Friday, December 28, 2007

Falling Asleep Over Your Email

Isn't it amazing how many "new reports" or "new studies" make the news at this time of year? I suppose there's bugger all else to fill a newspaper with, but THIS report in the Telegraph today is one that I find baffling. The jist of it is that if you check email within an hour of going to bed, it will have the same effect as two espressos - ie you won't sleep easily. On a random sample of one - me - I'd say that was utter borrocks, as the Japanese might say. The last thing I do before my head hits the pillow is check email or approve blog comments. You might think that's sad, but there you go. And it takes me approximately one minute to fall asleep. Case proven, don't you think?!

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

Check an e mail before bed? No way! And it takes me ages to go asleep, everything that happened that day goes around in my head, and then organising the next day blah blah - but then its difficult to sleep when you have a husband who snores like a pneumatic drill.

We've tried everything, strips for his nose, everything. Now I just fall asleep when I'm exhausted. Nothing to do with e mails.

Anonymous said...

Does that include mine?

Newmania said...

On my blog ,which sits alone by the fire ignored and forgotten whilst others go to the ball, I gathered a collection recently :







Clever people listen to more heavy metal music ( Study at Warwick University)


Tone deaf teachers are killing off singing and music in schools ( Alan Johnson announced £30,000,000 to throw at this desperate situation at the time )


Disposable nappies are greener than reuseable ones ( Ooops after £30,000,000 over three years was spent making us feel guilty)


Women ogle more than men( Dr. heather Rupp of the Kinsey Institute used eye tracking technology to prove the sisters were go doing it for themselves) , in fact they are also worse at the old elevator eyes routine , apparently . Tut tut


Britons are amongst the biggest whingers in the world .( A study of 14,000 showed us joint second in the world with Sweden but behind France, the Dutch were best, stoned probably )


Teenagers experience symptoms close to clinical mania when they fall in love ( Hypo-mania was diagnosed by researchers at the Psychiatric University Clinic in Basel)


Men find pictures of women more rewarding than visa versa ( Research published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society monitoring triggered reward centres showed this )


Men are better at cheating ( Dr. Kuemmerli in the Proceedings of the Royal Society Biological Sciences , shoed results from a long study setting the “Prisoners dilemma “ for men and women . Women trusted twice as often ….suckers !)…incidentally a ‘What Car’ survey showed that men get better deals on cars….. Can’t argue with that can you


Left handers are more at risk of mental illness ( The gene LRRTM1 may be responsible for both lefty and loony)


Bright blue eyes and academic achievement are linked


Girls really do prefer pink( Prof Anya Hulbert speculated it was to help them find berries …..


Oral sex increases the risk of throat cancer (keep that one quiet)
That it is a scientific possibiolity to create a magic carpet


All quite true apparently

old and angry said...

Whenever i see the words "A survey suggests",i am amazed at how many normal, inquiring people automatically accept the suggestions as fact!

As you say, a load of borrocks....

Anonymous said...

The jist of it ?
The JIST of it ?
Bloody modern education ...

David Anthony said...

Maybe that says more about the quality of the comments.... ;)

Anonymous said...

Perhaps the comments you're approving are so boring that they send you off to sleep?

K S Rees said...

I would probably sleep worse if I didn't check my email prior to going to sleep; I'd be wondering if I'd received anything important/urgent.

Regardless it's become a habit now and essentially part of my sleep routine.

A Swansea Blog

John M Ward said...

I must remember this technique...

I am often up and 'blogging during the night -- which explains the strange times of some of my comments here and elsewhere, and occasionally posts on my own 'blog, which is now all of three weeks old, by the way!

My main "problem" is a visiting cat, though, and my internal clock gets completely scrambled as a result of its comings and goings at odd times, via the kitchen door cat flap.

Overall, though, I suspect that neither you nor Dr Idzikowski is completely right or completely wrong: each of us is an individual with our own lifestyle and whatever impacts our lives, making it difficult to generalise.

In my own case, my hormonal make-up is sufficiently unusual to render any research almost certainly inapplicable to me. Others will no doubt have a different story to tell -- but that's life for you.

Hmm. I suppose I shall now have to wait at least an hour before taking my afternoon nap...

Anonymous said...

Nothing to fill the papers with? On the day after Benazir Bhutto was assassinated?

Anonymous said...

Iain, instead of checking your emails - I'll tell you what you should consider doing - perhaps make a few transfers on your fantasy football team?!!! :)

Anonymous said...

Have you seen that naughty Tim Worstall has had to say about this?

Anonymous said...

Racial stereotyping & cheap laughs - same old tories.
Jim Davidson eat your heart out.

Anonymous said...

The report obviously sampled from non-bloggers!

Once evolution merges blogger with computer, it's actually harder to switch off WITHOUT checking comments and sneaking (another) look at those stats.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
The jist of it ?
The JIST of it ?
Bloody modern education ...

It seems there is no shame in poor spelling these days.

Devil's Kitchen said...

Yeah, but you sleep even less than I do, Iain: if I kept your sleep pattern, I would fall asleep in a minute too...

DK

Curly said...

The GITS of it indeed!

After consuming half the contents of one of the Corner Shop's finest single malts, I am in no fit state to peruse my emails, I stumble through tomorrow's online papers and sleep like a baby!

Anonymous said...

Has no one pointed out that one cannot generalise from an N of 1? Iain could be a rare physical exception!

Anonymous said...

Iain, 1 minute?

You're the envy of millions in that sense I'm sure.

M. Hristov said...

I don’t know whether to be annoyed that our scintillating prose has failed to keep Iain awake or to be happy that we have not disturbed the blogging brain.

Probably the latter, as the former would be vanity.

(I use the words “our” and “we” collectively rather than royally)