 | erdos0 |
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Tue Jun 15, 2010 4:10:08 am
It's something that I watch for every year. Since I was young, I always looked at the sky before going to bed, and I always made special note of when I could still see sunlight outside. 9PM was mandatory bedtime for me until some time in my teens. For about a month every year, bedtime happened when there was still light outside. That just made it feel extra wrong, but it already felt wrong enough without that, because my bedtime was the only mandatory one.
I can now go to bed almost any time I want, with the exception of Sunday nights, but I still make a mental note of when I can see sunlight at 9PM. I wonder how much of my nocturnality is based on rebellion against this imposed bedtime. My primary reason for being self-employed is that it gives me the freedom to choose my own sleeping patterns. I wonder how different my life might be if I had not been forced to go to bed at 9.
Tue Jun 15, 2010 10:25:26 am
My mandatory bedtime was never earlier than 10 PM.
Expecting someone to go to sleep before sunset seems as wrong as expecting someone to wake up before sunrise.
When I am not guided by a consistent work schedule I find that my waking and sleeping times tend to shift over time, cyclically towards later times. As much as I like nocturnal activities, my cognitive ability suffers when I am forced to sleep in the daytime and be awake at night. It reminds me of what is said of insomnia in Fight Club, that it is never really being asleep and never really being awake.
I seldom obeyed the directive to go to sleep at a particular time. Often I would stay awake to read, listen to music or talk radio, watch tv, or play with the computer. I also wonder if this rebellion was responsible for the current lack of normative structure in my sleeping habits.
It's interesting that you state freedom to determine your own sleep schedule as such a strong incentive for being self-employed. I have noticed that I am more productive when I keep a consistent sleep schedule and having a consistent work schedule helps that to happen.
I also consider 9 PM sunlight to be a benchmark of the height of summer, but since I've moved to a place about 7 degrees more southern in latitude, with flatter land (I swear it always has something nice to say about my new haircut or clothing), that time of what seems like extraordinarily long days has been extended.
In related news I saw an article in the New York Times about how sleeping more before a time of sleep deprivation is much more effective in countering the effects of fatigue than sleeping more afterward. I thought that was an interesting and useful finding.
Tue Jun 15, 2010 10:28:16 am
re: comment#1
My mandatory bedtime was never earlier than 10 PM.
Expecting someone to go to sleep before sunset seems as wrong as expecting someone to wake up before sunrise.
When I am not guided by a consistent work schedule I find that my waking and sleeping times tend to shift over time, cyclically towards later times. As much as I like nocturnal activities, my cognitive ability suffers when I am forced to sleep in the daytime and be awake at night. It reminds me of what is said of insomnia in Fight Club, that it is never really being asleep and never really being awake.
I seldom obeyed the directive to go to sleep at a particular time. Often I would stay awake to read, listen to music or talk radio, watch tv, or play with the computer. I also wonder if this rebellion was responsible for the current lack of normative structure in my sleeping habits.
It's interesting that you state freedom to determine your own sleep schedule as such a strong incentive for being self-employed. I have noticed that I am more productive when I keep a consistent sleep schedule and having a consistent work schedule helps that to happen.
I also consider 9 PM sunlight to be a benchmark of the height of summer, but since I've moved to a place about 7 degrees more southern in latitude, with flatter land (I swear it always has something nice to say about my new haircut or clothing), that time of what seems like extraordinarily long days has been extended.
In related news I saw an article in the New York Times about how sleeping more before a time of sleep deprivation is much more effective in countering the effects of fatigue than sleeping more afterward. I thought that was an interesting and useful finding.
Expecting someone to go to sleep before sunset seems as wrong as expecting someone to wake up before sunrise.
When I am not guided by a consistent work schedule I find that my waking and sleeping times tend to shift over time, cyclically towards later times. As much as I like nocturnal activities, my cognitive ability suffers when I am forced to sleep in the daytime and be awake at night. It reminds me of what is said of insomnia in Fight Club, that it is never really being asleep and never really being awake.
I seldom obeyed the directive to go to sleep at a particular time. Often I would stay awake to read, listen to music or talk radio, watch tv, or play with the computer. I also wonder if this rebellion was responsible for the current lack of normative structure in my sleeping habits.
It's interesting that you state freedom to determine your own sleep schedule as such a strong incentive for being self-employed. I have noticed that I am more productive when I keep a consistent sleep schedule and having a consistent work schedule helps that to happen.
I also consider 9 PM sunlight to be a benchmark of the height of summer, but since I've moved to a place about 7 degrees more southern in latitude, with flatter land (I swear it always has something nice to say about my new haircut or clothing), that time of what seems like extraordinarily long days has been extended.
In related news I saw an article in the New York Times about how sleeping more before a time of sleep deprivation is much more effective in countering the effects of fatigue than sleeping more afterward. I thought that was an interesting and useful finding.
Tue Jun 15, 2010 2:27:10 pm
re: comment#1
My mandatory bedtime was never earlier than 10 PM.
Expecting someone to go to sleep before sunset seems as wrong as expecting someone to wake up before sunrise.
