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Claims my Russian wife won't even deign to laugh at
If you get up late in the morning on weekends, you must think sleep is very valuable. And if sleep is very valuable, that means we should go to bed early. Because if you go to bed early, you always have the option of sleeping later -- that is sleeping more -- and getting even more sleep than if you had gone to bed late. (You can't just shift your sleep into any hours block you want, given the coordination issues.) And if sleep is very valuable, the option to sleep more must be valuable as well. Therefore it's time to go to bed. Now. Early.
No response was forthcoming. The argument, of course, gets at whether "sleep" or "postponement" enters the utility function as the final good. There are some economic papers on procrastination, but overall postponement, or for that matter its closely allied cousin "preemption," is an understudied topic in economics.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on February 16, 2008 at 06:50 AM in Philosophy | Permalink
Comments
Well this is a subject I have considerable expertise in. I can assure you that the utility here is not sleep per se, but the pleasure of not getting out of bed, of going back to sleep, and the avoidance of the discomfort of waking up early. None of this utility would be had by simply going to sleep early. Due to the way the biological clock works, sleeping in late means waking up at a later hour than usual.
I think procrastination is more relevant in the case of going to sleep early, where that is probably a big factor. But the bottom line is that we postpone things we don't want to do, and we often don't want to go to sleep early.
Posted by: ben abuya at Feb 16, 2008 7:38:15 AM
If one's had an unusually unsatifying day, does the opportunity costs of going to bed early arise sooner and starker?
Posted by: TomG at Feb 16, 2008 8:00:18 AM
This advice assumes that you can fall asleep when you want to.
Posted by: Jacqueline at Feb 16, 2008 8:43:55 AM
There are two other compelling reasons to continue sleeping. For one, when I am having a pleasant or intriguing dream, I would rather see it through (erotic dreams especially, of course, but I don't control their frequency). Second, the temperature gradient is quite unpleasant: perfectly warm sheets vs. a patchily heated apartment. If my shower was within leaping distance, the barrier to awakefulness would be much lower (this could be Markets in Everything subject perhaps).
You may ask how I handle getting out of the perfectly warm shower back into my patchily heated apartment. Valid point. The hot water tank gradually empties out; then the patchily heated apartment doesn't seem so bad after all.
Posted by: Martin at Feb 16, 2008 8:58:43 AM
You tend to sleep when your opportunity cost is the lowest. On weekends there is an active nightlife and a dull morning. This is the antithesis of the weekdays, so you redistribute your hours of sleep accordingly.
Posted by: Justin Ross at Feb 16, 2008 9:17:03 AM
cf. idle theory: least action principles :P
cheers!
Posted by: glory at Feb 16, 2008 10:28:07 AM
"If you get up late in the morning on weekends" is much too broad. As previous comments have pointed out, if you're sleeping the same amount, but prefer the activities available at 11 PM to those available at 8 AM, there's no mystery. Nor, I would argue, is there anything unexplained if you shift sleep from the week (when you have many conflicting demands on your time) to the weekend (when you don't). Then there's the issue of whether you can simply choose any hours to sleep that you want to, or whether your body seems to have preferences when it comes to a sleep routine.
So a more modest claim would be something like "If you can set your own hours and sleep as long as you wish during the week, and have no preference between night-time and early-morning activities, and you still choose to sleep extra hours on the weekend, then you must think sleep is very valuable and should go to bed early."
Posted by: Joshua Macy at Feb 16, 2008 11:37:27 AM
In my experience it doesn't matter if I get six or nine hours of sleep, I still pretty much the same throughout the day, so it makes no difference to me when I go to bed. Getting up will be just as unpleasant in any case.
Posted by: Nick M. at Feb 16, 2008 11:48:46 AM
Most people have a circadian rhythm of around 25 hours - not 24. Left to their own devices, without sunlight cycles or work cycles, they would go to bed later and later and wake up later and later each day. The marginal utility of an hour of sleep at bedtime is not the same as the marginal utility of an hour of sleep in the morning - at bedtime sleep doesn't always come easily, and it can be boring lying around waiting to feel sleepy. In the morning - and not every morning, just some - when the body's clock urges one on to grab more sleep - the utility of that extra hour is substantial. There is no equivalence, for most people, between the pleasure or benefits of going to bed an hour early, and waking up an hour late.
