Sleep (also referred to as "that thing")
Monday, January 18th, 2010 04:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
afunaRather unscientific survey of my sleeping habits leads me to conclude that planning to sleep by midnight is really, really, good for me at work.
After the end of vacation, I sort of promised to myself that I would be trying to get to bed by midnight. So the entire first week, I aimed to be asleep by midnight, and initially hit my target, though near the end of the week, it started slipping to half past midnight, then to just a bit past one. (That's okay: most of the time, I plan to sleep by two, and manage to actually get to bed around three to four.)
I started noticing subtle changes in myself: I was feeling more energetic, I had more focus. I was feeling more well-rested and productive throughout the day, rather than being sluggish in the morning, then peaking at night just before I needed to head to bed (so I could wake up at an office-ish hour the next day). I stopped being late! It was kinda boring, but I think that it could have gotten better once I was fully adjusted (I was spending some energy adjusting that would eventually go towards doing stuff other than sleeping or preparing for sleep).
The next week, entirely unplanned, I ended up going to bed at three, four, five-thirty, seven in the morning. It started because I thought I could give myself a bit of leeway and sleep just a bit later during the weekend...
BIG MISTAKE.
With only a couple of hours of sleep in me, I started noticing a lot of unsubtle changes -- complete lack of focus, headaches, more irritable, less engaged. Much as I hate to say it, also less productive.
It's rather frustrating, since I've hit the zone a lot of times in the 2am-4am range, but either my sleep cycle has changed, or it's that I'm just not getting enough hours of sleep, period, because of my office schedule.
Either way, I'm going to be aiming for midnight again, and hopefully after the adjustment period, I'll... I dunno?
I'm going to miss the evening crowd in IRC, but I may be able to catch some of the later sleepers or early wakers, still! (I can but hope *g* Life without friendly conversation is boring.)
After the end of vacation, I sort of promised to myself that I would be trying to get to bed by midnight. So the entire first week, I aimed to be asleep by midnight, and initially hit my target, though near the end of the week, it started slipping to half past midnight, then to just a bit past one. (That's okay: most of the time, I plan to sleep by two, and manage to actually get to bed around three to four.)
I started noticing subtle changes in myself: I was feeling more energetic, I had more focus. I was feeling more well-rested and productive throughout the day, rather than being sluggish in the morning, then peaking at night just before I needed to head to bed (so I could wake up at an office-ish hour the next day). I stopped being late! It was kinda boring, but I think that it could have gotten better once I was fully adjusted (I was spending some energy adjusting that would eventually go towards doing stuff other than sleeping or preparing for sleep).
The next week, entirely unplanned, I ended up going to bed at three, four, five-thirty, seven in the morning. It started because I thought I could give myself a bit of leeway and sleep just a bit later during the weekend...
BIG MISTAKE.
With only a couple of hours of sleep in me, I started noticing a lot of unsubtle changes -- complete lack of focus, headaches, more irritable, less engaged. Much as I hate to say it, also less productive.
It's rather frustrating, since I've hit the zone a lot of times in the 2am-4am range, but either my sleep cycle has changed, or it's that I'm just not getting enough hours of sleep, period, because of my office schedule.
Either way, I'm going to be aiming for midnight again, and hopefully after the adjustment period, I'll... I dunno?
I'm going to miss the evening crowd in IRC, but I may be able to catch some of the later sleepers or early wakers, still! (I can but hope *g* Life without friendly conversation is boring.)
no subject
Date: 2010-01-18 11:32 am (UTC)