What is the best sleeping schedule?

[geormiet]

I graduated from school and went pro about a month ago. At the same time my live in girlfriend left the country for about 2 months, so I'm living on my own.

This is the first time in my life where I'm not being told when to wake up every day (either by a job, school, or girlfriend). As a result, I have been going to bed later and later. This past week I've been falling asleep around 5-6AM and waking up between 1 and 2.

There are advantages and disadvantages:

Advantages:
poker games are better late at night.

I get to watch a lot of quality infomercials, such as Billy Blanks Boot Camp workout video.

Disadvantages:

-It feels like there are fewer hours in the day. The hours between 2-6AM are totally useless to me.

-I feel incredibly lazy and lethargic waking up at 2PM

- Since nobody I know stays up so late, I'm spending 1/3 of my waking hours complete devoid of social interaction by default.

- Even though the games are good, I usually end up playing only 3-4 hours/day because of my laziness. I was hoping on getting 6-7.


Today for some bizarre reason, I woke up at 9, after falling asleep at 5AM. On a whim I decided to not go back to sleep, and instead walked outside to get a coffee, and I've decided to start playing poker now, despite the crappy games.

Despite only 4 hours of sleep, my energy level right now is much higher than usual.

If you have no reason to wake up at a certain time every day, when do you choose to sleep, and why?

[Uston]

One forgot one huge disadvantage to going to bed at 6AM: people are 100x more likely to annoy you when you're trying to sleep. Phone calls, Jehovah's witnesses knocking on your door, neighbors using leafblowers, etc.

[jstnrgrs]

Until recently, I worked from 3-11pm. While I had this job, I usually sleped from 6am to 2 pm, and it sucked. I had no life whatsoever, and after about a year of this, it was really having an effect on me. I also found myself unable to change the pattern. Things are much better now that I have a job that starts at 8am.

I recomend that you get up early if you can. If you can't, then I would work on a 25 or 26 hour rotation so that you will at least be up for the good parts of the day sometimes.

[Alobar]

Im pretty much exactly like you. If left to my own devices, I will usually get in a schedule where I fall asleep around 6-7am and get up around 3-4pm.

All the reasons you listed as disadvantages are all the reasons I now force myself to keep a decent sleep schedule. Its hard, but im much happier when I get up early (before 10am).

[RunDownHouse]

Disadvantage: humans aren't nocturnal.

[A_C_Slater]

Two Zen students were standing at the edge of a river. One of the students turned to the other and said "My master can write the name of the Buddha on a piece of paper with his finger while standing on the other side of the river."

Upon hearing this the other student replies "That's nothing... my master eats when he's hungry and sleeps when he's tired."

[youtalkfunny]

I go to sleep when I'm sleepy, and wake up when I'm ready. Which, for me, means sleeping from approx 4 AM to noon.

Letting the clock dictate your bedtime, instead of your body, just seems so damn unnatural to me.

("Unnatural". That's funny. With all Big Macs I eat, suddenly I'm worried about what's "unnatural".)

[Popinjay]

[ QUOTE ]
I go to sleep when I'm sleepy, and wake up when I'm ready. Which, for me, means sleeping from approx 4 AM to noon.

Letting the clock dictate your bedtime, instead of your body, just seems so damn unnatural to me.

("Unnatural". That's funny. With all Big Macs I eat, suddenly I'm worried about what's "unnatural".)

[/ QUOTE ]

Actually it's only "unnatural" if you've accustomed your body to that schedule. Many people actually do get tired at 11 and sleep until 8. It's probably more unnatural to spend more of your waking hours in the night darkness.

[The4Aces]

look up the uberman sleep schedual

[blaze666]

sleep is for suckers. i am in school, and i get very fustrated that i have to go to bed so early (about 10 or so) so i just get up very early and play poker. on the weekends i aim to get in at least 20 hours of being awake a day. so i go to bed at 2am and wake at 6am.

