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You don’t have to feel guilty for oversleeping

42floors.com

51–60 of 111 posts

Re: You don’t have to feel guilty for oversleeping

#51
post #16

People's sleep cycles are just different, even if it's not fashionable to acknowledge that. They differ with the person and they differ with the personal situation at the time. This notion that there is The One True Sleep Pattern and that everybody should adhere to it is not tenable in my opinion. It's a strategy that sells books on how to become "normal", nothing else. I'm a night person, I viscerally hate mornings,…

I'm even later than you, if not actually in constant flux (in those periods when I haven't had to stick to a work schedule). I often think I'd be more suited to a planet with 4 or 5 more hours in the day. Then I could go to bed when I actually get tired, get a decent night's sleep (10 hours) and be good for work.

Re: You don’t have to feel guilty for oversleeping

#52
Here's an ongoing frustration... I'm currently working on a startup while maintaining a day job, which means LOTS of hours. I'm often (usually) working until I go to bed. Now, I'm at my best productivity code-wise when I first start working in the morning (no, not a morning person). So I'd like to get up earlier and put in a couple of hours on the startup in the morning, before I have to go do the dayjob - give my best couple of hours to MY work rather than someone else's work. Working two hours from 6am-8am would be more productive for me than working two hours from 10pm-12am. But when I'm working late at night, it's really hard to let it go and tell myself to pick it up in the morning. Knowing logically that this is true isn't enough. Sigh.

Re: You don’t have to feel guilty for oversleeping

#53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure I'd call it "too early" when it was the norm for most of human existence. Sleep at sunset, wake at dawn, enjoy some nocturnal activity mid night. Artificial lighting hasn't been around all that long, yet we have forgotten what natural lighting means for sleep cycles.

In Seattle, the amount of time the sun is in the sky varies from 8.5 hours to 16 hours across the year. Do you believe we really need 15 hours of sleep in the winter, but can get by on barely 8 in the summer? I don't think our sleep schedules need to vary THAT much for seasonal disaffectance.

Makes sense to me, this is what a lot of mammals do. When food is scarce in the winter, best thing to do is sleep and expend minimal energy. In summer when the day is long and there is good light to see by, be awake and productive.

Re: You don’t have to feel guilty for oversleeping

#54
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure where you work, but I negotiate my hours just the same as the rest of my compensation package. 8-9am start time? That'll be an extra $10K-20K/year. Same for dress code, etc.

If you will wake up 2 hours earlier and wreck your long term performance for $40-$80/day...

I argue my performance is better on my shifted schedule.

Also, I already make way more than I need to live. Quality of life is the biggest factor at this point, and that includes working on my schedule, wearing flip flops to work if I want, etc.

Re: You don’t have to feel guilty for oversleeping

#55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yea -- this is advertising for the 42floors brand. What they're saying doesn't have to have anything to do with their product or brand, merely seeing that they're saying stuff puts their brand back in front of our eyeballs.

It looks like people don't like this being pointed out. My comment went from +5 to -2...

Were the downvotes for building a strawman argument and using it troll?

Re: You don’t have to feel guilty for oversleeping

#56

The thing about morning people is you just can't trust them, because a part of them will always believe that night people are lazy; they just can't get over it, no matter how rationally you explain your situation. And you can't trust people like that, because they'll never understand the difference between something they just happen to like or believe and something that is universally Right, Good, and True. To them t…

I'm a morning person. I get up between 6-7 am, even on weekends, and I go to bed around 9:30 pm. The day just feels done for me by then.

There is some truth to what you say. I do feel people who "can't" get up in the morning are slackers. But, those same people are full of energy and ready to party (or whatever) when I'm slinking off to bed, so they regard me as boring, lame and no fun.

These are two solitudes, I'm afraid.

Re: You don’t have to feel guilty for oversleeping

#57
post #16

People's sleep cycles are just different, even if it's not fashionable to acknowledge that. They differ with the person and they differ with the personal situation at the time. This notion that there is The One True Sleep Pattern and that everybody should adhere to it is not tenable in my opinion. It's a strategy that sells books on how to become "normal", nothing else. I'm a night person, I viscerally hate mornings,…

Yes. I am not productive whatsoever before 10am. I would rather work 10am-11am until late into the night (2am-3am). One sleep schedule for everyone? Never going to happen.

Totally. I'm the opposite though. My brain stops working after 9pm and all my best work happens from 4am - 8am.

Re: You don’t have to feel guilty for oversleeping

#58

A couple of times a week, I wake up at 3 or 4a & can't go back to sleep for a couple of hours. Does anyone else run into this? What approaches did you take to counteract?

Yep. I used to call it "waking insomnia" before I learned about segmented sleep. It's likely a remnant of our ancestor's approach to sleep, which was in two parts--first and second sleep.

I'll wake 4-5 hours after first falling asleep with a period of 2-3 hours of wakefulness before I feel sleepy again. Unfortunately I'll begin to feel sleepy again within an hour or about the time I need to wake up for work. Sometimes I can catch an hour or two of sleep, but it's the hardest sleep to wake from and I feel like I'm dragging the rest of the day.

I personally just tough the day out, though sometimes I take a sleep aid (usually one 25mg dose of Benadryl) before going to bed as a preventative.

New York Times about First and Second Sleep: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/23/opinion/sunday/rethinking-...

Wikpedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Segmented_sleep

Re: You don’t have to feel guilty for oversleeping

#59
I have this problem too. Are you sure we aren't lazy? I'm fairly sure if I busted my ass (by that I mean a constant work stream all the way through with absolute minimum interruption) 9-5 every day and then did a hard workout I wouldn't have my 'delayed sleep' problem.

Easier said than done, though.

Re: You don’t have to feel guilty for oversleeping

#60
Honor your commitments, yet be true to yourself. Not all of us are 8 to 5 people, and the world would not quite work as well if we all were (Who is going to be monitoring your network while you're asleep?).

My belief is: Be a person of your word; If you commit to being somewhere at a certain time, honor that commitment.

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