Should I sleep less to have more time to work on my project?

[aFireInside]

Do you think staying up late and only sleeping a couple of hours is worth it ? 

 

I keep reading articles that support both. 

Some famous people said they only slept a couple of hours a night. Others say they always got a good 8 hours. 

 

 

 

Some days I wonder if i should stay up. I think of the consequences like not having enough energy or brain power the next day. 

 

 

I have work in the day, with no set schedule. (part-time) 

 

 

 

I was thinking of waking up super early and sleeping at 10 pm. 

 

[Gurkengelee]

I always go to bed at 10 pm and try to wake up at 5 am. Sometimes I wake up at 4 am, sometimes I sleep through to 6 am. So it's about 6 to 8 hours sleep per night. If I get less sleep I may be more productive for 1 or 2 days but then my body will get it's sleep the next night when I sleep up to 12 hours even with a clock set. Science has it that some people can do with very low amounts of sleep. If you are not one of them you probably need your average 7 to 8 hours per night. I recommend that you try out different sleep schedules for a month and see what suits you best.

[Wuzzums]

7-8 h of sleep per day is the norm. Less or more will turn you into a zombie. How you get the 7-8h of sleep depends on your preference.

 

There are 2 types of sleep patterns: monophasic and polyphasic. In a monophasic sleep you sleep the needed amount all at once. In a polyphasic sleep cycle your sleeping hours are divided within the day. I don't know of any study that shows clear effects of one sleep cycle over another. The only issue is seemingly the amount of hours slept per total no matter how you get them.

 

There's also the Uberman sleep cycle which promises 2h of sleep per day, six 20min naps divided by 4h stretches. I tried it myself and it works, BUT it turns you into a zombie. The schedule must be kept strictly, if you nap sooner or later it will mess up the whole cycle and won't feel like you've rested enough. So no matter what you do it will have to conform to the 4h stretches of wakefullness. Because it turns you into a slave to the schedule you'll find yourself postponing tasks till after a nap. This wastes more time than it saves. Like you have some errands to run but only have 2h left of your 4h stretch. Because losing a nap means losing the whole day to tiredness you decide to wait the remaining 2h, get the nap, then start doing the errands at the beginning of the next 4h stretch. The hours you'll spend waiting for the nap will add up and will make the Uberman sleep no more time effective than any other method, so I don't recommend it.

 

I myself found sleep a bore and nothing more than a time waster. I was looking at it through a chronological perspective but sleep is more than just that. It helps with coordination for instance. I remember that it didn't matter how well I knew the notes on the guitar of a new song, or how well I knew to play tiny increments of the song, I still couldn't get the fingers to move how I wanted them to move all the time. After a good sleep my fingers suddenly seemed to follow the instructions of my brain perfectly.

 

It helps with processing information, during and after the sleep. When you wake feeling rested you're seemingly not able to focus on one single task. Seemingly because what's actually going on is that your brain is able to focus on several at once. So in that state any new information gets processed more efficiently because the brain is able to connect the new information to more things. Like when you're 100% focused on learning biology, there's a drawer opened in your brain called "biology" in which the new information is stored. But when you've just woken up, lots of drawers are opened and the new information is stored in all of them making it much easier to recall.

 

Lastly, what I see as the most useful element of sleep is dreaming. There's no creativity without dreams. How many times have you heard the phrase "It came to me in a dream?" How many great works of art (be it paintings, movies or literature) were first a dream the artist just happened to remember? Even mathematicians find solutions to complex problems within their dreams.

 

So my advice is to look at sleep more like a tool than anything else. You can't get your head around something? Sleep on it. You can't seem to focus on something and your mind keeps wandering? Sleep on it. You're pacing waiting for the washing machine to finish its cycle? Have a quick nap. It's only your conscious self that goes offline while you're asleep, the rest of your brain is still fully active.

[surfingthoughts]

Some good advice/information above...

 

Quick question how hard do you find it to go to sleep? Do you have allot on your mind before you go to sleep?

[Nathan H. Hoffner]

I wouldn't underestimate the importance of sleep (following the natural circadian rhythm) on your health and energy levels. Sleep deprivation is a killer.  Here are some good sources for more information.