Posted by: Paris at Feb 16, 2008 12:55:39 PM
Most people have a circadian rhythm of around 25 hours - not 24. Left to their own devices, without sunlight cycles or work cycles, they would go to bed later and later and wake up later and later each day. The marginal utility of an hour of sleep at bedtime is not the same as the marginal utility of an hour of sleep in the morning - at bedtime sleep doesn't always come easily, and it can be boring lying around waiting to feel sleepy. In the morning - and not every morning, just some - when the body's clock urges one on to grab more sleep - the utility of that extra hour is substantial. There is no equivalence, for most people, between the pleasure or benefits of going to bed an hour early, and waking up an hour late.
Posted by: Paris at Feb 16, 2008 12:57:31 PM
Tyler...it's 130pm and I just woke up. Good timing for such a post!
Posted by: Yana at Feb 16, 2008 2:30:36 PM
And, indeed, it's *2:30* and I've just woken up. Beyond the different marginal utilities of 8am and 2am (I assure you 2am on Friday night/Saturday morning is more fun than 8am on Saturday), might I also propose some hyperbolic discounting? My Friday Night self certainly preferred staying up, even if my Saturday morning self might have preferred Friday Night to call it a day. David Laibson would approve.
Posted by: cure at Feb 16, 2008 2:45:54 PM
Actually, if you wake up late on weekend mornings, it could just mean you don't value the things to do on a Saturday/Sunday morning. I'd rather sleep a bit more than catch Meet the Press. The only reason someone would think sleep is valuable if you sleep in is someone that thinks weekend morning activities are valuable. That population is probably very small.
Posted by: Mo at Feb 17, 2008 1:46:56 AM
Obviously, none of you are the mothers of young children, who delight in awakening at dawn no matter the day, and demand parental attentions. The problems that economists would solve, if they were non-male, would probably NOT include a discussion of how to value or not value sleeping in on the weekend. Surely there are more pressing issues to be solved?
Posted by: A_Female_Brain at Feb 17, 2008 2:22:17 PM
I'd say the opposite is in fact true! I hate waking up, but I love going to bed LATE. In fact, the two are usually related! I wake up feeling angry and frustrated, telling myself "Tonight, go to bed on time!!!" ... Yet when the night comes... I'd rather watch the news and have a scotch.
Posted by: Watch_Chenin_Blanc at Feb 17, 2008 4:04:44 PM
Utility comparisons for weekends in which you sleep late:
staying up late > sleep > waking up early
Posted by: brent at Feb 17, 2008 4:14:44 PM
Emmanuel Levinas has a nice essay on weariness and indolence, and its phenomology (how it is experienced), and takes it as a relationship to existence ; which offers some philosophical insights, but who knows, maybe some economic ones too.
``The Relationshp with Existence and the Instant'' in _Existence and Existents_ (trans Alphonso Lingis)
Posted by: Ron Hardin at Feb 18, 2008 11:00:49 AM
Utility? I am not sure how the concept of utility can be applied to something as sleep. You need to read this first and then reframe your ideas (if it is even possible).
Posted by: Coturnix at Feb 18, 2008 12:42:53 PM
From a sleep medicine point of view, keeping to a set schedule is important in maintaining adequate sleep hygiene. Without good sleep hygiene, there is a tendency towards insomnia. Older people are especially vulnerable to this as there are more internal factors driving arousals out of sleep.
Posted by: Kevin Hunter at Feb 20, 2008 3:50:55 PM
From a sleep medicine point of view, keeping to a set schedule is important in maintaining adequate sleep hygiene. Without good sleep hygiene, there is a tendency towards insomnia. Older people are especially vulnerable to this as there are more internal factors driving arousals out of sleep.
Posted by: Kevin Hunter at Feb 20, 2008 3:52:02 PM
Female Brain's comments above are so dead on.
Actually, they make me sad, because there are so many males commenting on these boards, and so few females. The site is enriched by the greater depth different perspectives provide, particularly from the other 50% of the population.
Posted by: female brain is right at Apr 2, 2008 9:09:33 AM
