Wednesday, 9 March 2011

Sleep Schedule

One thing I hate about school is how it has messed with my sleep schedule. I think my first "late night" was back in Grade 7, when I had to stay up all night to do some silly project thing. And being the age that I was, that really killed me! After that I've had late nights now and again in Grade 8 - 10 of high school... Then BAM. Grade 11 comes along and takes the living hell out of me. Or should I say waking hell. Because Jesus, all-nighters were a weekly occurance. Once had to stay up 4 days without sleep during a crunch time. Boy that is not fun. And boy, you do not want to bump into me on that 4th day.

Grade 11 and 12 were a gong show of all-nighters. Even on a regular night, I'd be lucky to average 5 hours. For the most part, I fell asleep in class... Though high school teachers like waking you up and making you pay attention. Anyway, whenever I had a late night or an all-night, I would sleep in the afternoon. Guaranteed! I had to take an afternoon nap or I'd be screwed for the pursuing night/day (I'd be dozing off everywhere... not fun in general). After a month or so of this crap, I pretty much got used to the nap, and couldn't function without it. At night, I'd go to bed at 3 a.m. and wake up at 7:30. So on it went.

I remember looking up some different sleep schedules that I was really psyched to start implementing. The afternoon nap was one of them. I think it's called biphasic sleep... Where you have two waking periods. I really wanted to try the polyphasic, or Ubermann sleep schedule. That basically consists of 30 minutes of sleep every 4 hours or so. I think there are different variations, with up to hourly naps of 10 minutes or something... Anyway, the point was that it teaches your brain to go directly into REM sleep (the good, restful type of sleep) which would otherwise take an hour to cycle into.

Long story short, I became really enamoured with the idea... But it was just too hard to phase it into my work/school schedule. I didn't want to be catching naps in the washrooms or on the hallway floors or stuff like that, meh. I might try again later on... Though I've heard it's ridiculously brutal to get used to.

Anyone tried it? Post in the comments!

68 comments:

  1. Sleep Schedule ? never heard of it lol
    i kinda suck in Schedules, i do sleep whenever i feel like doing it so
    but ur tips Worth the try, i might give it a chance

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  2. i heard negative things about polyphasic sleep, but try it and report back

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  3. school gave me a bump on my finger and carpal tunnel from all the writing. is it possible to sue them for messing up my hand

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  4. I still haven't fixed my sleep schedule from college. I've tried the very things you're talking about, but I just couldn't get used to them.

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  5. yeah ive heard of this before but never tried it.

    you really have to be determined and structured for this.

    good luck though!

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  6. I have heard of the different sleep cycles but never have tried them. Feel like not only is it a lot of work to get used to it but in a college dorm setting it would just annoy my roommate and probably clash with my school schedule. I do however see the benefit to them just seem impractical unless you have the time to sit down and work it out.

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  7. I have never pulled an all nighter. There is no need.

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  8. one short nap a day is all i can manage with the work load i have. :(

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  9. ive heard of this but never tried it

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  10. I've thought about doing the same thing, but like you mentioned getting used to it could drive one mad.

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  11. I don't remember what it's called, but I usually split my sleep into two four hour shifts. But I work nights. It seems to work okay for me.

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  12. I have a horrible time falling asleep so I probably can't do those because I need at least an hour to nod off T_T

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  13. With work/school schedule, it can be difficult. Wait until the summer to try it out and make adjustments. That's the best way to implement it.

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  14. My sleep schedule is always crazy and always changing.
    I imagine it would be pretty hard to change to a new one after using the same one for a long time.
    Learning how to get into REM sleep sooner would help a lot though for sure.

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  15. I've tried it before.

    It worked fine, but scheduling around all of the naps made me stop.

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  16. yeah i remember this, i took coffe pills and an energy drink to get by 2 days with out rest, feels bad man

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  17. Didn't try, but i should. Now i have a thing on my mobile called "Annoying alarm". It asks you 5 questions before turning off the alarm.

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  18. Tried the uberman a while ago. I tried for about two months. Took about 10 days to not be totally exhausted all the time. After I adjusted I was fine for about a week, but then it seemed everything was going wrong with my body. I had almost constant nausea and would get a daybug cold every 5 days or so. Finally stopped.

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  19. no, but sounds really nice

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  20. Well, im just in 8th grade. But In Sweden we're have a good schedule.

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  21. i want to try it :)
    i soon have 2 weeks vacation and gonna try it :)

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  22. a afternoon nap helps alot to reduce your night sleep time

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  23. I want to try it, because i find sleeping an necessary waste of time, but haven't got arount to actually do it yet

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  24. I liked the school sleep schedule. It is much better than selleping as long as you want everyday when you study. It is so hard for me now to get up early

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  25. Brain hacking is a hoax, I think... But post results and we'll see.

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  26. better not mess with your brain

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  27. Naps for me do recharge me pretty effectively. Unfortunately it leaves me feeling like SHIT and makes leaves me unable to sleep when I really want to.

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  28. mhh... maybe i try it out

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  29. Some how I've manged to tangle myself up in a 9 am to 12 pm sleep schedule now after two gigantic projects that kept me up for days. It's sort of weird.

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  30. I tried going straight to Uberman once (6x20min) and that.. Suffice to say I wasn't very alert that week.

