Does Your IQ Reflect How Much Sleep You Require

Do you find yourself drowsy in the middle of the afternoon? Are you falling asleep while watching your favorite sitcom after supper? If so, you may be finding your sleep bank is running a little short. As I found myself in this position lately, I began to wonder if there was a relationship between smarts and sleeping.

After taking an On Line IQ Test , a number of which can be found by doing a search on “IQ Test”, I found myself ranking a more then respectable 127. Further, I determined that under the best of circumstances I work at an adequate level if I sleep on average about 6-7 hours per night. If my sleep is interrupted to any serious degree, (anything that requires me to get out of bed) more then one night in a row, I tend to need some catch-up Zeeee’s to get back on track.

A close relative is a Medical Research Doctor teaching at a prestigious University on the East Coast. For the past +20 years he has operated at a very high level of intellectual capacity averaging about 4 hours of sleep a night. This man is smart, and very busy. You would think accumulating a sleep deficit would be causing problems for him. None the less, on he goes, like the Energizer Bunny, flying all over the world to speak, and attend conferences.

At the other end of the equation is my dog, an 18 year old Yourkie/Pomeranian. This dog is Dumber then a rock, absolutely Zip for brains. I have no idea how you would test the IQ of a dog, but I’m convinced his ranking would be pretty low. How much sleep does he get, you ask? Oh, somewhere in the 20 hours per day range. If he stands still for more then 30 seconds, his eyes will slowly shut and there he will stand, sleeping. Usually he heads across the living room at his usual speed of slow crawl, and forgets where he was headed. As his eye catches sight of his bed, (a low cardboard box complete with pillow and blanket) he will just give up and stumble in and seemingly pass out. Snoring like a ripsaw, he won’t move again for a number of hours. By the way, he has three beds spaced throughout the house, so he doesn’t have to look far for a place to sleep.

We’ve all got that one neighbor, you know the one. He’s not particularly motivated. Dragging his lazy butt to work just often enough to avoid having his favorite couch repossessed right from under him while he sleeps away. Returning to consciousness for the soul purpose of getting another cold one from the fridge so he can watch the start of the NASCAR race on TV. Only to be snoring away at about the 10th lap mark, and only finding out who won by reading the sports section the following day. With all that sleep required to function his IQ rating is probably closer to my dog then to my Doctor relative.

As has been reliably stated by the scientific community, the average Dinosaur’s brain was the size of a pea. An adequate statement of their intelligence, or lack there of. It seems a safe hypothesis that they spent most of their life sleeping. The rest spent obviously eating as some of them where pretty good sized old boys. Assuming they were all asleep when that big block buster rock impacted the earth back a gazillion years ago, it’s easy to see how they became extinct. They missed the boat, and didn’t seek shelter. Like the thousands who died when the volcano buried Pompeii, they were fast a sleep.

It’s safe to say, this research concerning sleep vs intellect has little or no scientific basis and I’m sure the facts shown would be scoffed at by JAMA or any other prudent medical publication. In retrospect I find the whole subject a little tiring, I think I’ll go take a nap.