Topic: It's a geek thing, we don't like wasting time! (Read 6253 times)

Probie · « **on:** May 20, 2009, 09:11:51 AM »

Many of my geek friends have bags under their eyes and some avoid getting jobs because potential boss's don't 'get' their body clock. How do you sleep yours?...your sleep that is?

Banshee · « **Reply #1 on:** May 20, 2009, 09:22:01 AM »

I get about 6-7 hours. It's barely enough.

I need more sleep, but I feel like going to sleep before 12 is for the weak. I usually am in bed by 12 and asleep by 1.

I need ample amounts of coffee in the morning. Not just to wake up though, I just like coffee a lot. Sometimes a bit too much.

Joe Sixpack · « **Reply #2 on:** May 20, 2009, 09:39:26 AM »

I have a 4 week old baby. What is this "sleep" you speak of?

Probie · « **Reply #3 on:** May 20, 2009, 09:46:03 AM »

I shift between 8 and 10 hours sleep or I am useless.

Joe, I feel your pain. When I'm out partying on the weekend I only get about 3 hours a night. teehee.

No seriously, that's harsh. But you get lots of joy too!

Banshee · « **Reply #4 on:** May 20, 2009, 10:03:20 AM »

Congrats Joe!

Glad to see you're still hanging around.

Wunderkind · « **Reply #5 on:** May 20, 2009, 11:46:41 AM »

There isn't an, "I sleep when I'm lucky (read: insomnia)," option.

*whines*

Min · « **Reply #6 on:** May 20, 2009, 03:16:32 PM »

I love my sleep. But my job starts at 7 so I have to be up at 5:30. I usually am in bed between 9:30 and 10. I hate being up so early. I'm not good at it.

Someday I'll be able to take my summers off. Someday.

Socrates · « **Reply #7 on:** May 20, 2009, 03:19:31 PM »

Quote from: Detta on May 20, 2009, 03:16:32 PM

I love my sleep. But my job starts at 7 so I have to be up at 5:30. I usually am in bed between 9:30 and 10. I hate being up so early. I'm not good at it.

Someday I'll be able to take my summers off. Someday.

After a while you get used to it. I'm up at 5:30am during the week and sleeping until 6:30-7 feels like I way overslept and I'm being lazy.

In bed around 9-9:30ish.

Min · « **Reply #8 on:** May 20, 2009, 03:20:44 PM »

How many years before I get used to it? I've been doing it for about 3 1/2.

jeee · « **Reply #9 on:** May 20, 2009, 04:48:49 PM »

I'll sleep when I'm dead.

Demosthenes · « **Reply #10 on:** May 20, 2009, 07:28:08 PM »

I have a sleep disorder. Have gone through two sleep studies, have tried everything every doctor I've had has recommended, but you just can't argue with metabolism, as it turns out.

Here's how it works for me. My body's chronometer thinks the time to sleep is between the hours of 3:00 AM and 11:00 AM or so. I really only need 7 to 8 hours of sleep per night, but it apparently needs to be in that particular timeframe, or else it doesn't happen very effectively.

A typical day for me starts at about 7:00 AM when I get up for work. I drag ass into the shower, stumble through finding my clothings, and if I'm lucky, I make it to work without forgetting something important (like shoes, or my wallet, or my phone or something) because I'm 3/4 of the way unconscious.

Around 11:00 AM or noon or so I suddenly snap awake and I'm usually pretty good for the rest of the day.

Then at around 11:00 PM I force myself to go to bed. I then proceed to toss and turn for 2 to 3 hours, and if I DO fall asleep during that time, it's very light, and doesn't typically last longer than a half hour at a time or so.

Then around 3:00 AM, if nothing has awakened me from the really light sleep I might have before that (if I'm lucky), I start sleeping deeply.

4 hours later, it's time for me to get up for work again, alarm clock blaring right next to my head, waking me from the sleep of the dead.

Repeat.

