I'm varying my sleep habits week by week to see what works best for me.
Right now I'm sleeping eight hours when I get home from school, doing my homework when I wake up, and then whatever else I need to take care of before school.
The only real problem is the difficult transition to weekends. Also, if I have a bigger workload, normally I stay up later--can't do that now, my time limit's more definite.
After this, I'm switching to a set of eight one-hour cat-naps rather than a straight eight hours of sleep.
Has anyone else experimented with this? What were your results?
Posted by Tarrsk (Member # 332) on :
I wouldn't recommend the cat-naps. You need the REM sleep that only begins after several hours of sleep; not getting it can result in serious health problems (not to mention that you'll be completely exhausted during the day).
Personally, I tend to be a night person- I don't like falling asleep before midnight, and often stay up until 3-4 am on weekends. I aim for a minimum of seven hours of sleep, although depending on when I need to get up, this varies from 6-9 hours from day to day. It's definitely not the healthiest of schedules (although way better than your "eight catnaps a day" strategy ), but it keeps me going, and I sleep in really late on weekends to recharge.
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
quote:Originally posted by Joldo: I'm varying my sleep habits week by week to see what works best for me.
Changing your sleep habits that frequently will likely have more of an effect than any of the schedules you might experiment with.
Posted by Jhai (Member # 5633) on :
I've somehow gotten into a completely messed up sleep schedule. Some nights I won't sleep at all, and then just grab a few in the morning or early afternoon. Occasionally I'll sleep for about three hours in the afternoon then three more from six to nine in the morning. As long as I sleep in step with my REM cycles (i.e. sleep in multiples of 1.5 hours), I'm good.
Ah, college life.
Posted by Euripides (Member # 9315) on :
I have never tried it myself, but for the above reason (REM sleep is so important!), eight cat naps are a Very Bad Idea. Also, it'll break up your day into small chunks of probably not-as-productive time.
If you go to school and have a huge workload, I'd recommend more time management and priotization. Then stay up as long as you need to in order to finish what must be done. Weigh the consequences and take into account the loss of concentration you'll suffer the next day if you sleep too little. A six hour minimum rule is a good idea. I've gone for long stretches of time on 5 hours, which is okay but doesn't keep you quite as sharp. Your 8 hours is optimum if you can afford it. I may have soaked in more information if I had followed it.
Not that I'm particularly good at prioritising myself; I walked into a lecture theatre yesterday on one and a half hour's sleep, which is the worst ever. Thankfully it was an interesting lecture and I somehow made it through to the end of the 9pm painting class. I have completely messed up my biological clock since starting university, and I'm going to try and reverse the process.
You mentioned a discrepancy between your weekday and weekend sleeping schedule. To be honest, the best thing is to keep it consistent. Sleep 6-8 hours a day every day and you'll be efficient and healthy.
So says a non medical professional.
[ March 21, 2007, 02:04 AM: Message edited by: Euripides ]
Posted by Euripides (Member # 9315) on :
Oh yeah, and consider the effect of sleep habits not only on your fatigue and concentration, but on the rest of your body. I often get stomach cramps when I vary my sleep patterns, for example. *cringes*
Posted by Teshi (Member # 5024) on :
I don't really get why people don't stick to what has clearly been defined for thousands of years as the generally optimum sleeping strategy:
It gets dark. Depending on when you need to be up the next day, you sleep earlier or later for 6-10 hours (I sleep 10 regularly). You wake up somewehre between 6:00am and 12:00pm. You are therefore at your most alert/relaxed during the work period of whatever "morning" is for you.
Obviously if you work a night shift, this isn't possible and student life or any life often requires late night paper writing or studying.
But generally, it is feasible to do this, or with variations. If I don't get enough sleep at night I will occaisionally sleep during the day so I can stay up until acceptible student-going-to-sleep-time, which for me is 12:00am.
I think I sound a little incredulous/annoyed about this, but the issue of sleep as been coming up frequently and people seem clueless about what is best, as if sleeping-at-night isn't good enough.
Or I'll hear things like "Aw, I've got a headache. I've been up for 36 hours."
Well, GEE!
Yeah, not everyone sleeps at 8:00pm and wakes at 6:00pm, but there are a lot of variations on that which still allow you to exist normally.
Posted by pH (Member # 1350) on :
Does anyone else start dreaming as soon as they fall asleep? I can take a 20-minute nap and wake up feeling like I've been sleeping for hours because I'll have dreams. Does that count as REM sleep?
-pH
Posted by DevilDreamt (Member # 10242) on :
pH - Absolutely. You are most likely experiencing REM rebound.
REM rebound is basically when you go directly into REM sleep without the usual NREM that precedes it and is usually the result of your body attempting to compensate for lack of sleep. I see no reason why you couldn't experience REM rebound without your body technically needing it, either because of training, habit, or just something unique about your internal workings.
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), but it keeps me going, and I sleep in really late on weekends to recharge.