Snooze button = bad for the blog

A sleep specialist at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, Edward Stepanski says an hour's worth of fragmented sleep has the restorative value of no more than 15 minutes of steady sleep.

Serial snoozing is like sleeping with the television on. Hitting the button once or twice is fine, but more than that presents a problem.

"You're better off not using it in that scenario," he says. "Set it very close to the time that you actually have to put your feet on the floor." We love the snooze button and the nine-minute nearly universal cushion from reality it provides. (Why nine minutes? Theories vary.) And that, says Pauline Wallin, author of "Taming Your Inner Brat: A Guide for Transforming Self-Defeating Behavior," puts into play a dangerous mind-set. If the very first thing you do each day is put off the inevitable, what kind of pattern does that set for the rest of your day?

"It's just kind of putting off what you don't want to do, and the snooze button is kind of a tool for doing that," she says. It's best to face the day cold turkey.

"Once you do something early in the day, like working out or paying the bills, you just get a little spring in your step," she says.

(From yesterday's Tribune)

Due to technical difficulties (my Mac won't upload photos from yesterday!!), I'm sleeping in ...