done at night. That has always been my thing way before college, if I really want to get anything done, like finish a book, write a journal, finish up a school assignment, I do most of it at night. I can say for the most part of my ninety-page final year thesis was written after the first quarter of the night.
Let me just say this, there's no money to be made from telling people to get more sleep so you don't hear about it on TV. Like most people I don't know the danger of putting off sleep. Sleep isn't loss time, it's a critical non-negotiable biological necessity. There have been countless studies all around the world about the dangers of not getting the prescribed eight hours night rest. There's nothing cool or bad ass about sleeping late or putting off sleep, you're just inviting a physical and psychological problem for yourself. There's something in the body called the Natural Killer Cell, natural killer cell is like the secret service agent of your immune system; it identifies threats and eliminate them, so what you wish for is a lot of these bad-ass tumor killing immunes, and tragically that's what you don't have when you don't have enough night rest. A four-hour sleep deprivation can lead to a massive loss of about seventy-five percent of these natural killer cell activities. You could now perhaps understand why they are finding a significant link between your sleep duration and your development for cancer. In fact, the link between cancer and sleep deprivation is now so strong that the World Health Organization has classified any form of night time sleep work as a probable carcinogen because of the disruption of your sleep-wake rhythm.
And if an increase in your risk for the development of cancer or even Alzheimer disease is not enough to scare you to bed, it has been recently discovered that sleep deprivation or lack of sleep can seriously alter your genetic condition, speed your aging process, lower your testosterone (shrink your balls). According to the data from FRSC Nigeria a big forty-five percent road accident is as a result of not getting enough sleep (sleeping or dozing off behind the wheel). In the US where in the Spring about an hour of sleep is loss (daylight saving time); there's a significant increase in heart attack, suicide rate, in the Autumn when they gain an hour of sleep the opposite is true. Inadequate sleep even makes it more likely that you'll catch a cold or the flu or covid-19.
So, pulling that all-nighter won't really help you that much, and since you can't catch up on sleep, sleep is not something you can put off and accumulate to pay later (believe me I've tried), you have to sleep when it requires of you to. But all I'm saying doesn't matter right now, you're going to ace that ECO341 first, your note has caught up on you, and the only time you have to study now is at night. I'll tell you this right now, it is impossible for your brain to absorb new information once it is waterlogged (how much information are you going to fit into that tiny head of yours in a day anyway). You need to go to bed and have a good night sleep to void your brain making it dry again, like a dry sponge ready to soak. You know how your PC act when it has packed buttload of data at a go and it starts to act up—you have to turn it on and off to get it working right again (I don't know if Mac users get that too), cause a nap is like the human version of turn it off and turn it on. It is not a hidden fact that you need deep REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep to move the stuff you've saved up in your brain temporary storage unit (the hippocampus) into the more permanent and more long-time part of the brain. If you get shortchanged or shut-eye, you might get moody, cranky, anxious, or depressed. You also might find it harder to think straight or to remember things, and if all that still didn't shove you to bed; in the long run, lack of sleep can lead to conditions like obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, heart diseases and worst of all, acne.
All you need is a good eight hours of sleep in a day, like in the case with every love potion, more isn't necessary it's the quality that matters, you just have to get the dosage right (too much is bad, too little is worst). When I start telling people about this, I hear things like "I can't just fall asleep before 10pm", "most time I wait for light before I go to bed", "I'm waiting for a gist", or probably you wanted to catch up with a dysfunctional family drama episode on Zee world, some even say, "if I want to sleep that early I need sleeping pills." You don't need a NyQuil or YearQuil to have a quality night sleep. Sleep, just like every nice meal has a recipe, and this is my recipe for a good night sleep (that I'm giving to you for free).
#My Sleep Recipe
Turn off all screens and lights at least ten minutes before going to bed. Experts say that blue light tells our brains that it isn't time to sleep. Your brain still thinks it's daylight, Of course the primitive man never had to worry about this, so the human brain doesn't know how to deal with this epidemic yet. We are now capable of maintaining a kind of day-like sensation in the middle of the night, and by means of LCD/LED and even fluorescent we lethen out the day. Your circadian rhythm is your sleep-wake cycle that is regulated by the amount of light you see; it also dictates functions in your body's organ. Many of us encounter blue light throughout our day from the sun, LED lights, and our electronic devices. If you're exposed to too much blue light before bed, it can alter your body's circadian rhythm. If this happens, it can have devastating effects on your sleep quality and overall health.
Lower your room temperature. The ideal room temperature is about 23 degree (Celsius). This is known as the ambient temperature, and it will ensure your home is comfortable without feeling stuffy. So, aim for a bedroom temperature of around 16-18 degree Celsius, that's going to be optimal for the sleep of most people. Your body needs to drop its core temperature by about two to three-degree Fahrenheit to initiate sleep and then to stay asleep, that's why you'll always find it easier to fall asleep in a room with colder temperature. And if that seems expensive, go take a bath or a shower or find a good ol' pail and pour some water on top of your head. Get into something comfy (preferably something that frees your junk, or your boobs, or both), and find a soft spot to fall asleep. You'll need to have a bedtime for all these to work. A healthy and constant sleep-wake routine, that you don't compromise for anything or anyone, reclaim that sanctity of your bed back, turn it into a place of sleep—your bed is not your dinning, it is not your library, it is not your call center, try to re-associate the concept of sleep to your bed and you will find it easier to go to sleep once you lie down on your bed.
I'll like to end this chapter with this—short sleep predicts or causes mortality. It's a simple truth, the shorter your sleep the shorter your life. So, turn off your phone when it's ten o'clock and go to bed.