When I am not guided by a consistent work schedule I find that my waking and sleeping times tend to shift over time, cyclically towards later times. As much as I like nocturnal activities, my cognitive ability suffers when I am forced to sleep in the daytime and be awake at night. It reminds me of what is said of insomnia in Fight Club, that it is never really being asleep and never really being awake.
I seldom obeyed the directive to go to sleep at a particular time. Often I would stay awake to read, listen to music or talk radio, watch tv, or play with the computer. I also wonder if this rebellion was responsible for the current lack of normative structure in my sleeping habits.
It's interesting that you state freedom to determine your own sleep schedule as such a strong incentive for being self-employed. I have noticed that I am more productive when I keep a consistent sleep schedule and having a consistent work schedule helps that to happen.
I also consider 9 PM sunlight to be a benchmark of the height of summer, but since I've moved to a place about 7 degrees more southern in latitude, with flatter land (I swear it always has something nice to say about my new haircut or clothing), that time of what seems like extraordinarily long days has been extended.
In related news I saw an article in the New York Times about how sleeping more before a time of sleep deprivation is much more effective in countering the effects of fatigue than sleeping more afterward. I thought that was an interesting and useful finding.
My cognitive abilities are much better if I sleep in the daytime. Maybe I am truly nocturnal.Expecting someone to go to sleep before sunset seems as wrong as expecting someone to wake up before sunrise.
When I am not guided by a consistent work schedule I find that my waking and sleeping times tend to shift over time, cyclically towards later times. As much as I like nocturnal activities, my cognitive ability suffers when I am forced to sleep in the daytime and be awake at night. It reminds me of what is said of insomnia in Fight Club, that it is never really being asleep and never really being awake.
I seldom obeyed the directive to go to sleep at a particular time. Often I would stay awake to read, listen to music or talk radio, watch tv, or play with the computer. I also wonder if this rebellion was responsible for the current lack of normative structure in my sleeping habits.
It's interesting that you state freedom to determine your own sleep schedule as such a strong incentive for being self-employed. I have noticed that I am more productive when I keep a consistent sleep schedule and having a consistent work schedule helps that to happen.
I also consider 9 PM sunlight to be a benchmark of the height of summer, but since I've moved to a place about 7 degrees more southern in latitude, with flatter land (I swear it always has something nice to say about my new haircut or clothing), that time of what seems like extraordinarily long days has been extended.
In related news I saw an article in the New York Times about how sleeping more before a time of sleep deprivation is much more effective in countering the effects of fatigue than sleeping more afterward. I thought that was an interesting and useful finding.
I don't need a consistent sleeping schedule as long as I never have to get up significantly earlier. I can keep getting up later without a problem, but getting up earlier is never good.
The NYT article is interesting. I have already been doing this intuitively, although it's just one night of extended sleep preceding anticipated sleep deprivation.
Wed Jun 16, 2010 5:33:11 pm
agrees with this post
Mon Dec 6, 2010 12:43:42 pm
I don't think I ever payed attention to 9pm sunlight as a kid, but I definitely noticed it later, when I started going to bed earlier so I could wake up before anyone else. Now that I think about it, it was probably the initial reason I put blackout curtains up on my bedroom windows.
Mon Dec 6, 2010 12:47:29 pm
re: comment#6
I don't think I ever payed attention to 9pm sunlight as a kid, but I definitely noticed it later, when I started going to bed earlier so I could wake up before anyone else. Now that I think about it, it was probably the initial reason I put blackout curtains up on my bedroom windows.
I have only experimented with those curtains because a new street lamp got installed that was so bright that it illuminated my bedroom from two blocks away.Mon Dec 6, 2010 1:16:26 pm
re: comment#7
I have only experimented with those curtains because a new street lamp got installed that was so bright that it illuminated my bedroom from two blocks away.
I absolutely would not be able to tolerate that. I like my bedroom as dark as possible. Even the lights from the stereo I have in my bedroom are too much, so I put tape over them.Mon Dec 6, 2010 1:18:54 pm
re: comment#8
I absolutely would not be able to tolerate that. I like my bedroom as dark as possible. Even the lights from the stereo I have in my bedroom are too much, so I put tape over them.
Low level lights don't bother me as much, and I tend to sleep well when bright sunlight shines through my eyelids. I just don't like getting recurring nightmares about search lights being shined through my window while police try to find me.Mon Dec 6, 2010 2:14:11 pm
re: comment#9
Low level lights don't bother me as much, and I tend to sleep well when bright sunlight shines through my eyelids. I just don't like getting recurring nightmares about search lights being shined through my window while police try to find me.
♥
Tue Jun 14, 2011 6:47:13 am
re: comment#8
I absolutely would not be able to tolerate that. I like my bedroom as dark as possible. Even the lights from the stereo I have in my bedroom are too much, so I put tape over them.
I am like that too, even the little red light of the crackberry annoys me when I am trying to sleep.Wed Jun 15, 2011 4:22:12 am
re: comment#11
I am like that too, even the little red light of the crackberry annoys me when I am trying to sleep.
Something I always find interesting in the Summer, and forget about during the colder months when I've got huge thick curtains up, is that I find the moonlight and starlight relaxing when I'm falling asleep. 