Early to Bed, Early to Rise, Makes Me Feel Older, Not so Much Wise
<p>Johnny Carson was once known as the last man Americans saw before they went to sleep. He came on at 10:35 p.m. (Houston time) after the Nightly News. A big fan, I was saddened when the show went off the air on May 22, 1992. I was 40 years old.</p>
<p>Today at the ripe old age of 72, it’s a rare occasion I stay up for the news at 10 p.m. let alone late-night TV. Once in a blue moon, I’ll watch Stephen Colbert. The next blue moon is in 2037. I’m not sure I’ll still be around.</p>
<h2>Early to rise</h2>
<p>In my defense, the alarm beeps at 5 a.m. most weekday mornings. I start seeing patients at 7:30 a.m. in the clinic. So, I must rise and shine early. And good sleep hygiene practices recommend keeping the same schedule seven days a week. In by 9, out by 5.</p>
<p>But even at 40, my workday usually started at 8 o’clock, forcing me out of bed at 6ish, yet I rarely missed the nighttime announcement of “Here’s Johnny.” So, what changed? Oh yeah, that was like 32 years ago. Somebody moved the hands on the clock. Spring forward.</p>
<h2>Sleep in old age</h2>
<p>In his book, Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams, Matthew Walker PhD explores the changes in sleep throughout the life span. One daunting statistic for us septuagenarians is that by the time we reach 70, we’ve lost 80–90% of the deep sleep of our youth. That actually has far-flung consequences. It increases the risk of long-term health conditions and decreases memory retention. His research revealed that older adults retained almost 50% less information than younger subjects when memory was tested the following morning. Yikes.</p>
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