 

The Definitive Guide to Sleep - http://www.marksdailyapple.com/the-definitive-guide-to-sleep/#axzz3D8U7Ong9

 

Is “8 Uninterrupted Hours a Night” Flawed Conventional Wisdom? - Read more: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/biphasic-sleep/#ixzz3D8UgQcYYhttp://www.marksdailyapple.com/biphasic-sleep/#axzz3D8U7Ong9

[Pepin]

All the responses above are great.

 

It is best to assume that you are would benefit more in the long term of more sleep than less sleep. You may be a person like me, who can do great on little sleep for a couple of days, yet who suffers from the issues caused by this when prolonged.

 

Knowing if you are that type of person is an aspect of self knowledge. You may find that you can come up with great material when sleep deprived. Or you may find that what you thought was great was actually quite nonsensical.

 

What I mean to say is that it is best to think of it in the long term as opposed to the short term. If a stroke of inspiration strikes and you are able to produce great material while sleep deprived, I would say to stay up and to do some work. If this happens and you usually do not produce great material when sleep deprived, you ought to sleep on it as to not waste time. If you aren't inspired, you ought to not stay up and focus on the project in the long term.

Quick question how hard do you find it to go to sleep? Do you have allot on your mind before you go to sleep?

 

Rather difficult. My brain tends to think about twenty different things at once. Worse, at night I tend to start processing everything, so I will find myself thinking about various things without conscious choice. I have actually woken up a few times and found myself in deep thought.

 

I improvise a lot of music on my guitar, and I find that I will often start composing songs and solos in my head.

 

I want to emphasize that this is not conscious thinking for the most part. If you have ever tried the sort of meditation where you try not to think, and you find yourself thinking about some obscure subject every two seconds, this is what it is like.

 

Though I have no proof, I think that this sort of experience is not your conscious decided to think about something, yet rather your conscious being led to look at some mental chatter which is already occurring. It is like if you sit in a quiet room, and then hear people talking behind, your consciousness will be led to instinctively to look behind and to pay attention to the conversation. In IFS terms, when you attempt to create mental silence, a part takes the seat of consciousness, and you observe this part's thoughts. I would not suggest that this taking of the seat of consciousness is any sort of choice on behalf of the part, rather it is just the instinctive part of the mind to drive your focus to what is the most active, whether it be: a flash of light; an itch on your nose; or internal or external dialog.

[cobra2411]

I did some biphasic and multiphasic sleep in the past. I found a 5-6hr sleep with a 20-30 minute nap worked very well and I did that for over a year. Nap time wasn't critical down to the minute, but it had to be close and if I skipped I was messed up the rest of the day. I also tried a 4hr sleep with a couple naps but it didn't seem as effective. 

 

Lately I've been following an older sleep pattern where I go to sleep early in the evening for 3-4 hours then get up for a couple hours, then go back to sleep for another 3-4 hours. I usually get around 7 hours a night. 

 

It's helpful to pay attention to your sleep patterns and try and think in REM cycles instead of actual hours of sleep. I usually go though a complete cycle in about 80-90 minutes which is pretty normal. So sleep times of 90 minutes works pretty well and if you time it right you wake up when you're not in a REM state. I seem to do much better when I wake not in a REM state. I also take about 60 minutes to get deep into REM so naps are limited to about 45 minutes or I'll sleep for at least 3 hours. 

[DaVinci]

If you are trying to get a project done around your sleep schedule and work schedule I would say you want to be waking up with the maximum amount of time devoted to you. So for example your energy depletes as the day goes on, and many people find themselves most productive and with the most energy early in the morning after waking up. Because they are at their job however they end up using this energy for their boss, and not themselves. So plan sleep around giving that time back to yourself. If you have to be at work 5 p.m. and work till 11 p.m. then going to bed at midnight and waking up at 8 or 9 a.m. sounds good. If you have to be at work at 10 a.m. then maybe you should wake up at 3 or 4 a.m. to give yourself time to do what you want.

 

Basically instead of having free time at the end of your day after you are already worn out, have it at the beginning when you are fresh and recharged.

 

What do you think of that?