Doesn't matter when I go to bed, doesn't matter how tired I am, this person apparently does not sleep well until about 4:00 AM, generally speaking. If all goes well, I get between 3 and 4 hours of solid sleep per night. The only time I've ever gotten the sleep I need on a regular basis was when I was working a 2nd shift-type job where my working hours were from 2:00 PM until 11:00 PM-ish. Those years were the only time of my adult life where I had a job to which I did not show up every day mostly unconscious. Heck, during those years, I never even used an alarm clock. Didn't need one.

I'm just not a morning person, apparently.

Chris · « **Reply #11 on:** May 20, 2009, 09:15:54 PM »

On my days off I typically get about 8 hours of sleep. Or I at least try to. On days that I have work, I usually get about 6 hours, and sometimes, when I have to be awake at 2am for work on days that I open, I get about 3 hours of sleep, and go for about 24 hours straight on that little "nap".

I think we can all kind of relate to one another on this topic. Who knows, maybe us humans will adapt and in the future we'll only really need 5 or 6 hours to be full "rested".

Socrates · « **Reply #12 on:** May 21, 2009, 07:02:30 AM »

Quote from: Detta on May 20, 2009, 03:20:44 PM

How many years before I get used to it? I've been doing it for about 3 1/2.

For me? I've been getting up about that early for 5-6 years now and it only really sunk in the last couple of years when I started jogging in the mornings.

I really feel like I'm missing something if I didn't get out there with my dogs and see the sunrise, or early dawn anyway since the suns up at 5:20 now.

BizB · « **Reply #13 on:** May 21, 2009, 07:36:54 AM »

I run in the evening. I wish I could drag my sorry ass out of bed early to go running. Once I'm comfortable and horizontal, though, the last thing I want to do is get up and go run.

I get 7 hours of sleep per night, typically. I sleep from 12 to 7am. If I sleep past 7, I feel like I've wasted part of the day.

Chris · « **Reply #14 on:** May 21, 2009, 07:38:36 AM »

Quote from: BizB on May 21, 2009, 07:36:54 AM

I sleep from 12 to 7am. If I sleep past 7, I feel like I've wasted part of the day.

That's exactly how I feel. If I sleep more than about 8 hours on my day off, I feel as though it's gone to waste.

RelandR · « **Reply #15 on:** May 21, 2009, 07:31:45 PM »

During my working years I typically slept 9 or 10 p.m. to 4a.m. ~ish ... I loved the 2 or 3 hours I'd have to myself every morning.The outside world just waking up but being relatively void of other humans had a certain magical aura to it.

I've (the last few years) transformed into a night owl, sleeping on the installment plan where naps are mandatory.

I miss the former schedule nostalgically but lack the initiative/energy/whatever to shift back into that gear ... I guess I'll have to make some shit up to con myself back into it.

Probie · « **Reply #16 on:** May 22, 2009, 07:24:10 AM »

I really want to be the type of person who run at like 6am everyday. I'm just not I'm lazy, it sounds good in theory, I'm a pretty good runner, I just cant be arsed.

12AX7 · « **Reply #17 on:** May 24, 2009, 12:07:19 AM »

I'm definitely what you'd call polyphasic. I sleep in blocks of about three or four hours, whenever the crash occurs. Since I work overnight four nights a week, these blocks usually occur during the day. On my tme off, I can't sleep the entire night. I still sleep about three or four hours, and come wide awake. I also can't really predict when those sleepy times will show up. When they do, there's no way for me to resist for very long. If I'm driving, I pull over, stop, and take a nap. Usually 15 - 20 minutes gives me enough to get home safely.

I'm also a diagnosed (in 1997) narcoleptic, with extreme (if left untreated) cataplexy. I'm on 40mg of Paxil a day to keep the cataplexy at bay. The Excessive Daytime Sleepiness; another symptom of narcolepsy, I used to treat with Vivarin (or some caffeine pill); now, since I work nights it's not much of an issue. I have all day to be excessively sleepy; but since I've butchered my circadian rhythm over the last nine years, the EDS only hits for about three or four hours at a time. Hence my polyphasic sleep.

