Thursday, June 18, 2009

the case for sleeping in...

...and being a night owl.

just found this in an article on msn at 3am:

Sleep an extra 20 minutes. There's no substitute for a solid night of Z's, but research suggests that rising as late as you can get away with—even if it's just 20 or 30 minutes later than you usually do—can make you more relaxed during the day. Our bodies naturally crank up the stress hormone cortisol in the a.m. so that we'll get up and moving, but postponing your wake-up time can lower those levels just enough to take the edge off. In a study at London's University of Westminster, earlier risers (who woke up as early as 5:22 a.m.) had higher cortisol levels during the first 45 minutes of their day and tended to be angrier at night than later risers (who got up as late as 10:30 a.m.), regardless of how much total sleep they got. While there's no optimal wake-up time, the researchers say, set the alarm for as late as your schedule will allow. For best results, try to go to bed and wake up at about the same times every day; this will keep your body clock running smoothly.

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