The lie-in costs more than it givesHabits

unbry

The lie-in costs more than it gives

A short book about sleeping late at weekends and feeling jet-lagged every Monday

24 chapters11,603 wordsAbout 53 minFirst edition

What's inside

·Before you startThis is a short book and you can read it in two sittings. It's about one habit, and the habit looks like rest. You get up at half past six all week, and…2 min
1Sunday night, Monday morningIt's Sunday night and it's twenty past eleven and you're not asleep. You went up at half past ten because it's a school night, and you've been lying there…2 min
2Why the lie-in seems rightBefore taking the lie-in apart, it's worth saying plainly what it's for, because it isn't for nothing. There are five things it seems to give, and the…2 min
3"I'm catching up on sleep"You are, partly. It's worth being accurate here because the usual version of this argument overreaches, and once you've seen it overreach you stop…2 min
4"It's only a couple of hours"It's only a couple of hours in the same way that a flight from London to Athens is only a couple of hours. Your body clock doesn't measure the number. It…2 min
5"I haven't been anywhere, so it isn't jet lag"The phrase social jet lag was coined by Marc Wittmann, Till Roenneberg and colleagues in 2006, and they meant it literally. Jet lag is what happens when…2 min
6"Monday is bad for everyone"Monday has a reputation, and some of it is earned. It's the day the emails have piled up, the day the week's problems are all still ahead, and the day…2 min
7"It's the only time nobody needs anything from me"This is the objection that deserves the most respect, because it's the one that isn't really about sleep. For a lot of people the lie-in isn't nine hours…2 min
8"I'm a night owl, it's just how I'm made"Chronotype is real. People differ, partly by genes, in when their clock wants to sleep, and the late types aren't being difficult. If your body wants to…2 min
9"I feel great on a Sunday"You do, and the feeling is the most persuasive thing the habit has, so it needs a proper look rather than a dismissal. By Sunday lunchtime you've had two…2 min
10"It's two mornings a week, what harm can it do"The Monday is the cost you feel. There's a set of costs you don't, and they've been studied, and the honest version of the findings is worth having…2 min
11"Getting up at the same time every day sounds grim"It sounds like a rule for a barracks. It's worth looking at what it actually gives, because regularity turns out to be doing more of the work than length.…2 min
12"If I get up early on Saturday I'll be wrecked all day"You might be, the first Saturday. Let's look at why, and what to do about it, because this is the moment the habit reasserts itself. If you've had five…2 min
13"The problem is the week, not the weekend"There's a lot in this. The short week is the engine. If you slept enough Monday to Friday you'd have nothing to catch up on, and the lie-in would lose…2 min
14What the lie-in costs youAdd it up, since the whole argument is that the price is hidden. There's the Sunday night. An hour, sometimes two, of lying awake, at the worst possible…2 min
15What it does to Sunday nightSunday night deserves its own chapter, because it's where the habit does its most visible damage and where people most often blame the wrong thing. You go…2 min
16Daylight is the leverThe method in this book has three parts and this is the first, because it does the most work for the least effort, and because almost nobody uses it. Your…2 min
17The fixed wake timeThe second part of the method is the number. Pick your weekday wake time. Add an hour. That's the latest you get up at the weekend, both days, and I'll…2 min
18The nap and the early nightThe third part of the method is where the extra sleep goes, because you still need it. The short week is still short. The lie-in was putting sleep at the…2 min
19The decisionHere's the rule, in one line. The rule. I get up within an hour of my weekday wake time on Saturday and Sunday, I'm outside in daylight within an hour of…2 min
20Shift work, babies, teenagers, the big Friday night, and when it's more than the weekendSome situations the rule doesn't fit as written, and some where it doesn't apply. Shift work. If your week has nights in it, or rotates, you don't have a…2 min
21When you slept till elevenIt'll happen. A month in, a bad week, a Friday that runs late, and Saturday you wake at eleven and lie there until half past, and by Sunday the whole…2 min
22Saturday at eightIt's Saturday and it's eight o'clock and you're awake. You woke at twenty to, without the alarm, which you set anyway. The curtains are open. There's a…1 min
·NotesThese notes give the sources behind the claims in each chapter and say what each can and can't support. The book is not medical advice. If you have…7 min