Sleep Challenge 2010: Women, It's Time to Sleep Our Way to the Top. Literally.

Arianna Huffington and Cindi Leive have indeed given us good advice in their article - for men and women both. They say that women should stop cutting corners on sleep, and start taking care of themselves by going to bed. Then women's brains won't be dulled by sleep deprivation and we can be more effective in our lives. The double burden that women often bear makes this advice applicable to women to an even greater degree. Our over-stretched schedules and multiple demands makes skimping on sleep that much more attractive.

The problem in the advice, though, is in the implementation. I wholeheartedly agree with the advice, but without some sort of reduction in demands, it is nearly impossible to get those 8-10 hours (yes, 10 hours!) of sleep I need to feel refreshed. (In fact, I probably feel best when I get 11 or 12 hours, which is quite rare.) How can a person work 8+ hours a day, prepare and eat meals, take kids to soccer and/or scouts, get some exercise, pay attention to kids, pay attention to spouse, and then get to bed at a reasonable time? Oh, yes, there are dishes to do, trash to take out, errands to run, organizing and finances to keep up on, and daily life that needs to be run. Not to mention the cleaning and organizing that needs to be done to make a perfectly manicured lawn, spotless house, and so on. Forget perfection, just focus on the basics that keep the roaches from taking over the house! Not everyone can afford a weekly house cleaner and personal assistant.

Is it possible that our lives are getting too complicated? That the corporate life is too demanding? Perhaps there's a reason why our kids feel neglected, why people feel busier than ever, while they still manage to watch 4 hours of TV a day. Others are telling us what we "need," and those "needs" are becoming too many. Focusing on the important things, like family, and our health, is becoming harder than ever, and the less sleep we get makes us more vulnerable to the messages that tell us we need to be doing and having more (and more and more and more).

Read the Article at HuffingtonPost