This is topic 9 - 3 - 9 -3 ... or other weird sleeping patterns in forum Books, Films, Food and Culture at Hatrack River Forum.


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Posted by Jhai (Member # 5633) on :
 
It's that time of year again for college students - when every major project and paper is due, and you have to present on every one of them, despite not having the time to shower. I find that, when this stressful time of year comes around, I fall into a pattern of catching three hours at a go, then staying up nine or ten before catching another nap. My REM cycle seems to last about 3 hours and 20 minutes, actually, so my naps are a bit longer than 3 hours. It seems to work best for me, since I get the most "awake and truly productive" time for the amount of time I'm sleeping.

Does anyone else work on this, or other odd sleeping schdules, for short time periods? Over the long-haul? Am I taking off a year of my life every week I do this to my body (sure feels like it...)?
 

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Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
 
Since I started working the night shift, at the beginning of August, I've been getting to sleep between 9:30 and 11 am, and waking up at 3 pm. And I try to get a nap between 7 pm and 9 pm before I go back to work.

I seem to be doing OK on this schedule.
 

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Posted by crescentsss (Member # 9494) on :
 
I'm a junior in a private Jewish HS - meaning double the curriculum and triple the workload. When crunch time comes I usually function on 5 hrs of sleep and loads of caffeine.

I seem to not be doing OK on this schedule.
 

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Posted by Icarus (Member # 3162) on :
 
I sense an impending thread derail . . .
 

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Posted by Jhai (Member # 5633) on :
 
I went to a public HS in the heart of Silicon, filled with Asian and Jewish kids. I feel your pain crescentsss - my junior year was so tought that I cut my senior year short by graduating early, and ran off to work in Europe before college. (No offense to either group - they just tend to be very academically focused.)

And, yes, coffee is the king of drinks. I have mine inky black, and no less than 16 oz. per serving. That adds another thing to my list - should I be worried on surviving on mainly the cookies they bake in the library, coffee, tea, and taco bell?
 

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Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
 
They bake cookies in the library?

Are they at least literary cookies, like madeleines and, uh, gingerbread men?
 

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Posted by Jhai (Member # 5633) on :
 
The cafe located near the front of the library does. It was an evil genius who came up with the plan, because you can edit: smell the delicious cookies baking across the entire 1st floor.

[ December 03, 2006, 02:51 PM: Message edited by: Jhai ]
 

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Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Jhai:
you can the delicious cookies baking across the entire 1st floor.

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I've never tried canned cookies. Are they soggy, like canned green beans?
 

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Posted by crescentsss (Member # 9494) on :
 
O the calories
 

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Posted by Frozenoak (Member # 9454) on :
 
I have an odd sleep patern that has developed for no particular reason. I get tired around 8pm most days so I lay down. I always seem to wake up (and I mean the full alertness of a full night sleep wake up) at 10:30pm. I do a lot of my forum surfing and preping for the next day for the next couple hours. Around 2am I get tired again so I lay back down. when my alarm goes off at 4:30 I am ready for the day. There are some days I take a short nap during lunch (11am) for 10-20min but thats not very often.

dale
 

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Posted by Dasa (Member # 8968) on :
 
You should try Polyphasic Sleep when you have about one month for adjusting time. It is awesome if you can pull it off. There is even a Yahoo group for it. People there have all sorts of weird schedules .

Personally, 20 min naps work best for me. So does a biphasic schedule like two 3 hour sleep sessions, spread over the day. On a light diet, especially in the evenings (say only fruits in the evening), 4-5 hrs of sleep is not hard to maintain.
 

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Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by crescentsss:
I'm a junior in a private Jewish HS

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quote:

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Originally posted by rivka:

quote:

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Originally posted by crescentsss:
I'm a junior in a private Jewish HS

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I hadn't realized. I thought you were older.

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What can I say... I'm mature for my age

quote:

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Good luck -- junior is absolutely the hardest year, IME. If you can survive this, you can survive anything!

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quote:

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Originally posted by kojabu:
Polyphasic Sleep doesn't seem incredibly healthy to me. But I'm also not an expert on sleep.

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Nor does it to me, or to this guy, who is a sleep and memory expert.
 

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Posted by Shanna (Member # 7900) on :
 
My REM cycle is similar, about 3 1/2 hours. If I get a full four hours though, it throws off my body.

I've been known to go a couple of weeks on three hours of sleep a night. Naps aren't good for me. I need my rest during dark hours. I have a mask for when I HAVE to nap during the day, but those naps tend to tire me out more.
 

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Posted by Hank (Member # 8916) on :
 
I have major problems studying at night for some reason--probably my loud and (mildly) obnoxious housemates--so As I get closer to exams, I usually start going to bed earlier and earlier (6-8 pm) and getting up earlier and earlier (3-5 am).

That way I get to do all my assignments early in the morning, with no distractions.
 

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Posted by breyerchic04 (Member # 6423) on :
 
crescentss, my friend asked what private jewish school.
 

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Posted by Flaming Toad on a Stick (Member # 9302) on :
 
I'm a freshman in university. In an engineering program. I don't even have a set sleeping schedule, I just do my best to fit my sleep around everything I do and catch up on sleep on the weekends.
 

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Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
 
He has three final esses. And I'm guessing the omission of the school name was deliberate.

(Not that I'm not also curious.)
 

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Posted by dantesparadigm (Member # 8756) on :
 
I'm also in the category of juniors with a heavy class load, and the added benefit of being both a procrastinator and a perfectionist.

I tend to get about three hours of sleep a day, an hour or two when I crash after school (3pm), and then a short nap from four or five am until six, when I need to be up for school. I haven't run into any physical problems yet, and the mental stress is almost certainly due to other factors. I usually end up spending nights of assisted insomnia furiously working on one project or another.

There'll be plenty of time to sleep when I'm dead, which, something tells me wont be far off if I keep this up.
 

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Posted by Frisco (Member # 3765) on :
 
I have a 4-month-old. My sleep schedule is 2-.75-.5-2-oh forget it, I'll just take a cool shower.

Not that it was all that normal before I was a father.
 

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Posted by Celaeno (Member # 8562) on :
 
I'm a binge sleeper.

It generally works for me.
 

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Posted by Lyrhawn (Member # 7039) on :
 
I usually sleep 4am - 10am or so on most nights, with occasional naps here and there as my body demands it.

Come finals time, that might stretch to sleeping from 5am-930am or so, but doesn't usually vary too much. I'm not a big coffee drinker, and the one and only time I ever used it to pull an all nighter, it did weird things to me, and I haven't had any since. Hot Chocolate is a better stimulant if you ask me. I tend to not get super stressed out around finals time, don't know why, since everyone else seems to, though I expect that to change as my number of history classes rises and my number of easy blow off GenEds diminishes.
 

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Posted by Jhai (Member # 5633) on :
 
I don't get stressed about finals, I get stressed from all of the projects/papers/presenations that are all due one after another. Finals week is actually really relaxing - just show up each day and take a test or two.

Binge sleeping works for me too - except I do need to get about 12 straight hours every weekend, which hasn't been happening recently.
 

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Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by rivka:
He has three final esses. And I'm guessing the omission of the school name was deliberate.

(Not that I'm not also curious.)

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quote:

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Originally posted by Jhai:
I don't get stressed about finals, I get stressed from all of the projects/papers/presenations that are all due one after another. Finals week is actually really relaxing - just show up each day and take a test or two.

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quote:

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Three esses? Solomon Schechter School?

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