I wonder if anyone has had the foresight to do a study in sleep deprivation in the days following the release of a Harry Potter book. I can quantify the impact on our family. For example, if 15 was the potential total number of days to be provided to the work force by our family last week, we were one day short, directly the result of sleep deprivation, directly the result of reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Although my children are teetering between adolescence and young adulthood, the arrival of the final book of the Harry Potter series was just as exciting as the shelf stocking of the past books in this sequence which entered their lives when they were many years younger. One family member, he/she who will not be named (to spare him/her embarrassment), one night read till 3:00 a.m. and went off to work the following day with only three hours sleep. This was day two in a forty hour a week job that includes an hour’s commute each way. By day four, after two more incomplete night’s sleep, he/she was run down, from exhaustion, and called in ’sick.’
Through the week, other characteristics of sleep deprivation were evident. Moods were testy and I found myself repeating one of my maternal mantras, "OK, can we all just settle down? Let’s just get through the week." Of course, this time, ‘the week’ is not finals week, or a sports event week, it’s Harry Potter week.
Now, in and around all this, there are also the boundaries of Harry Potter etiquette to be monitored. These rules of behavior have been established through the years. They include the expection that there is to be civil discourse about whose turn it is with the book, and that scheduling of reading times will be worked out in fairness and peacefully, and that I am to be called to referee only as a final measure. Additionally, no one at any time may speak about the book until all family members have read the book. (However, it is ok for those who have finished the book to discuss it far from the earshot of those who have not read it.) And, no one, by sigh or cry, is to give away any plot events.
I tell you with a straight face, these rules of engagement add not a small measure of stress to a sleep deprived household. But, last week, we passed with flying colors, well, except for the missed day of work. Other than that, no tempers were released, no car accidents occurred, no personal injuries were incurred (standard repercussions of sleep deprivation).
Perhaps, to keep the details of this informal study accurate, I should say that, as always, I am last to read the book. And, I just cracked it open last night and peeked in! So, the study isn’t really complete yet. I’m good at metering out parental advice during Harry Potter week. I talk a good talk about reading during the day and sleeping at night, about knowing when you just have to break away, about how a person should not let one thing cause imbalance in all other areas of their life, etc. I admit here, that hard as I try, I’m no better than my children at following my own advice during Harry Potter week.
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Write a Comment»The sleep deprivation was tolerable because of all the excitement, now big let down because I know it is the last book. I enjoyed the book, but I will miss all the anticipation waiting for the next in the series.
I so agree about missing the anticipation of another HP book. I’m consoling myself with the realization that my memory is so bad that the first few books of the series will seem brand new when I read them again! Also, do you really think JKR will sit on her laurels? I don’t.