12AX7 · « **Reply #18 on:** May 24, 2009, 12:51:15 AM »

Also, here are some links to information on Narcolepsy and Cataplexy for those of you interested. I must point out that in my own case, cataplexy is brought on by emotions (usually laughter); but it only appears when I miss my meds, or if I am running a really big sleep deficit. Normally, in day-to-day life, it doesn't occur. I can also tell far in advance if Im in that "zone". There is a very distinct 'feeling' one gets; similar to the head-swimming you get if you've been lying down for a long time and suddenly get up fast. It's also accompanied by a mild sensation similar to a shock, or the sensation one gets if your limb falls asleep and is waking. If I turn my head and feel any of these symptoms, I know my cataplexy is about. If I haven't missed my meds, then I know I NEED to go get some more sleep. So it's not as if this sneaks up and suprises me. I've never had an attack that I didn't already expect was coming. I'm kind of glad I'm that way, because it seems not all of us with narcolepsy are so lucky. In the youtube vid I posted, for example, the only way I would be that bad off is to stop taking my meds for a couple/three or four days.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlVUV3pKz_I#noexternalembed

http://med.stanford.edu/school/Psychiatry/narcolepsy/symptoms.html

http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Cataplexy

pbsaurus · « **Reply #19 on:** June 01, 2009, 02:51:29 PM »

I've kept to strange schedules all my life. I've been a vampire, worked swings, worked early mornings, worked nights, worked graves. My son will be e years old on July 13 so for the past couple of years sleep has been pretty random. He is usually up at 6am +/- about an hour. He usually goes to bed sometime between 8 and 9 and will fall asleep either immediately or keep himself awake for a couple of hours (last night he fought it until after midnight and didn't wake up until 8 this morning). Sometimes I'll fall asleep while watching Backyardigans with him before his bedtime. Other times I won't be able to get to sleep until midnight or even later. On days off I love to take naps, if he does, but those are few and far between. Adding complexity are concerts. Since almost always they're in Santa Cruz or SF, I usually don't get home until around 2am.

So in a nutshell, my sleep is pretty irregular. I get anywhere from 3 to 9 hours of sleep with an abnormal distribution. The mean would probably be between 6 and 7 hours with a large standard deviation.

Semiotica · « **Reply #20 on:** June 09, 2009, 03:31:22 AM »

Quote from: Demosthenes on May 20, 2009, 07:28:08 PM

Here's how it works for me. My body's chronometer thinks the time to sleep is between the hours of 3:00 AM and 11:00 AM or so. I really only need 7 to 8 hours of sleep per night, but it apparently needs to be in that particular timeframe, or else it doesn't happen very effectively.

A typical day for me starts at about 7:00 AM when I get up for work. I drag ass into the shower, stumble through finding my clothings, and if I'm lucky, I make it to work without forgetting something important (like shoes, or my wallet, or my phone or something) because I'm 3/4 of the way unconscious.

Around 11:00 AM or noon or so I suddenly snap awake and I'm usually pretty good for the rest of the day.

That's my case, I'm quite productive at night (I used to study during nights, being sleepy at mornings and fucking useless at midday-afternoon). If I had had a nice sleep (which is absolutely a matter of luck), I like to be awake early and enjoy mornings (usually cause it's quiet and peaceful), but if not I'm such a zombie till 12 or so, when I start to be "conscious". At work it's always an adventure cause I'm doing things in this zombie way...

I would love to have a job which allows me to wake up late and maybe work till late (that's no problem if I enjoy what I'm doing, which is my present situation). I really don't get why there's such a reinforcement of waking up and start to work so early based on the "fact" that people are more productive during this dayperiod.

However, there are plenty of times that I'm awake till 01.30-02.00 at night when I have to wake up at 07.00, it's disgusting but I can't help it!

mryellow · « **Reply #21 on:** June 09, 2009, 11:21:37 AM »

Nice one Semiotica, I'm also much in favour of picking your own working hours. Unfortunately I don't see that happening if your work involves any kind of interaction with clients... you can't just change the world that easily and people expect to be able to reach you between certain hours.