    However I did get slight hallucinations at the end of the period, so that was cool.

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  31. i totally agree with you!

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  32. I'd rather not make any weird experiments with those things.

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  33. About 2 weeks ago I had to stay awake whole night as I was on a night shift and I didn't really sleep during the day before that, man, that was a hell of a night, was really falling asleep in the morning near 8 a.m. You better work out how to make the time so that you could sleep 7-9 hours a day, that's just healthy, good for brain, helps you keep your mind thinking. 5 days without sleep are lethal, don't forget about that. I'm don't know much about it, but I heard that while you sleep, some stuff is being made in your body that helps to keep you alive, so just keep that in mind. The more you sleep - the better.

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  34. As an athlete, i prefer 12 hours a night plus an afternoon nap! Ofcourse this isnt practical or possible for most people...hope you find what works...im following!

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  35. when I was in that stage I eventually just fell asleep really early. I got home from school by 4, then eat, then at 6 pm I was already sleeping

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  36. And I complain because I sleep 5-6 hours...

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  37. I'm a night owl by nature. early mornings mess with my sleep schedule.

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  38. In a episode of Seinfield, Kramer does that and he goes more mental than what he usually is! Great post!

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  39. I've noticed that taking a short (~1hr) nap on afternoon helps to wake up early in the next morning.

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  40. I don't sleep scheduling would ever work for me, I've always been a bit of an insomniac.

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  41. Since three years I've been gradually shortening my sleeping time thanks to school. No I sleep about 2-5 hours every night and I must take a 1-2-hour afternoon nap every day. It's painful, however it works better than sleeping 5 hours at night and not taking an afternoon nap. It makes 2+2 better than 5+0.

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  42. Tried this. Couldn't get used to the schedule. After sleep deprivation I would just sleep through my alarm.

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  43. Fuck i get 5 hours sleep most nights anyways.. =S not coz i'm working, just coz I only need that many..

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  44. hahaha after 1 day of not sleeping I will sleep anywhere...
    anywhere... *zzzz*

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  45. I wouldn't wanna screw with my brain in this way and I also LOVE sleep so why would I want less of it? haha, the uberman just seems way too difficult to successfully pull off

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  46. sleep? what the hell is that?

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  47. totally feel you man my sleep cycle hasn't been right or conducive to any style of productive living since 8th grade

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  48. Tried it, couldn't really get it to work though. My sleep schedule's screwed up anyway, left to my own devices I'll fall asleep at 4AM and wake up at 1PM.

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  49. all nighters used to be my life, especially in high school and college. once you start working, your sleep schedule tends to become more regular though

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  50. Ive never had to pull an all nighter for school or uni work but I'm always doing it for gaming lol

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  51. In high school I slept about 5 hours during the night and then 3 after coming back from school. I was no good without my 8 hours of sleep, but this dividing gave me good results, because after coming back, I couldn't just sit and do my homework or other stuff if I don't have rest, even if I've slept 10 hours during the night.

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  52. Oh man... highschool all nighters... Those were fun =)

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  53. Remember Fight club, you can't die from insomnia, just go insane

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  54. I hear that theres normally about a 2 week adjustment period to get into any of these really. And usually, those 2 weeks are hell, because your body has to get to the point where it's like "INSTANT REM GO GO GO" before it becomes effective, like you said, but the adjustment is hell.

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  55. i change to often shifts....

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  56. I hated school for this as well...then at Uni I just didn't bother going in until 12

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  57. Sleep is such a luxury for me sometimes. I'm lucky when I can get a nice 6-7 hour restful slumber. Some of the reason people don't feel rested is because they have obstructive sleep apnea. I've shadowed in a sleep center, and using a CPAP can make a huge difference in the the quality of one's sleep.

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  58. I haven't ever heard of this style of naps. But I LOVE to nap, I'll have to try this out. Though, it seems very brutal to get used to.

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  59. sleep is overrated my friend

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  60. Ahh. Yeah, REM Sleep and all that. Ever heard of the Uberman sleep cycle? Doubt you could work it in with a school type schedule. But I know that when I have a hard time getting sleep, if I go to sleep at 10 and wake up at 5 and had a rough night I don't get REM sleep unless I go back to sleep for one more hour. Usually it tends to kick in after you wake yourself up and then go back for more rest. You can get away with teasing yourself.
    Just sleep an hour or two and them alarm goes off, get up and do something for a little bit, like half an hour or so, then head back to sleep an hour and you should feel pretty good.

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  61. I don't have a proper cycle, I get up too early or too late

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  62. im paranoid about falling asleep in a public place... great blog, following ;)

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  63. I tried the Ubermann. It actually works, and you're constantly amazed at how you aren't dead.

    But the problem is, if you miss one nap by even an hour, it throws everything off and it takes you a couple days to recover. It's nasty.

    I'm following!

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  64. i've tried polyphasic but not uberman. i did the everyman with core sleep from 1am to 4am, then a 20 min nap at 9am 6pm and 9pm. It was hard to get adjusted to but after that it was pretty good for a while then i overslept and screwed it up, been trying to get back to doing it but the first 10 days or so you can end up feeling pretty sleep deprived. once your body gets used to it it gets better.

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  65. you don't learn much in school. You just learn how to learn...

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