Half-awake Holidays.

I've never been exactly what you would call a "morning person. Most days I'm far more alert and (unfortunately) far nicer at 10:00 a.m. than I am at 8:00 a.m. While this may surprise you, it comes as no shock at all to my wife or the people with whom I work.

My body rhythms tend to make me more productive (and more pleasant) in the afternoons and on into the evenings. When I'm facing a deadline on a project, it's not that unusual for me to be working at a computer until 10:00 or 11:00 p.m. This is in direct contrast to my assistant. She likes to get to the office before the sun, then tends to fade a bit as quitting time nears. It makes for an interesting office dynamic. I hear her busily working every morning as l sort of shuffle into the office. Around 10:00 or 11:00 in the morning, our productivity levels start to match up for a while. Then late in the day she starts to do quiet things, while I make progress on my "To Do" list.

With 10-hour days at work, additional work at home, family responsibilities, and a little recreation, 18-hour days are not at all uncommon for me. I do find that six hours of sleep in a night just isn't quite enough some nights, particularly as I've moved into my late 40s. And now there's a new study about sleep deprivation that has caused me to reconsider just how far I should be pushing my day.

Australian researchers had volunteers perform a number of tasks that measured various physical and mental reaction times, accuracy, coordination, and attention span. Once baseline measurements were established for each person, volunteers began either consuming alcohol or intentionally depriving themselves of sleep. Researchers found that after an average of 17 to 19 hours with no sleep, volunteers' scores on most of the tasks had dropped below the scores achieved by those volunteers whose blood alcohol level was beyond the legal limit to drive a car.

This study's authors say that fatigue is a factor in almost two thirds of all road accidents in the United States. And with the holiday season now upon us, this information takes on added significance. If your holidays are like mine, all the added socializing, celebrating, shopping, and other errands will make your days last longer. Even if you're someone who normally sleeps eight hours per night, holiday demands will almost certainly encroach on your rest, perhaps putting you at the same sort of risk level in which these volunteers found themselves.

Clearly, there are serious consequences to getting swept up in the "holiday hurricane." I know that rest during the holidays is a novel concept for some of us. But I'm planning to go to bed a little earlier whenever I can during the next few months. After all, it's better to be asleep safe at home than asleep at the wheel.