[Popinjay]

[ QUOTE ]
look up the uberman sleep schedual

[/ QUOTE ]

Uberman's Sleep Schedule (http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=892542&lastnode_id=124)

This is extremely interesting and I am strongly considering trying this out over the summer.

[rocketlaunch]

My favorite sleep schedule is whenever the heck I want until whenever the heck I want. Like others, this puts me on a 5-6am - 1-2pm sleep schedule, and that suits me just fine.

But I might be in the minority. I enjoy having a few hours each night of almost total solitude--I can read, play poker, play games or whatever else I want almost completely free of distractions. Also, unlike others, I've never in my entire life been able to function properly on a schedule that has me regularly waking up before 10am. And believe me, I've tried.

[Anders_G]

I'm pretty much the same, except I have one-off events that force me up in the morning which leaves me with a lot of days where everything seem's like you're recovering from jetlag.

also, the lack of social life is (somewhat) compensated by irc an oot, which obv. is a bad thing..

[Burt Reynolds]

Burt Reynold say get 8 hours of sleep a night. Burt Reynold like sleeping with the ladies. Burt Reynold like a good fist fight before heading off to bed.

[swede123]

Pretty weak gimmick account there boy. Squeal like a pig.

Swede

[Burt Reynolds]

????

[pshreck]

[ QUOTE ]
????

[/ QUOTE ]

I imagine the first time you have heard of Burt was in the remake of The Longest Yard.

He was in this little know movie called Deliverance, also.

[Russ McGinley]

Where's the Turd Ferguson gimmick account?

[Blarg]

[ QUOTE ]
My favorite sleep schedule is whenever the heck I want until whenever the heck I want. Like others, this puts me on a 5-6am - 1-2pm sleep schedule, and that suits me just fine.

But I might be in the minority. I enjoy having a few hours each night of almost total solitude--I can read, play poker, play games or whatever else I want almost completely free of distractions. Also, unlike others, I've never in my entire life been able to function properly on a schedule that has me regularly waking up before 10am. And believe me, I've tried.

[/ QUOTE ]

Very hard for me, too. It's definitely affected my working life.

I get a huge burst of energy around 8 p.m., and it's probably my highest energy point for the day, another at around 11 p.m., and another at 2 a.m.. No matter how much sleep I've gotten or how it's distributed I almost never feel anywhere near as energetic as I do at those times, and all of those make it hard to get to sleep. I'm just a natural night-owl in a world built for day-owls ... or whatever.

I can almost always easily stay up until at least 4 a.m., but despite many years of having a normal schedule enforced by work, I've rarely had much energy at all during the day, whether it's been at work or school.

Melatonin can help reset the biological clock, and can even make you a little sleepy all by itself. Taking it one hour before bedtime is supposed to be the way to use it. I've got some, but often I'm so energetic that taking it an hour before an idealized sleep time would be ridiculous -- I have very little confidence in being able to suddenly shut down between 11 and midnight, which is where I normally get a big burst of energy.

When my time is my own, I generally become a total night owl, sleeping during the day and waking dring the late or mid afternoon.

[Fabian]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
look up the uberman sleep schedual

[/ QUOTE ]

Uberman's Sleep Schedule (http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=892542&lastnode_id=124)

This is extremely interesting and I am strongly considering trying this out over the summer.

[/ QUOTE ]

If you do, I'd love to hear how it's going, how you feel, etc. Please tell OOT /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[edtost]

As GuyOnTilt once said:

"Since I don't have too many time constraints or daily responsibilities, I kind of just go to sleep when I'm sleepy and wake up when my body feels like it. This puts me on about a 26 to 28 hour day, which means there are often times when I'm going to sleep at 10:00am and waking up at 6:00pm. It doesn't bother me too much, but it does suck when I feel like lunch and there's no place to go and no one to go with 'cause it's freaking 3 in the morning."

I'm sure this post was absurdly long ago, but I have it saved as an away message so posting this was trivial.

[geormiet]

It sounds like a good idea in theory, but I don't think it would work me. The hours between 2-8 AM are not as valuable as other hours to me because

a) nobody else is up

b) I never feel like being productive during these hours, regardless of how tired or awake I am.

