Contemplations on Sleep and Industry

I took a sick day from my long-term job because I feel it best not to spread whatever germs I may be harboring beneath this sore throat, conjestion, and cough. I'm not completely incapacitated, so I have been reading news and blogs and whatever I come across on Google Reader.

One article that got my gears going was a news article about a recent sleep study. The study concurred that people who generally sleep six hours were more likely to die prematurely (whatever that means). Yes, once again, a study confirms that we need 7-8 hours of sleep at night. One bit that I felt worth sharing:

"Modern society has seen a gradual reduction in the average amount of sleep people take, and this pattern is more common amongst full-time workers, suggesting that it may be due to societal pressures for longer working hours and more shift-work."

How many times have I gone to bed at a reasonable hour, feeling guilty for using those two hours to sleep instead of do something productive? I've seen so many full-time teachers staying in their classroom until 10pm and arriving the next day at 6am. It's almost as if, to get ahead in our work/career/etc, we must sacrifice our own health. And the workforce is very competitive these days, because there are fewer and fewer jobs.

What is a solution to this? Sometimes I wish we could just all go back to being small homesteaders, growing our own food and livestock. That way, we'd all have work that directly effected our livelihood. The information age is scary, even for us 20-somethings who have never known anything different.