Elanso

There’s one thing that determines when I sleep: When Charlie goes to bed. (So, in his pre-melatonin days, when he fell asleep at midnight at the earliest, “bedtime” for me took on all the aura of some kind of promised land.)

According to a new study in the Journal of Labor Economics, the schedule for TV shows, rather than natural circadian rhythms, determine the times when most Americans sleep:

In their forthcoming article for the Journal of Labor Economics, “Cues for Timing and Coordination: Latitude, Letterman, and Longitude,” authors Daniel S. Hamermesh, Caitlin Knowles Myers, and Mark L. Pocock look at the brief fight between American’s natural timing cues — the circadian rhythms determined by the sun — and the man-made cues brought on within the last century, mainly by the creation of time zones and the television broadcast schedule. In this relatively brief time, they find, the markers for how we structure our day have been dramatically altered.

Guess we are in the minority and not only because we currently don’t have a TV: Charlie has never been a big TV watcher himself; when the sun rises and when it sets regulates his sleep patterns (and, consequently, mine). The advent of Daylight Saving Time and the change back to Standard Time usually create some minor disturbances for him: Charlie runs by his internal clock and, even though the time difference is only one hour, the change in the time for the start of school and mealtimes sets things off. (Charlie does not yet know how to tell time using a clock; he’s been working on reading time on the hour and half-hour on a digital clock at school.)

Charlie has also come done with the cold/flu thing I had last week and passed the better part of Saturday in slumberland on the couch. He had a fever and a gurgling cough, and seemed the better for his long nap. He woke around 6.30pm and we asked him if he’d like to get take-out from his favorite hamburger place, which he had been calling for earlier in the day.

“No takeout!” said Charlie. He named the hamburger place and added “Sit.”

Which, in the middle of a severe rain deluge and heavy winds that rattled like a car engine, we did. Good to be back on the usual schedule of things with Charlie.

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