political commentator * author * publisher * bookseller * radio presenter * blogger * Conservative candidate * former lobbyist * Jack Russell owner * West Ham United fanatic * Email iain AT iaindale DOT com
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?!
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.
ReplyDeleteWe've tried everything, strips for his nose, everything. Now I just fall asleep when I'm exhausted. Nothing to do with e mails.
Does that include mine?
ReplyDeleteOn my blog ,which sits alone by the fire ignored and forgotten whilst others go to the ball, I gathered a collection recently :
ReplyDeleteClever 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
Whenever i see the words "A survey suggests",i am amazed at how many normal, inquiring people automatically accept the suggestions as fact!
ReplyDeleteAs you say, a load of borrocks....
The jist of it ?
ReplyDeleteThe JIST of it ?
Bloody modern education ...
Maybe that says more about the quality of the comments.... ;)
ReplyDeletePerhaps the comments you're approving are so boring that they send you off to sleep?
ReplyDeleteI 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.
ReplyDeleteRegardless it's become a habit now and essentially part of my sleep routine.
A Swansea Blog
I must remember this technique...
ReplyDeleteI 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...
Nothing to fill the papers with? On the day after Benazir Bhutto was assassinated?
ReplyDeleteIain, instead of checking your emails - I'll tell you what you should consider doing - perhaps make a few transfers on your fantasy football team?!!! :)
ReplyDeleteHave you seen that naughty Tim Worstall has had to say about this?
ReplyDeleteRacial stereotyping & cheap laughs - same old tories.
ReplyDeleteJim Davidson eat your heart out.
The report obviously sampled from non-bloggers!
ReplyDeleteOnce evolution merges blogger with computer, it's actually harder to switch off WITHOUT checking comments and sneaking (another) look at those stats.
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteThe jist of it ?
The JIST of it ?
Bloody modern education ...
It seems there is no shame in poor spelling these days.
Yeah, but you sleep even less than I do, Iain: if I kept your sleep pattern, I would fall asleep in a minute too...
ReplyDeleteDK
The GITS of it indeed!
ReplyDeleteAfter 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!
Has no one pointed out that one cannot generalise from an N of 1? Iain could be a rare physical exception!
ReplyDeleteIain, 1 minute?
ReplyDeleteYou're the envy of millions in that sense I'm sure.
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.
ReplyDeleteProbably the latter, as the former would be vanity.
(I use the words “our” and “we” collectively rather than royally)