Tag: sleep

a better way to fix Daylight Saving Time

It’s no secret that a lot of people have problems with Daylight Saving Time. Most of us don’t mind gaining an extra hour of sleep in the fall, but losing an hour of sleep is problematic. It costs the workforce millions of dollars by people being late and/or tired. There’s also the issue of it getting dark early. I don’t like night time to start at 5:00 PM.

Our representatives in Congress apparently don’t know what to do about it. There’s talk every year of getting rid of it, which is an option. Or, as I have proposed several times here, in the spring we could take the hour away from the workday at 8:00 AM on a Monday. The majority of people would approve of this. (Perhaps we should write our representatives about this idea. Tell your friends to see what they think.)

My favorite idea is switching to the Hobbit calendar (by J.R.R. Tolkien). Changing our system to that one just isn’t practical, though, given all the systems and programs that would have to be changed. But it’s fun to think about.

There is, however, another possible solution that I haven’t heard discussed. What if instead of going forward an hour in the spring, we go back 23 hours? Who wouldn’t like that? (I’m sure there’s someone, but whatever.) Most of us could use an extra 23 hours to rest, relax, and/or get things done. It would be like an extra Saturday, a bonus day off work.

The problem with this radical idea is that it disrupts our calendar. (Side note: did you realize the calendar is already broken? Why do we have a leap year where we add a day?) So to keep the calendar working properly, every four years, instead of adding a day, we take away 3 days. And those 3 days should be Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, which according to recent polls are the least popular days. This could also happen in February, since it’s probably the least liked month [citation needed].

What do you think? Too crazy, or awesome? Is there a better idea?

dreaming altering reality

Recently I had a dream where I needed to hit the snooze button a few times for something to take effect.  I don’t remember now what was happening in my dream, but it was something good, and pushing the snooze button was supposed to finalize it.  And (not) coincidentally, this was happening while my alarm clock was buzzing.

Obviously it was all a dream and had nothing to do with reality, but it’s obvious that my body was trying to tricks me.  Perhaps my body was reverting to sneaky tactics to persuade me to get more sleep.  Was my body saying that I’m sleep-deprived, that I need more rest?  Or does it mean my body just wanted to be lazy and sleep later into the morning?  I don’t know, but I don’t think it’s fair that my body is interfering with my dreams.  It’s especially not right that my alarm clock is appearing in my dreams!  My dreams are supposed to be happy places, where I’m the superhero who saves the world each night, and where alarm clocks don’t exist, and where I can eat as much pizza as I want to without gaining weight, and… well, you get the point.

Perhaps my subconscious was trying to remove me from the reality of alarm clocks, to take away the annoying effect of them.  No longer was the loud buzzing a sign to get up — it had become part of completing a good project.  This is all good in my dream world, but in real life it’s inconvenient, because I’m not getting up when I should be.  But what can I do?

I reckon I should take it as a sign that I should be sleeping later.  After all, don’t all those important doctors and physicians tell us we should listen to our body?  Yeah, I recall that.  So I’m going to start sleeping in when this happens.  I just need some way to convince my boss that this is what I should be doing… perhaps there should be some medical research in this area, to prove what I’m claiming.  I’m sure there’s proof, somewhere out there… I just have to find it.  🙂

the special days of January, pt 1

It’s now January, so we are going to continue our tradition of looking at the specials days and holidays of the month.  This is not a complete list — those can be found elsewhere — but I guarantee you won’t find another list like this.  As always, our unique commentary and humorous analysis will be interspersed amidst the listing.  Let us begin with the month-long celebrations :

  • National Hobby Month — Hobbies are a good way to relax from the stresses of life.  Reading can be a good hobby.  Reading this blog is an even better hobby.  🙂
  • Hot Tea Month — I prefer iced tea with a considerable amount of sugar, but to each their own.  Either way, tea is awesome.
  • National Staying Healthy Month — I prefer to observe this one every month…
  • National Thank You Month — It seems like this should be in November, because of Thanksgiving.  But it doesn’t hurt to be thankful on other occasions, too.  In fact, I’m thankful now that you’re reading my blog!  🙂

Now let’s look at individual day-long holidays and celebrations :

  • 1 New Year’s Day — You already know about this one.  There’s lots of parties (which begin the day before), and it’s a great excuse to eat a lot before you start that diet that’s part of your New Year’s resolutions.
  • 2 Run up the Flagpole and See if Anyone Salutes Day — Huh?  If you can run up a flagpole, that’s pretty impressive!  Actually, the phrase means to be creative and float an idea to see what people think.
  • 3 Festival of Sleep Day — This is what I’m talking about!  It’s a day for sleeping!  It’s on a weekday this year, and of course sleeping at work is not recommended, but if I understand the true spirit of the holiday, you should stay at home and sleep through work.  (We need more holidays like this!)
  • 3 Fruitcake Toss Day — Sounds interesting, if you were unfortunate enough to receive a fruitcake as a gift.  But it’s probably not good to throw it at somebody, because those things can be hard as a rock.
  • 4 Trivia Day — Did you know that this blog is the #1 humor website?  (This may be obscure trivia to some, but follow the link for more details.)
  • 6 Bean Day — This is a day for eating an extra helping of beans, however you like them — refried, BBQ’d, whatever.  And you should eat more beans anyway — I hear they’re good for your heart…  🙂
  • 7 Old Rock Day — Uhh… I’m not sure about this one.  I reckon it means you should appreciate old rocks.  But I don’t know why.  Although I suppose diamonds and jewels are rocks.
  • 8 Bubble Bath Day — Ah, the bubble bath…  I remember taking those when I was a kid, pouring way too much Mr. Bubble into the bathtub.  And being a kid, why would I care if the bubbles overflowed into the floor?  I mean, it got cleaned up somehow.  🙂  Unfortunately, most adults forget about the fun of taking a bubble bath, so this is the day to give it another try, to relive memories from your childhood, to find your inner child, and to go back to a time when life was simple and fun.
  • 9 Play God Day — This isn’t a good idea.  While God does has a sense of humor, He doesn’t appreciate people pretending to be a god.  And God isn’t someone we should push the limits on.
  • 9 National Static Electricity Day — This is the day to wear wool sweaters or whatever stirs up static electricity, so you can shock people.  But be careful, because you can overdo it on this.  There was a man in Australia who caught carpet on fire and melted some plastic because his clothes generated so much static electricity.  He was wearing a synthetic nylon jacket and a woolen shirt.  While having that much electricity is kinda neat, there could be some side-effects you might not want to endure.
  • 10 Peculiar People Day — This is a day in honor of people who are unique, extraordinary, unusual, odd, uncommon, intriguing, etc.  Basically, it’s in honor of me.  So feel free to send me presents and gift cards.  Or you can just buy me lunch.
  • 11 Step in a Puddle and Splash Your Friends Day — This one is self-explanatory.  Just remember to explain to your friends that it’s an actual holiday, to help them forgive you.
  • 12 Work Harder Day — Let’s just pretend this day doesn’t actually exist.  But, if you’re unable to convince yourself that, remember my motto : work smarter, not harder.

Well, this is getting really long, so I’m going to finish it in the next post.  Stay tuned…