How many of us don’t get enough sleep each night? Raise your hand. Mine is high up in the air and waving around madly.

My husband and I often look at each other at 1am as we finally climb into bed and ask, “Why are we still up so late?” And really we have no answer, other than we just don’t feel like going to bed. It seems like such a waste of my precious free time.

You read all the studies about how 8 hours of sleep or more is ideal. People who get adequate sleep are less likely to be overweight. Why this is isn’t exactly clear, but maybe it is because those late night hours are most often sedentary and snack filled. I know that can’t just be me.

According to an article that was in the Washington Post in 2005, failing to get enough sleep increases the risk for a variety of major illnesses, including cancer, heart disease, diabetes and obesity, recent studies indicate. Most people need between about seven and nine hours, with studies indicating that an increased risk for disease starts to kick in when people get less than six or seven, experts say.

But now a new study that was just written about in the NYTimes, has made a connection between adequate sleep and the ability to learn.

The results, Dr. Tononi said, suggest that after sleep “we get a leaner brain — there’s a gain in terms of energy, space and supplies, and you are ready to learn anew.”

It seems to make sense. How many times as parents do we say about our kids that they are cranky because they were up too late. Or in the case of my children, they have trouble settling down because they are overtired. or they can not concentrate because they need a nap. Yet, when it comes to ourselves we often stay up too late and then drink caffeine in hopes of being more alert. But it turns out that we are just hurting ourselves.

I want my brain synapses to work properly. I really do. So I can learn new things. (And perhaps this is an explanation for why I can not seem to learn to work my Blackberry, yet my 11 yr old son can do it just fine.)

Now to just find out how to squeeze two hours into the other 16 hours of the day.  That shouldn’t be too difficult, right?