Optimizing the Timing of Brainwork

Post by tonyarkles » Tue, Oct 20, 2020, 11:31 AM UTC

saeranv wrote: post #10

petercooper wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a period of my life where I could work any hours I pleased with no social obligations so I tried not having any alarms, just went free form. And I basically ended up having a 28 hour "day" and spun round and round the clock. Not ideal long term(!) The most comfortable configuration was going to sleep about 6am and waking about 1-2pm, but once I started having kids, etc. that obviously wasn't going to be viable…

I have the same experience. Anyone know why we cycle around like that? Melatonin and blue-light blocking glasses have helped a lot, but it still feels like my body wants to stay up at least 1 hour past the previous day.

I don't know anything about why it happens, but you're definitely not alone. A friend of mine has it pretty bad; trying to adhere to a nominal 24hr has utterly failed him. If I recall, his body runs on about a 26hr schedule in a 13 day cycle. He fought it for a long time but ended up just being a zombie all day long until he found work that let him roll with it (which means for some portion of the cycle he's working midnight to 8am)

It's super inconvenient; if anyone knows of any potential resources I would happily pass them along to him. He's found something that works, but it's pretty inconvenient for... you know... integrating with the rest of the world.

Post by detaro » Tue, Oct 20, 2020, 11:42 AM UTC

saeranv wrote: post #10

petercooper wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a period of my life where I could work any hours I pleased with no social obligations so I tried not having any alarms, just went free form. And I basically ended up having a 28 hour "day" and spun round and round the clock. Not ideal long term(!) The most comfortable configuration was going to sleep about 6am and waking about 1-2pm, but once I started having kids, etc. that obviously wasn't going to be viable…

I have the same experience. Anyone know why we cycle around like that? Melatonin and blue-light blocking glasses have helped a lot, but it still feels like my body wants to stay up at least 1 hour past the previous day.

AFAIK various studies have shown that people tend to drift to a slightly long cycle, but there's variation in how much the internal clock differs and how hard it is to adjust. And some of us just have bad luck with that :/

Re: Optimizing the Timing of Brainwork

Re: Optimizing the Timing of Brainwork