2 Week "Vacation" / Why Sleeping Late is Important

So, I know that the few people that read this may hate me more for what I am about to say, but... I am on the second (consecutive) week of vacation from work. My workplace has a "plant shutdown", even though we aren't really a plant, from December 24th to January 5th.

During this glorious chunk of time off work and school (yeah, no classes right now either, it is like I am retired for 2 weeks) I have been revisiting my old habits of staying up late, and waking up *really* late. But according to the latest issue of WIRED magazine this is good for you and more natural. Let me explain (I am simply copying what Daniel Dumas had already written, here):

1 // You may need more sleep than you think.
Research by Henry Ford Hospital Sleep Disorders Center found that people who slept eight hours and then claimed they were "well rested" actually performed better and were more alert if they slept another two hours. That figures. Until the invention of the lightbulb (damn you, Edison!), the average person slumbered 10 hours a night.

2 // Night owls are more creative.
Artists, writers, and coders typically fire on all cylinders by crashing near dawn and awakening at the crack of noon. In one study, "evening people" almost universally slam-dunked a standardized creativity test. Their early-bird brethren struggled for passing scores.

3 // Rising early is stressful.
The stress hormone cortisol peaks in your blood around 7 am. So if you get up then, you may experience tension. Grab some extra Zs! You'll wake up feeling less like Bert, more like Ernie.

Thanks for the info WIRED! I feel like less of a slacker. You may ask yourself what I have been doing with all of this free time, wonder no more my friend, the list follows:

• Cleaned up my work area in the garage.
• Worked on my model airplanes / practiced on my new flight simulator (Phoenix Flight Sim)
• Read (Angels and Demons, by Dan Brown)
• Went out to lunch at Paula's with David Kirk (a colleague of Jill's)
• Watched "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (not to shabby, 3 hours long though)
• Cleaning my office area
• Started posting on my blog again! Need Bishop to help me get my website online again
• Visited my parents (a couple of times)
• Saw friends that I haven't seen in a long time
• Played Gears of War on XBox 360

It has been some of the most relaxing time I have had all year (except for Jill and I's Puerto Rico Trip).

I forgot to mention that my old boss who bought my Jeep sent me a picture of the old girl with her new snow plow.