Feeling like Perry Como? Take a nap

In an old SCTV comedy sketch, an actor mimics crooner Perry Como, the now-deceased singer known for his somnambulant style. In the skit, a half-asleep Como lazily sings a song while resting his body on the person next to him.

Sunday morning, at 2 a.m., we were all supposed to spring forward into daylight-saving time. Newspapers and Web sites published icons of smiling suns and cheerful clocks to remind us to reset our watches. Perry Como would have been a more appropriate symbol.

Perry Comos are roaming everywhere this week because of the switch over to daylight-saving time. Monday morning, I was part of a panel giving a talk to a university class. One student snoozed during the presentation. I felt envious. My niece Courtney told me that most of the women she ran into Monday had failed to put eyeliner on, a makeup faux pas that she believes happens when women are deprived of sleep.

Just last week, the National Sleep Foundation released its annual report. Conclusion: We are a chronically sleep-deprived nation. Adults need a minimum of seven to nine hours a night; we average 6.9 hours. Sleep deprivation means poor performances at both play and work; almost three in 10 adults say they missed work and other activities because of lack of sleep. People grow clumsier without adequate sleep, and in my opinion, it’s the root cause of our culture’s chronic crabbiness.

Most people are already deficient in the sleep department when daylight-saving Sunday hits.

“The lost hour is a killer,” said Dr. Gregory Belenky, director of the Sleep and Performance Research Center at WSU Spokane. “It’s like finances. If you are just marginally making it and a big bill lands, you are sunk.”

I interviewed Belenky by phone just as he was returning from a national sleep-research conference in Washington, D.C. He said his jet lag wasn’t too bad. But the hour of sleep we all lost over the weekend throws people into small-scale jet lag, Belenky said.

People can help themselves adjust by following one simple practice this week.

They can force themselves to stay awake an extra hour, so they are going to sleep at the new clock time instead of falling asleep at the time they are used to from the past six months of standard time. But most people don’t do this. They follow the body where the body leads them. And it’s leading them this week to disorientation, crabbiness and no eyeliner. Not good.

Sleep researchers also reported that three quarters of adults complain of frequent sleep problems. For instance, snorers in the study’s “Dragging Duos” category lose sleep, but their non-snoring spouses suffer more, losing an average 300 hours of sleep a year.

Sleep deprivation can be dangerous. Six in 10 motorists admitted that they drive while drowsy. And one quarter of those surveyed said their sex life has suffered because of sleep deprivation. No surprise here. I’ve been saying for years now that sleep is the new sex. Older adults talk about sleep in almost erotic ways. They say, “I got eight hours straight last night!” Everyone is jealous. Everyone wants the details.

Researchers recommend that those seeking sounder sleep drink less caffeine, less alcohol and banish TV-watching while in bed. But my friends and I, unwilling to give up these coping mechanisms, share alternative sound-sleep secrets. For instance, when you awake at 3 in the morning to answer the call from “The Man from Blad,” don’t fret when you can’t fall back to sleep after this bathroom visit.

Instead, turn on the Don Imus show on MSNBC. Something in the tone of his voice resets the sleep waves in our brains – I’m not kidding. And it’s not because Imus is boring. He’s not.

Listening to Don Imus in the wee hours of the morning is a radical solution to our sleep problems. Belenky offered a more conventional remedy, especially appropriate for this Perry Como week.

He said, “If you feel drowsy, take a nap.”