Our 24/7 Society
Today we have the
benefits of a fast-moving and productive society that offers 24-hour
services, instant communication, convenience stores, credit/debit
cards, and state of the art technology � and we use caffeine and energy
drinks, fast food and fads, diet and recovery programs, medical
professionals and HMOs, and the latest breakthroughs in pharmaceuticals
to help us keep up and fix us up if our bodies break down. And break
down they do.
As our society has become more and
more automated, we have also lost one of the most healthful habits our
ancestors adhered to every day: getting up and going to sleep with the
sun. Take a look at the satellite imagery depicting the lighted areas
of Earth at night. We have truly become a 24/7 society!)
This depiction of the Earth is an
eloquent testament to our global civilizations determination to both
provide a safe environment at night for its citizens and to attempt to
increase the labor productivity of those same citizens. At the same
time, the availability of virtually endless nighttime entertainment
options, as well as the ability of well lighted streets and buildings
to provide safe access in urban areas virtually around the clock, has
created a phenomenon never before experienced in the history of
civilization: sleep deprivation.
Sleep deprivation causes a whole host
of problems: decreased productivity; weight gain due to increased
consumption of sugar laden "energy" foods; increased usage of
caffeine-containing foods and beverages; and increased susceptibility
to accidents, are among the major factors.
Not unexpectedly, Corporate America
has taken full advantage of this situation by creating a working day
which now stretches literally around the clock. As we have extended the
length of the effective working day, in some cases reversing day and
night for many of the American workforce, we have simultaneously
imposed an ever greater stress load on those same workers. Every night
shift worker, no matter what he or she does, is subject to the same
debilitating factors. The only difference is a matter of degree. The
harder our society tries to become more "productive," the more people
we expose to these conditions.
Unfortunately, the effects of our 24/7
society go way beyond a simple shortening of life spans. The health
care industry has watched with varying degrees of alarm over the last
several decades as our young girls have begun menstruation at earlier
and earlier ages. There are a couple of factors at work here: one is
the prevalence of xenoestrogens in our society; they have an
accelerating effect on sexual development. But equally influential is
the gradual speeding up of our biological clocks by the change in the
ambient light levels of our civilization. Some studies now contend
that, due in large part to around-the-clock light exposure, the daily
circadian rhythm has decreased to as little as 20 hours; the
implications for all of us are sobering. Assuming this data is
accurate, it means that for every ten calendar days we live, we
actually age twelve days. For every month we live, we age 36 days. For
every year we live, we age a year and one fifth. For every decade we
live, we age 12 years! Project these figures over a lifetime, and we
see the truth of chronic stress increases the rate at which we age, and
decreases the age at which we die.
|
