#635 Jazzed

I lay awake last night concerned about an article I read.
It was about insomnia.
I once had insomnia so bad I dreamed about it. Nothing worse than dreaming you have insomnia. Dreaming that you’re lying awake really cuts into your rest.
And there is nothing for Freud to interpret. No trains or tunnels or stuff. Just awakeness.
Which wasn’t as bad as this weird dream I had. I didn’t know how to interpret it. I dreamed someone was putting teabags on my eyelids. Very strange, since as far as I know I’ve always been a confirmed coffee drinker.
I must have been asleep during the earlier part of the dream where I got the black eyes that necessitated the application of the teabags.
Maybe it was a dream about aging. Don’t teabags have something to do with wrinkles? Or is that cucumbers?
In any event, this article I read said insomnia doubles your chances of dying of a heart attack. A British scientist determined from a study of 10,000 civil servants that those who sleep five hours a night or less were much more likely to develop cardiovascular problems and die prematurely.
No word whether the midnight oil burners were also smoking cigarettes and dunkin’ donuts in their late night after-the-bars-close 24-restaurant coffee.
Seven to eight hours seems to be the optimum time for the brain and body to go about the process of physiological restitution and recovery.
But too much is too much too.
The study found that people who sleep more than eight hours also die at twice the normal rate.
So the recommendations appear to be: Don’t watch late night TV, it gets your brain all jazzed up. Similarly, unplug all your wires. Electronica inhibits drowsiness, except in my case where staring at the computer mid-afternoon sends me into a complete stupor.
Avoid stimulants. Don’t drink coffee after 3:00 pm. And one teabag is the stimulant equivalent of a half cup of coffee.
One comforting thing about the study; insomnia may double your chance of dying of a heart attack—
But at least you won’t die in your sleep...
America, ya gotta love it