Thoughts from a room with no windows

Friday, March 24, 2006

I'LL SLEEP WHEN I'M DEAD

Good news for Mikedot (and me).

At 4:52 PM, Dave Cavalier said...: This is phenomenal news for me (and my Dad) as well. I got the insomnia gene bad.

We should do an album called 3:30 A.M., entirely recorded when none of us can sleep.
At 10:10 AM, stinkrock said...: Ha! Definitely.

The main reason I can't sleep is I'm worried about accomplishing everything I want to do in life before I die. So now that I have longer, maybe I'll sleep easier. But then I'll die sooner.
At 11:49 AM, Dave Cavalier said...: I have a nit to pick with this article. It says that the "death rate" is lower for those who sleep only 6-7 hours per night, but it never defines. Isn't the death rate for humans steady at 100%?
At 12:03 PM, Jackson said...: I'll take the sleep with a side of early death.
At 12:22 PM, Chrispy said...: The study they are citing is actually a 1959-1960 study by the American Cancer Society, called the Cancer Prevention Study I. If you look for the original study you'll probably find the numbers they are talking about, but they defined "death rate" as how many of the study participants had died by 6 years after the initial questionaire. People who reported sleeping less more more likely to be alive after 6 years.

I haven't looked for the actual numbers. Kripke's online book - linked to in the original article - is where I found this limited info. More interesting is the fact that sleeping pill users were 7 times more likely to commit suicide.