I Hate Night Guy

In one of the opening monologues of the Seinfeld show, Jerry Seinfeld did a bit that I’ve never forgotten.  Why, you ask?  Well, it resonated with me.  Some might argue that it is me.  It’s certainly how I felt after last night.  Here’s the bit:

“I never get enough sleep. I stay up late at night, cause I’m Night Guy. Night Guy wants to stay up late. What about getting up after five hours sleep? Oh, that’s Morning Guy’s problem. That’s not my problem, I’m Night Guy. I stay up as late as I want.

So you get up in the morning, you’re cranky, you’re exhausted, groggy…oooh, you hate that Night Guy! See, Night Guy always screws Morning Guy. There’s nothing Morning Guy can do. The only thing Morning Guy can do is try and oversleep often enough so that Day Guy looses his job and Night Guy has no money to go out anymore.”

It’s funny, but it’s also true.  My “Night Guy” stayed up so late that Morning Guy only got four hours of sleep. The sad thing is I wasn’t doing anything important or fun.  I just didn’t want to go to sleep.

Today was tough, especially because I was scheduled to sing in both services at church.  So, I got up at 6:45 am, muddled through practice, and tried to fake being awake during both services.  I put forth a valiant effort, but my concentration was greatly impaired. 

According to Sleep-deprivation.com, inadequate rest impairs our ability to think, to handle stress, to maintain a healthy immune system and to moderate our emotions. In fact, sleep is so important to our overall health that total sleep deprivation has been proven to be fatal: lab rats denied the chance to rest die within two to three weeks.

Without adequate rest, the brain’s ability to function quickly deteriorates. The brain works harder to counteract sleep deprivation effects, but operates less effectively: concentration levels drop, and memory becomes impaired. Insufficient rest can also cause people to have hallucinations.

So, I’m not going to let Night Guy win this evening.  I’m signing off early before I start hallucinating. 

Have a great week!