Moody

It started with a "late" night (11:30pm arrival home on a Tuesday constitutes late in my world) at Cirque du Soleil with my girlfriends. The show was fun and all of us were glad we'd been able to work it into our schedules. We'd had dinner beforehand and I was happy to just have gotten a little bit of time in with the two of them (B is moving in a matter of weeks and I'm afraid I'll cease to function properly).

The show ended and Maria (a martyr when it comes to the "who's driving this time" game) set us on our way. "Philadelphia is a pretty city," B said as we cruised down 16th toward Center City. I had to agree. I like Philly quite a bit. It's the perfect size; easily walkable but with lots of neighborhoods, hidden gems, great restaurants (where you don't need to call a month in advance for a reservation...except maybe Le Bec Fin), lots of parks, and beautiful old buildings (and some pretty neat new ones). Even though I grew up here, went to school here, hope to attend law school here, and work here, I have no desire to leave. I can picture myself using Philly as my home base for a long time.

I felt happy about the evening I'd just had as I drove home from B and Mo's house, thankfully not hitting all my usual traffic lights. It was a little after 11:30pm when I wandered up to my room, took off my make-up, brushed my teeth and turned out my light as I got into bed. Too bad I was wide awake. I closed my eyes and thought happy thoughts; I got into my most comfortable position and started "clearing my mind and paying close attention to my breath" (the method recommended by yogis everywhere). Nothing was working. I peaked at the clock: 12:04am. Damn. I'd already made up my mind not to get to up to jog the next day, but that still only left me with a little over 6 hours to sleep.

Eventually I did fall asleep and I cursed my alarm as it softly lulled me awake (after I'd naturally woken up at 5:30 and cursed my incredibly accurate internal rhythms). I rolled out of bed, showered, dressed and headed downstairs. The tea kettle was already on and softly whistling. "I figured you'd be tired so I put the kettle on for your tea," my mom said as I looked at the kettle. Instead of expressing how grateful I was in an appropriate manner I grunted at her and brooded through breakfast.

By the time I got to work I knew that everything and everyone was going to piss me off. And lo and behold, they did! My bank/credit card company pissed me off; my coworkers pissed me off; anyone who called pissed me off; simply being pissed me off. After a little reviving lunch-time walk during which Rachel and I both expressed our sadness over no longer being in school, I had an idea. I started to wonder if anyone had ever studied the effects of acute sleep deprivation on mood. Calling back my psychological research skills I logged onto Temple's library's site and started looking.

There was only one article that matched exactly what I was looking for and I couldn't find the full text. Fortunately the abstract let me know what I was wondering: even just a few hours of lost sleep with depress one's affect the following day. It is exacerbated if the individual is stressed/anxious (which I am). Bingo. Not getting enough sleep had made me a complete sour-puss and I was glad I wasn't seeing anyone I liked that day. Interestingly, I found three other articles that piqued my interest: one on the effect of face-to-pillow contact on mood (this is the one I'm most excited about reading. The abstract says that if you sleep in a position where you have maximum facial exposure to the pillow--i.e. on your stomach or side--you tend to be in a worse mood than the person who has minimal facial exposure to the pillow--i.e. the back sleeper), the second article was about mothers who share a bed with their baby and mood (mother's who share beds with their babies tend to have worse moods than those who sleep separately), and the third was about the effect of bringing home work (or working late) on one's relationship.

If I didn't fully know it before this exercise confirmed it: I am definitely a nerd. Researching psychology articles lifted my mood the way nothing else seemed able to. Now I'm even more impatient to get back to school (and try to sleep more on my back and make sure I get enough sleep at night and not bring home work. The sleep on the back thing is going to be hard...)!