S.e.A.rCh

Sleep, memory loss, and information addiction

So it’s Friday night. I’m just chilling before I head to a friend’s birthday and thought I’d write a few words. We had a few friends round for dinner on Wednesday, had a few bottles of wine, and were just having some random chatter, when I talked about some “behavioural issues” that I’m afflicted with. I’m not sure that “behavioural issues” is the right way to describe what I’m talking about, but I’m gonna use it for now. Anyway, some of the other guys in the room said they were afflicted with the same issues, and it got us all thinking that they’re somehow related. I’ll explain below:

Sleep
Anyone who’s ever spent any time with me knows that I love sleep. This has become especially apparent when I’ve gone on holiday with friends – I love to sleep at any given opportunity. If we’re flying somewhere I’ll sleep. If we’re on a bus somewhere, I’ll sleep. But I’ll never fall asleep at work. I’m not narcoleptic – I just love a good snooze every now and again. The only time it’s ever a pain in the ass is when I watch movies. If I put a good film on at home, chances are I’ll be asleep within 20-30 minutes. The worst occasion was when I went to watch Quantum of Solace in the cinema – I think I saw about 10 minutes of it. So on Sunday, I sat down to watch a film – my girlfriend was visiting friends in London, and she’s not a big fan of horror, so I decided to attempt to watch Saw. About 15 minutes into it, I was fast asleep – I just couldn’t stay awake. When I did wake, I decided to change the film to Top Gear on BBC 2, and I was fine. Why is that? Why do films make me fall asleep, but TV doesn’t? I have some bizarre theories, like perhaps films emit different audio frequencies that make me feel sleepy. Perhaps it’s frame rate related – I don’t know. Let’s park this issue for the moment.

Memory Loss
When I’m at work, at any given time I may be working on 10 to 20 different things at the same time. This makes life difficult. Anyone who’s seen my desk knows that I’ve got a crazy way of working that involves an extreme Post-It note solution – essentially I write everything I need to do on lots and lots of Post-Its, and then rearrange throughout the day as priorities change. I’ve tried various different solutions, but I always tend to find it’s the old fashioned methods that work best for me. Recently I’ve been having problems though – I’m not sure if it’s sheer information overload, but quite often something will pop into my mind – by the time I’ve found a pen to scrawl on the nearest Post-It, I’ll have forgotten that thought. Sometimes I think that if it’s really that important it’ll come back to me, but recently I’ve become aware that even the most important thoughts are being lost forever. And finally…

Information Addiction
In the old days, we didn’t have things such as the Internets, Twitter, or Facebook. Nowadays we do, and I reckon people are spending too much time on them. From the group of people that I work with, the best people are those that live and sleep online. During our dinner party, it got us thinking that perhaps today’s youth won’t turn out to be drug or alcohol addicts – they’ll be information addicts – people who just can’t stop reading, learning, and watching. The best way to treat this addiction, is, upon entering the Priory, to throw away iPhone / Blackberry / Mobile Web Device, and then lock said addict in a room without TV or internet, and just let them get on with life – perhaps introduce them to a spot of gardening and see how they get on with things.

So to conclude, and the general consensus from the blokes sitting around the table with me that regularly fell asleep, couldn’t remember things, and spent far too much time consuming information, is that we’re all information addicts. Watching a film just doesn’t provide enough information to keep me awake – it’s dull. I don’t want to sit and watch Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet acting out a marriage breaking down – there’s just not enough information there – of course I’m going to fall asleep. Similarly, of course I’m going to forget a few things every now and again when I’ve got so much to think about and remember. If anyone’s got a good cure, please get in touch and let me know – especially regarding the sleep issue – I really would like to see the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey one day!

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Tags: information addiction, memory loss, sleep