I've Got a Theory: You're Getting Older

Some years when your birthday comes around, do you feel like you maybe aged more than a year's worth?

I have a theory about that. It has to do with sleep, actually, and I'm going to channel my inner math geek to explain it.

Because feet need sleep, too.

The number of hours you SHOULD sleep - The number of hours you ACTUALLY sleep X 365 ÷ 24 +365 = how much you age in a year

Now stick with me here-- I'll do an example. Let's say your body wants you to sleep 8 hours a night, but you only sleep 7 because I have to get this book written RIGHT now, and if I spend so dang much time sleeping, that's never going to happen! or something like that. So, 8-7=1. Pretty simple so far, right?

Now, if you do that every day for a year, you get 365. Still with me? Since there are 24 hours in a day, we divide by 24 to see how many days that equals. And it's 9. Add that to the understood 365 days you were going to age anyway, and you aged 374 days in a year.

Which, if you ask me, isn't a bad trade-off. I mean sure, you aged an extra nine days, but you gained an extra 365 hours! That's PURE GOLD! (And right now, once again, I'm finding myself insanely jealous of people who only need to sleep five hours a night. You know who you are-- make sure you are completely enjoying that particular superpower.)

The theory is that if you sleep MORE than you should, you would age less. But seriously. Has anyone ever tested that theory?

When I was in high school, my dad always referred to waking up early and going to bed late as "burning the candle at both ends." (I think that maybe the message he was attempting to convey was that if I continued to do that, I'd get burned. But I'm a HUGE fan of light, so pretty much all it accomplished was to make me think "Ooo! Brightness! Burning candle double = good.")

So how do you feel about sleep? Do you fall in the Hey! Youth matters! camp, or the I think I need a bigger candle so I won't get burned camp?
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