"For quite a while now I have been reading a book called "A Pattern Language." This is an architectural book about best practices in building. I have found the book absolutely fascinating, and this week read the 5 page chapter 138 "Sleeping to the East." To quote from the introduction "This pattern settles the position of the bedrooms by placing them to face the east, and thereby complements the effect of indoor sunlight, which places the more public rooms towards the south." It goes on to state "This is one of the patterns people most often disagree with. However, we believe they are mistaken." Doesn't start of sounding like a best practice, does it?
Continuing, the text reads "Our human organism contains a number of very sensitive biological clocks. We are creatures of rhythms and cycles. Whenever we behave in a way which is not in tune with our natural rhythms and cycles, we run a very good chance of disturbing our natural physiological and emotional functioning. Specifically, these cycles have a great deal to do with sleep. And the cycle of the sun governs our physiology to such an extent we cannot afford to sleep out of touch with this cycle. Consider the fact that the body reaches its lowest metabolic activity in the middle of the sun's night, at about 2 A.M. It seems very likely, then, that the most nourishing kind of sleep is a sleep whose curve more or less coincides with the curve of metabolic activity - which is in turn dependent on the sun."
"It has recently been shown by Dr. London at the San Francisco Medical School, that our whole day depends critically on the conditions under which we waken. If we wake up immediately after a period of dreaming (REM sleep), we will fell ebullient, energetic, and refreshed for the whole day, because certain critical hormones are injected into the bloodstream immediately after REM sleep. If, however, we wake up during delta sleep (another type of sleep, which happens in between periods of dreaming), we will feel irritable, drowsy, flat, and lethargic all day long: the relevant hormones are not in the bloodstream at the critical moment of awakening."
"Now obviously, anyone who is woken by an alarm clock, will sometimes be woken in the middle of delta sleep and will, on those days, have a lethargic day; and will sometimes wake up just after REM sleep and will, on those days, have an energetic day. . . . Now the only way to make sure that you wake up at the right time, with the closure of REM sleep, is to wake up naturally. But you can only wake up naturally and in accordance with the other, larger cycle of metabolic activity, if you wake up with the sun. The sun warms you, increases the light, gently nudges you to wake up - but in a way that is so gentle, that you will still actually wake up at the moment which serves you best, that is, just after a dream."
This pattern goes on to say: "We believe, in short, that this pattern is fundamental to the process of having a healthy, active, energetic day - and that anyone who rejects this pattern on the grounds that he does not want to be woken by the sun, is making a serious mistake about the functioning of his or her own body. . . . And finally, the matter of the view from the bed is worth mentioning. People look out in the morning to see what kind of day its going to be. Some views give this information very well; others not at all. A good morning window looks out on some kind of constant object or growing thing, which reflects the changes of the season and the weather, and allows a person to establish the mood of the day as soon as he wakes up." In conclusion, the authors give the following as a summary: "Give those parts of the house where people sleep, an eastern orientation, so that they wake up with the sun and light. This means, typically, that the sleeping area needs to be on the eastern side of the house; but it can also be on the western side provided there is a courtyard or a terrace to the east of it."
It is absolutely fascinating the amount of discussion this "best practice" resulted in during the week. Since our bedroom is on the eastern side of the house, I tested the idea by simply opening the southern of the three blinds in our room half way before going to bed the night after reading this best practice. Andrea's response was it was like we were sleeping outside. It was absolutely fascinating the difference this simple act made in our lives. I'm curious to know if this concept has any relevance to any of your lives. One thing I learned this week is that sleeping to the east might not be as important as chess. Colby made 11 moves, Roice made 18 moves, and Rob made 2 moves this week.
On Monday I worked at Layton's office from 10:00-4:00. I stopped to see Dick Coons on the way home regarding his East Cameron prospect. This is a time low and depth high because of shallow gas velocity push down makes it a time low. Dick thought there was a side track which would show it was actually a depth high. Turns out the side track was below the area of interest, and did not provide the proof Dick hoped for. When I got home there was the following note from Melanie:
I responded with:
"Melanie,
Go to http://nelson.walden3d.com. or http://hafen.walden3d.com, find the words PedigreeResourceFile and it has the presentation I put together for the Hafens and the Nelson. Interview next Monday?
Love,
Dad"
Melanie then responded with:
I can not resist a specific request like this. So I will call anyone who requests I call. However, it will not be every week, and I will not compete with non-Sabbath activities, specifically for those who do not request I call.
