Work/life Balance

 

Stay Awake

Though the world is fast asleep
Though your pillow soft and deep
You're not sleepy as you seem
Stay awake, don't nod and dream
Stay awake, don't nod and dream

So how much sleep do you need?

We all need sleep. Following the rule of threes, one should expect to spend 1/3 of your life sleeping, 1/3 of your life working, and 1/3 f your life a leisure. Sleep is something that we need every day. One third of 24 hrs. is 8 hours of sleep per day, which sound like what the doctors order. During sleep our brains undergo various processes that help us consolidate out memories, regulate emotions and clear toxins. Lack of sleep can lead to irritability, anxiety, depression, and other mental illnesses. The inability to sleep even has a name, insomnia, and we speed vast amount of effort combating it.

Works and leisure get more complicated. They do NOT have to happen every day. In fact days without work, such as weekend, holidays, and vacations are expected. Every day is not a work day. We may spend 8 hours at hour during a work day, but we also spend on average 30 minutes each way commuting to, and from, work and have a lunch hour while at  work. That amounts to, on average, 10 hours per work day. If there are 52 week in a year and 5 work days a week, that amounts to 2,600 hours per year. Since  a year has 8,760 hours (365 times 24), thus 30% of a year is spent working. To this add in time during leisure spent thinking about work and you get to 1/3.  That means leisure should also be also be about 1/3 of the time.

The rule of three is also informative about retirement age,  child protection, and education. If life expectancy is 75 years, then you should expect that 1/3 of them should NOT be working years. From birth to about 20 we are being educated and getting ready for work. From retirement age to death we are not working. That means that retirement age should be should be on average near 70, (2/3 of 75 plus 20 years), after working for 50 years.    Pretending that we are instant experts is not a good thing.  It takes about 10,000 hours to become an expert and you are actually only working 8 hours a day, thus it should take 6 years (at 200 working days per year) to become an expert at something.

Whoever thought that 365/7/24 is a good thing! A work life balance, including time sleeping, and playing, being educated, and retired are important too! Pretending that we are instant experts is also not a good thing. And if you dream during the time spent awake too, all the better!