One sort of alternative sleep schedule I’ve practiced on occasions that enables me to get more active hours for a few days in a row without being too sleepy is going to bed later and later each day and sleeping fewer hours than usual. Normally, if I go to bed at my usual time and wake up after, say, five hours, I’ll be sleepy, irritable, and unproductive all day, and after a few days of sleeping less than 7 hours or so, I’m good for nothing. But if I go to bed very late and wake up sometime after my regular waking time, I feel much better, so that constant pushing ahead of both bedtime and waking up time enables me to sleep much less for several days while feeling tolerable.
Of course, this is practical only when working on projects where you don’t need to coordinate with others. Also, it probably wouldn’t work for many other people, especially those who become extremely sleepy late at night, and who wake up easily and full of enthusiasm in the morning. (Whom I envy—I always find it hard to fall asleep in the evening, getting up after less than ~8 hours of sleep is for me sheer torture, and after waking up I’m slow and sluggish for at least an hour.)
My sleep ‘schedule’ is something like this, in practice. I go to sleep when I’m tired and get up when I wake up and am no longer tired, without worrying about the clock at all, and I’ve been doing so for 2 years now. My days usually last between 23 and 28 hours, and seem to run longer, not shorter, when I’m stressed or busy, both in terms of the length of time from the start of one sleep to the start of the next and in terms of the awake:asleep ratio.
I find the exact opposite works for me: if I normally go to sleep at midnight and wake up to an alarm at seven (which is not an unusual pattern for me), if I go to bed at 11pm, I tend to wake up between 5am and 6am, well before my alarm. To a point, the earlier I go to bed, the stronger the effect is, so going to bed at 9pm will usually have me up and refreshed at 1am or 2am, and I feel like I’ve slept “for the night”.
Thats interesting. Do you have to keep pushing later and later, or does a fixed offset give you this benefit?
I ended up in this routine fairly recently and was quite surprised how functional I was on so much sleep debt- given how worthless I feel when waking up a couple hours early. There were other factors that might be at play, but I hadn’t considered this one.
Thats interesting. Do you have to keep pushing later and later, or does a fixed offset give you this benefit?
For the same number of reduced sleeping hours, I feel much better if I’m pushing both bedtime and waking up time later and later each day. But even if I wake up at my regular time, the loss of the first few hours of sleep hurts far less than if I were waking up that much earlier, at least for the first two days or so.
One sort of alternative sleep schedule I’ve practiced on occasions that enables me to get more active hours for a few days in a row without being too sleepy is going to bed later and later each day and sleeping fewer hours than usual. Normally, if I go to bed at my usual time and wake up after, say, five hours, I’ll be sleepy, irritable, and unproductive all day, and after a few days of sleeping less than 7 hours or so, I’m good for nothing. But if I go to bed very late and wake up sometime after my regular waking time, I feel much better, so that constant pushing ahead of both bedtime and waking up time enables me to sleep much less for several days while feeling tolerable.
Of course, this is practical only when working on projects where you don’t need to coordinate with others. Also, it probably wouldn’t work for many other people, especially those who become extremely sleepy late at night, and who wake up easily and full of enthusiasm in the morning. (Whom I envy—I always find it hard to fall asleep in the evening, getting up after less than ~8 hours of sleep is for me sheer torture, and after waking up I’m slow and sluggish for at least an hour.)
My sleep ‘schedule’ is something like this, in practice. I go to sleep when I’m tired and get up when I wake up and am no longer tired, without worrying about the clock at all, and I’ve been doing so for 2 years now. My days usually last between 23 and 28 hours, and seem to run longer, not shorter, when I’m stressed or busy, both in terms of the length of time from the start of one sleep to the start of the next and in terms of the awake:asleep ratio.
I find the exact opposite works for me: if I normally go to sleep at midnight and wake up to an alarm at seven (which is not an unusual pattern for me), if I go to bed at 11pm, I tend to wake up between 5am and 6am, well before my alarm. To a point, the earlier I go to bed, the stronger the effect is, so going to bed at 9pm will usually have me up and refreshed at 1am or 2am, and I feel like I’ve slept “for the night”.
Thats interesting. Do you have to keep pushing later and later, or does a fixed offset give you this benefit?
I ended up in this routine fairly recently and was quite surprised how functional I was on so much sleep debt- given how worthless I feel when waking up a couple hours early. There were other factors that might be at play, but I hadn’t considered this one.
jimmy:
For the same number of reduced sleeping hours, I feel much better if I’m pushing both bedtime and waking up time later and later each day. But even if I wake up at my regular time, the loss of the first few hours of sleep hurts far less than if I were waking up that much earlier, at least for the first two days or so.