Technology Causing Sleep Deprivation

It all started last night, or should I say, this morning. I happened to glance at the time on my computer as I was finishing up my latest article for Associated Content and noticed that it was after 12 AM. I knew I had to get in the bed and get some sleep or I would be out of luck because my little one would be up sooner than I would like. Normally she stays up late and sleeps in but on this particular night she went to bed early. I shut all of the computer equipment down and head off to bed. Of course, I need to wind down so I turn on the television. I settle on a sermon from a fiery preacher whom I love to hear preach and before I know it, it's now a little after 1:00 AM. I turn off the television and fell into a wonderful sleep.

In no time at all my little one and I are wide-awake and in a state of panic because our house alarm was going off. After searching the house and not being able to find anything wrong, I turn off the alarm. I figured a battery must have been dying somewhere since I didn't hear anything from my security company. I was finally able to locate a phone number for the security company and give them a call hoping that they could tell me why my alarm was going off. The agent was able to walk me through a few steps and we were able to locate the problem. It seems that one section of the house's alarm system had found a "memory". Whatever that means! So I then go through all the steps of resetting my house alarm system. The time you ask, well it's now 4:00 AM. Now here we are and I'm writing another article while my daughter is watching television because we're both a little nervous about falling asleep again just to be wakened by the alarm system. Technology at it's finest!

Do you remember when everyone went to bed at the same time? You couldn't stay up and watch television all night because even the people at the broadcasting stations went to bed. Broadcasting for the evening was always done on or before midnight and there was nothing on, not even infomercials, until the morning news aired. Computers were available later on but it's that dang Internet that keeps us awake. Sometimes I find myself just staring blankly at the screen, all the time knowing I should be in the bed. Home alarms well they had them and I even think they were a bit more effective. A shotgun by the door and a big loud dog used to do the trick with no monthly payments or installation required. Phone calls in the middle of the night and early morning hours, well whoever heard of being able to call someone in the middle of the early morning hours and actually talking to someone who was already awake.

No wonder our generation is sleep deprived. Don't be surprised if you too see a real life zombie in your daily travels or even in your mirror. I guess somehow I'll manage to stumble through the day and go to bed early tonight. I forgot though that there's a movie I haven't seen coming on at 11 tonight, oh well, maybe I'll go to bed early tomorrow night.