Sleep deprivation makes you cranky, fat, and dangerous.
It also makes you gloomy.
Take a look at this finding, reported in a New York Magazine feature that is, as far as I can tell, the same as the third chapter in Nurture Shock by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman:
“Perhaps most fascinating, the emotional context of a memory affects where it gets processed. Negative stimuli get processed by the amygdala; positive or neutral memories get processed by the hippocampus. Sleep deprivation hits the hippocampus harder than the amygdala. The result is that sleep-deprived people fail to recall pleasant memories yet recall gloomy memories just fine.” (p. 3 in the NYM article linked and p. 35 in the book)
Great. Fat, grumpy, and incapable of retaining joy.
I can’t wait to hang out with me, ‘cuz that’s a winning combination.
(On a related note, how do I not have a category titled “Holy Guacamole, I Need Sleep!”? My first didn’t sleep through the night until he was over Three. The second is not exactly on the fast track to quiet nights, with or without ear infections, teething, and gobs of physical exertion. So I filed this under everything except Yoga. I’m too tired for yoga.)
(Also? Go read Nurture Shock. There are chapters on praise, sleep, race, lying, gifted programs, siblings, teenagers, self-control, social skills, and language; all compelling, well written, clear, thoroughly researched and revelatory.) I’ll leave the superlatives to the cover matter, but suffice it to say I will finish it before I finish The Pale King. That’s huge, given how little reading time I have and how much I want to read DFW’s final novel. Go get it. Library, local bookstore, friend…I don’t care. Read. This. Book.)
NaptimeWriting 
Love ‘Nurture Shock’. Love, love, love it.
Had one non-sleeper (for three years and eight months) who nearly drove me to an early grave (fed constantly too) and one semi-non-sleeper who at least had the decency to sleep through at the age of 19 months. The problem was the first one who slept 12 hours a night from 9 weeks of age and set up false expectations in my brain. Sigh. Kids. Who’d have them?!
You had me at “Sleep deprivation makes you cranky, fat and dangerous.”
Best sentence ever written.
Dorothy Parker has nothing on you, kid.
Book duly noted for next person to visit me. A good parenting book wouldn’t do any harm right now.
“I can’t wait to hang out with me, ‘cuz that’s a winning combination.”
LMAO! You start my day off right, dear Nap — you really do.
And I know why you don’t have a category about needing sleep. You’ve been too tired to make it.
You will sleep again, I promise. That’s all I can offer, the assurance that you WILL sleep again.
“Sleep deprivation makes you cranky, fat, and dangerous.”
So THAT explains my inability to shed the baby weight (and the baby is now 7 yrs. old) and my winning disposition. Thanks for that. I needed a better excuse than “I’m turning into my mother.”
You do know the apocalypse is this Saturday. We’ll sleep then.
Who needs sleep? …yawn…There are novels to write and … yawn… novels to read…yawn. Where my coffee? Ah screw it. zzzzzzzzzz.
I’m trying to debunk the whole “scientific facts” on sleep deprivation. Because I’m that stubborn.
And I LOVED Nurture Shock!