Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Sleepless Elite

The water in the pool felt cold this morning as I jumped in.  Almost every morning, we mill around with our clothes on, trying to delay the moment when we have to bare the chilly air in our swimsuits and dive into the frigid water.  And every morning, dressed in a warm parka, Marcia yells, "Com'on!  Get in!  You aren't getting any faster standing around!"  Then, if we waited too long and missed the time to warm-up on our own, Marcia says, "Nice job, __(insert name here)_!  Nice warm-up!"

Like yesterday's workout, today's main swim set was gearing us up for racing.  The set was:
1.  4x25yds free (or your main racing stroke) FAST with a dive off of the starting blocks on the first 25yd
2.  2x50yds free FAST with a dive off of the starting blocks on the first piece
3.  1x100yds free FAST with a dive
50yds of recovery between each set of sprints

Marcia has had her eyes on this weekend's the local swim meet in Pleasanton and had badgered us all last week to sign-up.  I, fortunately or unfortunately, missed the deadline last week and so thought I was off the hook for the meet.  Little did I know that entries for the relay races could be entered in later and that Marcia had volunteered me to race in a relay.  Exact details, such as what time, which relay race, which leg of the relay, are to be announced, but I am pretty confident that Marcia will not embarrass herself by making me swim the backstroke or breaststroke of an medley relay in which each of the four swimmers on the team swims a different stroke.

Not only was the water cold this morning, but I had forgotten to set the coffeemaker so I had no coffee this morning.  If you do not know, coffee is the main reason I get out of bed (like a tiger) every morning.  I managed to make it this morning coffee-less, but I definitely felt the lack of sleep and nagging tiredness on my brain and body.  In a bustling world of baby, husband, corporate America, training, racing, blogging, and life in general, something has got to give.  As Oprah Winfrey supposedly said once, "You can have it all, just not all at once."

For me, sleep is usually the first thing to go out the window.  In college amidst crew, class, homework, exams, friends, club activities, I typically slept four hours at night and maybe one or two hours total in class, which you can read here.  So in truth, sleep and my education were the two things that went out the window in college.  My parents would be heartbroken to hear how all that tuition money went to waste.  It is amazing that I managed to get through college.  I must truly thank some of my friends for waking me up when class was over, giving me the Spark Notes version on what I missed, and forcing me tooth and nail to finish my homework sets while my eyelids were 90% shut.

At one point in time, I tried to do everything--rowing, other extracurricular activities, social life.  I was still rowing, eating my rabbit food (i.e. trying to make weight), going to class, and I decided to join some South Asian friends in putting on a dance for the annual South Asian Indus Culture Show.  Well, all our dance practices were at night because the rest of the dance team were normal people, had the most free time at night, and did not have to wake up freakishly early the next morning for crew.  We would practice until 11 or 12 at night.  I would go home, sleep, and get up four and a half hours later.  At the end of the show, there was a big party in SF that I went to.  I am not a big party animal and by midnight, I was done.  My ride, however, did not leave the city until 3AM.  By the time we got back to Berkeley, I just got dropped off at the fountain (on College and Bancroft) where we met at 4:45AM for crew practice and waited around until my teammates showed up.  I was very paranoid that I would fall asleep and miss practice.  Crazy.
Can you find me?

In the college afterlife, I have found that training, baby, husband, work, and life leave very little time for house chores and sleep.  Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal ran an article titled "The Sleepless Elite: Why Some People Can Run on Little Sleep and Get So Much Done" by Melinda Beck.  The author describes three types of sleepers.  The first is the Normal Sleeper who needs 7-9 hours of sleep a night, and about two-thirds of adults in the U.S. do manage to get the 7-9 hours.  The second type is the Sleep-Deprived Sleeper who probably needs the normal 7-9 hours, but who usually gets less than 7 hours of sleep a night.  About one-third of adults fall in the category.  The last group is the Sleepless Elite.  These supernatural people needs less than 6 hours, often as low as 3 or 4 hours, of sleep a night.
Copyright Wall Street Journal - April 5, 2011
 On such little sleep, the Sleepless Elite function perfectly well, if not better than the rest of mankind, and are usually high energy and outgoing.  To them, any more sleep than what they currently get would be a "waste of time."  They naturally, genetically just do not need as much sleep.  They also typically tend not to drink caffeine to stay awake and do not sleep-in on weekends.  If only I too could be one of these Sleepless Elite, supernatural people!  I definitely need the normal 7-9 hours, but typically fall in the Sleep-Deprived category.  In fact, a good friend commented the other day, "You are always tired!"  He did have a point considering I used to pass out on his couch in college and considering that at the moment we were on our way to dinner and I was already in that quiet zone right before I fall asleep.  As I have gotten older and moved away from the manic college lifestyle, I have realized how important sleep is to being able to function mental and have come to terms with myself that I am just not one of the born-to-be Sleepless Elite.

No comments:

Post a Comment