Tuesday included a couple of e-mails with Kjell Finstad. Basically his terms were not of interest to Dan Layton, and so we passed on his Edwards County opportunity. I was at the office from 10:30 until 4:00. Doug Harless called and we caught up. He has someone who might be interested in Robonat, or what I am now calling AquaRobonautSM (see 0906.html). On Wednesday Doug confirmed a demonstration with Steve Trollopp and himself on the 10th of February at NASA. I was at Layton's offices from 9:30-1:30. Wulf sent some information on making bread in Andrea's new "dutch oven." The same type of things continued on Thursday. I was at Layton's office from 10:00-4:00. There was some effort to confirm the meeting with Doug, after getting NASA approval. I started to build a Robonaut website. I also received an e-mail giving me a connection to http://www.growutahventures.com/, a group supporting Angel Investors in Utah. Probably most important was that Heather sent out a link to a paper describing what she is working on, which I think sounds really neat:
On Friday Dave Agarwal sent an invoice for the time Les helped me solve problems to Randy. I did not have permission for this, and so I contacted Dave and Les and got it subtracted from money they owe me for work done by Emerald Resources. I was at Layton's offices from 10:00 until 3:00. Since I was home early, Andrea and I went to see a movie: "Last Chance Harvey." Reminded me of me. The divorce and the kids stuff was pretty poignant. Cute movie. More for someone my age than for you kids.
Saturday I did not do my exercises because I knew we would be working outside all day. Andrea and I went for our Saturday morning walk around the block. We have been very good at doing this for several months. I did write an e-mail to Ed Rogers about good news and less favorable news, basically asking him for time to pay a pretty large outstanding legal bill. Then I moved all of my rocks out of the Rock Garden, and started to pull the red volcanic rocks out and wash them off. It turned into a very long process which took over a week to finish up. I also trimmed the Mimosa trees by the garage. I was tired when we quit.
Sunday morning was getting ready for my Sunday School class, and then going to choir practice. Jim Jensen was walking up the aisle, and I invited him to sit with us. He told me he had intended to call me and tell me how much he enjoyed the lesson I taught a few months ago. He could not remember what it was about. I reminded him it was about forgiveness, and he told me this wonderful story about a female boss he had in Denver who treated him well, and treated all of his co-workers very harshly. He really got to dislike her and it became hard to go to work. His dad, the elder Jim Jensen, told him he needed to pray for her. He did, and finally he prayed for forgiveness for his feelings towards the lady. Over time he saw his attitude change, and realized the power of prayer and forgiveness. Then he said, "I sure miss my Dad. You know I was a great-grandfather, and I would still call my Dad up and ask him for advice." This conversation did a nice job of setting the spirit for Fast & Testimony Meeting. Morgan Bancroft bore a wonderful testimony. And I can think back to how hard of a time she had doing this the first time. Then President Steward bore his testimony, and I captured a possible stanza for Prime Words:
I invited Collins and Barbara Stewart to attend the first part of my Sunday School class. I started the class out with the song I wrote based on one of President Steward's Stake Conference Talks (see Scriptures). They liked the song, and stayed for the entire Sunday School class. President Steward asked what I meant by the line about "Words hinting at the mysteries of God, The circle and the square and when to applaud." He then answered his own question by asking if it had to do with the temple.
The Relief Society had a Visiting Teaching Conference, and so several of us were drafted to help with Primary. I had the responsibility for Primary Sharing Time. I took our family photo from the front entrance and let the kids choose a person in the photo and then I sang a song from my book. The young Sister Hutchings started off by selecting Andrea. I sang "A Song In My Heart." Then Jonathan Schmidt chose Matt, and I sang "Sir Matthew Charles." This was followed by Morgan Bancroft selecting me, and I sang "Alone." Then Ben was selected and I sang "Benjamin's Song." Next was Rob and I sang "The Tank." The final selection was Sara Ellyn, and I sang the song named "Sara Ellyn." I wrote about this experience in my monthly letter later in the evening. I guess I'm repeating myself a bit with the Thoughtlet. The monthly letter said:
So normally I would end the first thoughtlet of the month here. However, the rest of the story regarding sleeping to the east is not so pleasant, and I still think it is appropriate to share it. It turns out that the extra light in the room from leaving th blind half way up kept Andrea awake. Since she gets up at 4:30 AM every morning to do her exercises before getting getting ready and leaving to teach Seminary, she does not do so well if she has not slept very well. So Andrea insisted the blinds be closed before we went to sleep. I disagreed, stating it would only take a few days to get used to the blinds being up, and we had one of the more heated discussions we have had recently. Since it was so important to her, I left the blinds down the next night. So when she was ready to leave for seminary, she decided to lift the blinds up for me. She did it with one quick movement, and if you can imagine the impact of that unexpected sound on someone fast asleep. My response was neither soft nor kind. So the snide comments in conversation about how good or how poorly we were sleeping continued for several days, simply because of an architectural best practice named sleeping to the east."