I've suffered from insomnia most of my teen and adult life (I am 37). I sometimes go up to 3 days without sleep (thus 2 nights, ~60 hours total; 'record' just shy of 80 hours), then sleep for ~12 hours. I usually work almost the
entire time.
My "default" day seems to last 25~30 hours, give or take, which means that naturally there are more like 6 'days' per week for me. ('days' roughly defined as periods of wake time >12h between sleep times >6 hours) Sometimes, a 'night' just skips, well beyond 30 hours into the 40's or more — a no show, literally — and I simply go on for that time...
But knowing this, and being a workhorse in permanent training — I made a point in my early 20's to train myself to become able to work for 12~16 hours a day if I want to, because it seemed like a skill in demand — I've largely accustomed myself to my weird body rythms. It's OK. Not that I can do a marathon in the last 20 hours, but I can function intellectually, emotionally and socially normally 'enough' that people don't notice unless I tell them — goes like: “btw, sorry if I'm a little slow, I haven't slept in 40 hours...” “WHAAAT!?... couldn't tell, but please don't die right now!”
The best judge is quality of work, right? Well, on the next day after a good night's sleep, when I look back at it, I'm often amazed actually at the level of detail and attention, the elegance sometimes (think code, writing, making stuff/systems). Productivity is admittedly not great due to numerous breaks (coffee, eating helps a lot, just strolling for 10-15 minutes too), but not bad at all. 'Good' or 'deep' is more important to me than 'fast' anyway, so I probably geared for that along the years.
I know all the risks of acute and chronic sleep deprivation, biological, psychological, I know. It's just surprisingly easy for me, and my body / thought just won't shut down anyway.
I know I may die young — actually at any time whenever I'm beyond 40 hours awake... which may happen 10-20 times per year easily. Sometimes twice in a row (2 nights / 7 days). Nonetheless... it's proved impossible for me, for now, to just shut down. I admire people who can just go to bed and fall asleep 'on demand'. What is this sorcery?! Why can't I?
I feel like I have unlocked the 'intelligence switch' quite early in my life (not 100% but well enough), and recently around 34 I unlocked the 'happiness switch' (took two decades but I basically 'solved' mental states and happiness for myself, I hope others too when I write this blog/book). I just hope the 'sleep switch' actually exists, and isn't 20 more years down the road for me.
I'll say this: this condition is much harder from a social / career standpoint than from a physical one. It's easy on my body, but it's been incredibly hard and frustrating for my mind and heart to be out of sync with civilization for as long as I can remember. I mostly live in sync with NA, from Europe... (would that help a remote position? haha)
I really don't know what to think of it, I just cope basically, and make the best out of it.