Here's a little something that belongs in our much-loved "Well, duh!" news category. Scientists at the University of Colorado (home o' the Buffs) have discovered that the morning is the most dangerous part of the day because we're all groggy and uncoordinated immediately after waking up.Falls, bumps, burns, and sheer lunacy are rampant after we stumble - literally - out of bed. This groggy time is call sleep inertia. Our performance is as bad (or worse) than being breathalyzer-bustin' drunk. Short-term memory, counting skills, and cognitive abilities are pretty fuzzy for a while after that damn alarm goes off in the morning. And get this - after eight hours of sleep we're more zonked than if we'd been awake for 24 hours or more!
According to the study, we're at our worst for the first three minutes of the day. This spazzy-idiot period usually wears off after ten minutes (though some of us continue to bump into things and blank-out throughout the day - we know who we are, right?).
So how do you spend your precious sleep-inertia time? Stretching? Scratching? Breaking an ankle? Calling 911?
Me? I blog. (And that's my disclaimer.)
5 comments:
"Wears off after 10 minutes"? Who did they talk to do their research?!
After I wake up, I get ready for work (30 mins in the bathroom), stumble to the train station, spend 10 mins on one train, 15 mins at Virginia Water, 30-40 mins on a train to Reading and I'm still not awake until I've collapsed in my office chair and finally sipped the cappucino I bought in Reading station.
I think I'm fully awake by the time I have to leave for home.
Exactly what I'm sayin' **sound of head hitting desk** zzzzzzzzzzzzz.
I spend my first three minutes changing a diaper. Mindless enough, and nobody ever gets hurt.
Probably because said diaper changee is still in the throes of sleep inertia and doesn't much notice the pain you're inflicting. ;-) (Yeah, like kids even have sleep inertia - they're either all on or all off.) Thank goodness for those little diaper sticky tabs, eh, as opposed to safety pins . . .
I hate those "A" types who bounce out of bed all happy and perky and NOISY! My inertia period generally lasts between 3 and 6 hours, depending on coffee consumption during said period. I am stiff and creaky, my hair hurts, can't stand bright lights or conversation. And that's on my good days. I do sit quietly, alone, sipping my first 2 or 3 cups while blogging. I don't dare write anything then, just read, make an occasional grumpy comment, and sometimes hit the publish button on what I had written the night before.
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