Saturday, February 28, 2009

Sleep


Green and gray, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Finally I got a full night of sleep. Well, at least 6-7 hours. I feel better already, and the illness seems to be vanishing also. The cough is bothering sill occasionally, the nose is running, and I don't have much appetite, but mostly I'm feeling almost normal. Perhaps I'm able to do some walking outside today.

During the last few days, I haven't ventured far away from home, a couple of dozen meters only, except when seeing the doctor or shopping to fill the fridge. I haven't taken many photographs either, and those few were mostly taken inside the house or outside in the yard. Here is one such from yesterday, when it was warmer, above 0 °C.

Update: An interesting tidbit about sleep, A Good Night's Sleep Protects Against Parasites: "Animal species that sleep for longer do not suffer as much from parasite infestation and have a greater concentration of immune cells in their blood according to a new study." So, sleep seems to have a deep connection to the physiological well-being. There was an interesting quote from researcher Brian Preston: "Given the declines in human sleep durations that have occurred over the past few decades, there is a clear need for studies that further clarify the immunological significance of sleep."

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, I guess it's a bit too late to wish you a speedy recovery - so best wishes for a full, thorough recovery!

Impressive that you managed to keep your bog rolling while fighting with those bugs...

Juha Haataja said...

Keeping the blog has become such a familiar routine that it requires little effort. And there were occasional better moments, when I managed to do various things, even keep up with my work e-mail more or less. But still, this has been one of the worst illnesses ever - especially as I usually have managed to avoid influenza when it is going around.

Andreas said...

Oh dear! A month late!

Well, you still post, you seem to have recovered :)

I really like that image. Did you add the vignette?

Juha Haataja said...

I didn't add the vignette - I framed it on purpose this way. Seemed to fit the subject.

Andreas said...

Well, it certainly did :)