I've had a bad period where I suffered from some kind of insomnia, the contradictary one: I felt tired pretty much all the time, yet when I took my time to sleep, it wouldn't come or it would be extremely light. Can't explain it, it's gone now and I don't understand that either. I can't recall any major changes I've made. Or actually, changed too many parameters at once and back again, I can't know which one or ones did the trick. Or even if it was just a coincidence.

Nowadays I get up early (5.30) and meditate of sorts for about 20 minutes. Laugh all you want, it seems to work for me. It's basically more like a bit of timed/conscious day dreaming. It really helps to start the day fresh, calm & focussed for me and that's why I take the time and keep doing it most days. The downside to starting work relatively early is that you ought to get to bed early as well (22.00) and that I don't like: evenings/early nights are for leisure time! Practically I get by with 6 1/2 - 7 hours of sleep, although I do sometimes take a power nap early in the evening... that could be 'old' age though

At work my peak hours seem to be early mornings, I try to get the tough stuff done before lunch because I dip off slightly in the afternoon.

I've also noticed that, despite what you might expect (or again for me anyway), caffeine is not helpful at all. It merely makes the peaks slightly higher and the lows a LOT lower. If you drink a lot of coffee it may be difficult at first, but I found my overall focus to be quite good and consistent without any caffeine at all. God I sound like a health guru now!! To make amends for it, I am very lazy with sports. I prefer to prevent getting fat over working hard to get it off again, that's really my only motivation to watch what I stuff in my body

The key basically is... take care of your body. You can only ignore it for so long before your crash and burn or at least take on a zombie-like appearance.

Semiotica · « **Reply #22 on:** June 09, 2009, 03:41:29 PM »

Mryellow, I think I do meditate as well but in a different way: I always put my alarm clock 30' before so I can stay at bed half an hour more while stopping the alarm every 5'. It's little bit nonsense but it seems to work for me. I wake up "in fascicles".

But... I must confess that... I'm a coffee addict! I've tried to give it up and actually I've been without drinking coffee almost for half a year. But it's just that I love how it tastes! When I haven't drunk coffee for a long time I have really noticed it, I'm more active, with more energy and "conscious" at mornings, but then I meet a friend at a cafe and I can't help it... I ask for a coffee! (Snif). Actually I have to say that when I went to Utrecht I was trying to give up coffee once more, but then I started going out with friends in there and it started all over again.

The thing that works for me the most is to wake up at least two hours before the time you have to go out, have a shower, have a quiet breakfast and take some fresh air walking a little bit (it works if you go to a kiosk in order to buy a newspaper) or just sitting in a balcony. The worst (and the usual...) is to wake up with half an hour to have a quick shower + coffee-toast and then rush having just one eye open. Uf, that's my everyday morning.

The kind of insomnia you had seems to me a "Daytime hypersomnia" which probably started as a result of a "Conciliation insomnia". It's actually pretty common to have those two at the same time as a vicious circle. If it happens again to you, you could try to do some sports in the afternoon which are believed to work for this ;P

I think a want a very specific kind of job which should allow me to have my favourite schedule: to have a Book store like "Black Books"! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3tFEoWNv50#noexternalembed).

CranesNotSkyHooks · « **Reply #23 on:** June 09, 2009, 06:47:12 PM »

I hate sleeping so much, I'm so jealous of those assholes who can get with like one or two hours of sleep of night. Lucky sons-of0bitches-...grrrrr...

I wonder what do during all that time? Hmmmmmmm....

Probie · « **Reply #24 on:** June 10, 2009, 03:48:18 AM »

Quote from: CranesNotSkyHooks on June 09, 2009, 06:47:12 PM

I hate sleeping so much, I'm so jealous of those assholes who can get with like one or two hours of sleep of night. Lucky sons-of0bitches-...grrrrr...

I wonder what do during all that time? Hmmmmmmm....

watch porn.

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Author Topic: It's a geek thing, we don't like wasting time! (Read 6253 times)

12AX7

12AX7