Do I Hate You Because I’m Tired?

Probably. Okay, maybe.

Many of us live busy lives, well some of us say we live busy lives, most of us stay up watching Netflix. In the morning, we groan, reach for the snooze button and then, reach for it again. We hope this is the morning that the next (and the next and the next) little sliver of sleep will actually help us feel rested. But, all that compulsive rerun watching has a cumulative effect; we get tired. Not just “oh it’s now spring and I’ll need to tune out the birds chirping in the lilac tree outside my window” tired either. We get nonfunctional, emotional and stressed out tired. We also get really, really stunningly incompetent.

When we get tired we lose the ability to recognize non-verbal facial cues. We literally can’t tell if someone is angry or happy (or Dopey or Sneezy or Doc). (Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2831427/) When our judgement is impaired about what someone is thinking about us we tend to defensively default to mimicking their (perceived) anger back at them. *Bonus Fun Fact: this is why teenagers assume the whole world hates them, basically the part of their wee little brains that discerns the expressions on adult faces hasn’t fully developed yet. (Source: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/teenbrain/work/onereason.html)

Massage Therapy can help with sleep (Source: http://www.amtamassage.org/approved_position_statements/Massage-Therapy-Can-Help-Improve-Sleep.html). In one study mentioned in the AMTA article as few as five massages, only 30 minutes long helped the participants (in this case children) be less depressed, stressed and sleepless. There was an actual biochemical change in their bodies with a marked decrease in the amount of cortisol (a stress hormone) in their bodies.

Massage therapy can’t turn off the computer or TV for you, but we can help you have the best sleep you can get, once you get to sleep.

So Do I Hate You Because I’m Tired? I don’t know yet, I haven’t finished all of Breaking Bad or The Gilmore Girls yet. I’ll keep you posted.

Red (Aaron) Ogden

PS. This was the infographic that started the journey down this particular rabbit hole. http://mic.com/articles/104472/what-sleep-deprivation-does-to-your-brain-in-one-stunning-infographic