Sex, Sleep & the City

Although Aramis, Porthos, Athos and D’Artagnan sound like the names of French perfumes used by the many lovers of Miranda, Carrie, Samantha, and Charlotte in the TV series Sex and the City, they are actually the invincible heroes who conquered fame, fortune and love in Paris in the XVII Century from the story of The Three Musketeers.

Almost 300 years later, new Musketeers became part of our XXI Century culture. Yes, four extremely intelligent, active and attractive women once again set out to conquer fame, fortune, and love, but this time in the “city that never sleeps” New York.

While there are many things in common between our French heroes of the XVII Century and the intrepid girls of Sex and the City, there are also some profound differences in the way they live their lives. These differences help us to understand some of the challenges we face today.

Probably the most important difference in the daily lives of people from the Musketeers’ era and people of today is the access we have to electricity. This has changed what we eat, the way we work, the way we communicate, the way we express our feelings, the way we transport ourselves, the amount of movement we need to do in order perform our daily activities, and very importantly the time we can spend awake. Yes, while Miranda, Carrie, Samantha, and Charlotte can phone each other at 9:00pm, decide to catch a “cab” to meet at 10:00pm in a bar in town, dance to a never ending CD, vent their personal miseries with each other, and maybe “score” around 3:00am, in the days of the Musketeers, it became very dark and quiet after 8:00pm.

We can trick ourselves, but we can not trick our bodies and souls. In the last 100 years, we have dramatically changed the way we live and this is one of the main reasons why millions of people suffer of illnesses like depression, obesity, diabetes, cancer, strokes and heart attacks; the main killers in the developed world. Our bodies and minds are the product of over 7 million years of evolution. Sleep is an integral part of this evolution of who we are and of what we need to survive and thrive. We need sleep to heal our physical and emotional wounds.

Unfortunately, like slow eating, or a walk in the park with our loved ones, or an afternoon of contemplation and meditation, sleep has become something we do very little of. Nature and science say the opposite. Science tells us that sleep is an essential and vital element for a healthy, happy, and productive life. In a study performed by the Harvard University¹, it was established that only 100 years ago, people slept an average of 9.5 hours per day. Today, the average is 7.5 hours per day. This means that a person with an average lifespan of 80 years will sleep around 2.5 years less… Do you really think this is healthy? Probably not!

How many hours should we really sleep? The number varies from person to person and changes with age. While newborns require 18 hours of sleep per day, some elderly healthy people require only six to seven hours. We must understand that it is vital that we sleep for an appropriate length of time and under the best possible conditions.

As for our sexy New York lovers and our charming French heroes, they may have lived in different times but they definitively have something in common, the famous slogan from the Musketeers:

“All for One and One for All”.

Sources
¹ Improving Sleep: A Guide to a Good Night’s Rest, Harvard Medical School, The President and Fellows of Harvard College Copyright © 2007, p11.

Register to attend a “Healthy Sleep for a Better Life” seminar »