[HtotheNootch]

Sleep when you're dead.

[goofball]

[ QUOTE ]
I go to sleep when I'm sleepy, and wake up when I'm ready. Which, for me, means sleeping from approx 4 AM to noon.

Letting the clock dictate your bedtime, instead of your body, just seems so damn unnatural to me.

("Unnatural". That's funny. With all Big Macs I eat, suddenly I'm worried about what's "unnatural".)

[/ QUOTE ]

ding ding din gding.

Best thinig about being a poker pro. I sleep when I'm tired. For a few days in a row that could be 9pm -5am, and other days in a row it could be 8am -4pm. I sleep when I'm tired and get up when I no longer want to sleep.

[somethingstupid]

7 hrs/ night

[Moyer]

I've been on the "sleep when I'm tired" schedule for a while now and I think it sucks. I stay up later and later every night. I also end up sleeping a lot. I truely despise alarm clocks, but sleeping 10hrs a day for no reason is just sick. It's just not productive for me.

The solution I want to try is to set my alarm clock w/ some decent music at around 10am. Then exercise regularly so I actually want to go to sleep before 3am.

[Reef]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
look up the uberman sleep schedual

[/ QUOTE ]

Uberman's Sleep Schedule (http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=892542&lastnode_id=124)

This is extremely interesting and I am strongly considering trying this out over the summer.

[/ QUOTE ]


[ QUOTE ]
How it Works and Why It Might Work For You.

Okay, over the course of a normal 8-hour sleep, your body gets an accumulated 1.5 hours or so of REM sleep (deep, dreaming sleep). REM sleep is absolutely vital to your mind and body's condition and you will die without it; the other stages of sleep do little more than provide time for the body to rest and grow and heal.

[/ QUOTE ]

ugh, just thinking about doing this sounds painful.

forget about trying to build muscle if you're on this sleep system. Also, if you're sick, this will definetaly suck ass.

[smurph]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
My favorite sleep schedule is whenever the heck I want until whenever the heck I want. Like others, this puts me on a 5-6am - 1-2pm sleep schedule, and that suits me just fine.

But I might be in the minority. I enjoy having a few hours each night of almost total solitude--I can read, play poker, play games or whatever else I want almost completely free of distractions. Also, unlike others, I've never in my entire life been able to function properly on a schedule that has me regularly waking up before 10am. And believe me, I've tried.

[/ QUOTE ]

Very hard for me, too. It's definitely affected my working life.

I get a huge burst of energy around 8 p.m., and it's probably my highest energy point for the day, another at around 11 p.m., and another at 2 a.m.. No matter how much sleep I've gotten or how it's distributed I almost never feel anywhere near as energetic as I do at those times, and all of those make it hard to get to sleep. I'm just a natural night-owl in a world built for day-owls ... or whatever.

I can almost always easily stay up until at least 4 a.m., but despite many years of having a normal schedule enforced by work, I've rarely had much energy at all during the day, whether it's been at work or school.

Melatonin can help reset the biological clock, and can even make you a little sleepy all by itself. Taking it one hour before bedtime is supposed to be the way to use it. I've got some, but often I'm so energetic that taking it an hour before an idealized sleep time would be ridiculous -- I have very little confidence in being able to suddenly shut down between 11 and midnight, which is where I normally get a big burst of energy.

When my time is my own, I generally become a total night owl, sleeping during the day and waking dring the late or mid afternoon.

[/ QUOTE ]


I'm pretty much the same except for the melatonin part, don't know what that is.

[Moyer]

[ QUOTE ]
ugh, just thinking about doing this sounds painful.

forget about trying to build muscle if you're on this sleep system. Also, if you're sick, this will definetaly suck ass.

[/ QUOTE ]

My thoughts exactly. Also, I'm not sure I could pull it off w/out some caffeine, nicotine, effedrine, yohimbine, speed, etc.

The rumor that DaVinci slept this way does interest me though. The guy supposedly had a great physique.