Author: John Ager

Born before 315 ppm CO2. He/him. Full bio on [About Me] page.

The Need for Sleep

Sleeping is the best thing we can do to improve our overall health; it’s so simple that it’s often forgotten or ignored. I’m currently reading an excellent book about why we sleep, and I’ve been surprised at the negative effects lack of sleep can have on our mental and physical health, especially if we are building up a sleep deficit over a long period of time.

We all need both quantity and quality of sleep to function normally in our everyday lives. Unfortunately, there are those who boast about how little sleep they need, and there’s also an implied societal view that sleep is somehow lazy and unproductive; these can be easily demonstrated to be false and unhelpful.

Prolonged lack of sleep weakens your immune system, doubles your risk of cancer, and increases your chances of suffering heart disease and stroke, for example. It also adversely affects your mental health, contributing to anxiety, depression, and suicide. Worryingly, many road traffic accidents are caused by lack of concentration, drowsiness and microsleeps.

Although I’ve been aware of the effects of being sleep deprived for a while, I’m now more determined to do something about it, even if having three young children doesn’t make it easy – but as an older father I owe it to them to be healthy.

See also: 10 Tips for Top Sleep

Ad-Free Site

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There’s so much advertising on the Internet that, at times, it can become very distracting and intrusive. To reduce the amount that can overwhelm, I personally use an ad-blocker in my browser, which gives me a generally ad-free experience – but that’s a whole new discussion for another post.

You may have seen the above logo (or similar) on my blog, it appears in the left-hand column a little way down. By using this icon on my website I’m stating that I’m opposed to the use of corporate advertising on blogs and that I feel the use of corporate advertising on blogs devalues the medium; Similarly, I don’t accept money (or goods in kind) in return for anything I publish.

You will never see advertising on this site because I’m opposed to widespread advertising impacting every aspect of our existence; therefore, I’m drawing a line around this ‘personal’ space (deeming it inappropriate for advertising).

What I write is 100% my choice, and I will always seek to be as open and honest as I can. Be assured that my endorsement of anything (whether it’s a product, a book, a piece of art, an idea) comes directly from me and is not influenced by any outside person or organisation.

This is a helpful quote with which to conclude: If we, as a society, lose our voice completely, and corporations start doing all the talking, then we’ll be utterly lost. To some degree, this has already happened. Our ability to envision a future collectively has already been severely compromised. Kalle Lasn

Note: If you appreciate my varied posts, you might like to donate (click on link) towards my running costs. You can choose a one-off payment or a monthly/yearly subscription. Thanks, John.