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Sleep as a Competitive Advantage

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Re: Sleep as a Competitive Advantage

#111

Post by johnward »

jqm wrote: post #33
johnward wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can never take short naps. I always end up wanting to sleep the rest of the day.

I used to be exactly the same way....particularly my late teens and twenties where I would sleep half the day if I tried to take a nap. Sometime around 40 that changed. I take a nap almost every day, (sometimes 2, esp if doing something mentally taxing...I can do this since I work from home), but it's been years since I have been able to take a nap exceeding 20 minutes. I simply wake up, no alarm or stimuli needed. E…

I'm 28 so maybe it will change as I continue to age. I used to be able to sleep until 3pm if I really wanted too(assuming I had no alarm clock to wake me up to do something productive). Now I naturally wake up around 7am-9am no matter how late I stay up.

Re: Sleep as a Competitive Advantage

#112

Post by aqme28 »

vanderZwan wrote: post #75
rubicon33 wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. What's missing from this article, is a discussion about ideal sleep TIMES. Not everyone is meant to sleep from 10-6. Yes, you can fudge your sleep cycle and you can adjust, but only so much. I'm naturally a night owl. With no alarm clock, and no obligations, I will "naturally" fall asleep at 3am, and wake up at 11. In times of my life when I've been able to do this, the 8 hours that I would get then FAR TRUMPED…

> I'm naturally a night owl. Many people are unnatural night owls, thanks to blue light sources in the evening - perhaps that applies to you too. Have you tried f.lux? http://getflux.com/

Night-owl here, and that's not the problem. I will keep myself awake until 3AM whether I'm on my computer or not. I'll often read until 3AM because that's when my body seems to want to go to sleep.

edit: and I don't drink caffeine after 5.

Re: Sleep as a Competitive Advantage

#113

Post by foobarqux »

bonobo wrote: post #80
rqebmm wrote: post #34

Sleep and I have a rocky relationship. I'm terrible at falling asleep, and even worse at waking up, but boy have I learned to value it. I can't nap, because I literally can't sleep anything less than 4 hours. Friends and relatives have tried yelling/shaking/banging pots and pans, but the only thing that will wake me is cold water to the face. However, I've found taking a few moments to meditate can do wonders when I'…

I usually say that I don't have trouble sleeping, my trouble is with changing states :) I seldom go to bed in time because I hate to lay there trying to get asleep. Wanting to make more use of my day also doesn't help; I don't get home before 7:30pm, and I don't want to just dine and go to bed... Then comes the morning and I just can't wake up, even after 9, 10hs. I put my alarm clock far away from my bed because I u…

Sleep inertia (sleep drunkeness), disorientation and waking hallucinations are all signs of a sleep disorder.

Re: Sleep as a Competitive Advantage

#114

Post by cheald »

When I left my cubicle job to strike off on my own in 2007, one of the most valuable lessons I learned was "sleep when you're tired".

7 years, a couple of businesses, and 2 (soon to be 3) kids later, I manage to still be able to work and play very hard without feeling chronically tired or burnt out, and I'm convinced it's because I sleep when I need to sleep (and don't when I don't). If it's the middle of the work day and my body is saying "sleep!", then I'll go take a 2-hour nap, which completely revitalizes me. If I've been up for 20 hours and am still going strong, am thinking clearly, and am not feeling tired, I stay up. Sometimes I sleep for 5 hours, sometimes I sleep for 11.

(It's worth noting that this only works with kids because I have my wife's support - she holds down the fort while I sleep, and visa versa. We play active defense for each others' sleep.)

This has had a couple of effects. First of all, it means that whenever I'm working, I'm actually working. I don't have those days where I just stare at my screen blankly, unable to get any significant momentum like I did before. Secondly, it made me able adapt to varying sleep needs (which is amazingly helpful with kids). I'm not really on a particular circadian rhythm. On a typical day, I might be up from 10 AM-2 AM PST, but then I'll travel back east and the next day I'll be up from 3 AM-7PM PST without any real difficulty.

I realize that not everyone has the luxury of being able to take naps or sleep for as long as they need it, but if you have some flexibility, start listening to your body, rather than toughing it out from 9-5 "because that's what you're supposed to do."

Also, as a side note: Use f.lux - when I started using it, I noted a drastic shift in how I get tired. Before, I would just go and go until I hard-crashed; now, I start feeling tired slowly over time, which makes it much easier to go to sleep at the right time.

Re: Sleep as a Competitive Advantage

#115

Post by up_and_up »

All hours of the night are not created equal!

I am happy with 5-6 hours a night + 20-30 mins of meditation in the morning.

But I always get to bed by midnight!

I used to work in the evenings until 1am or 2am and then sleep later. But I found getting up early (5:30am-6:30am) and working in the morning made a huge difference. Working late in the evening made me feel weak and stressed out. Working in the early morning after meditating makes me feel like I am serious seizing the day.

This is with 3 kids, busy job, hectic schedule etc.

I have tested this out on myself for the past 5 years.

Re: Sleep as a Competitive Advantage

#116

Post by hndude »

hyperion2010 wrote: post #59

I always try to get 8 hours a night no exceptions. I gave up caffeine 2 years ago and really haven't needed it. Many of my colleagues get about 6 hours a night and tell me they feel like shit. That said, my PI is one of the rare people who only needs 3-4 hours a night and the guy has published over 500 papers and has read nearly everything published in or tangentially related to neuroscience. On average he probably g…

PI... principle investigator?

Re: Sleep as a Competitive Advantage

#117

Post by pm »

makeset wrote: post #82
vanderZwan wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm naturally a night owl. Many people are unnatural night owls, thanks to blue light sources in the evening - perhaps that applies to you too. Have you tried f.lux? http://getflux.com/

Blue light may be interrupting sleep patterns, but I assume people who call themselves night owls share with me a certain feeling of mental haze during daylight hours, regardless of sleep schedule. I'm also about 5% weaker at lifting maximal weights until late afternoon. For what it's worth, I don't consume caffeine (allergic) and I do use f.lux.

I used to call myself a owl too. Often I would be in a haze until late afternoon, then work right up until I went to sleep. Running a business with employees meant I had to shift to mornings (though no longer), but now I'm definitely a lark. My schedule is almost reversed: I work an hour after I get up, and then chill out a couple of hours before bed.

Overall, on this schedule I feel much more rested.

Re: Sleep as a Competitive Advantage

#118

Post by njoglekar »

johnward wrote: post #62
njoglekar wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is the problem waking up or a groggy feeling the rest of the day?

Usually waking up I think. I don't usually nap but I took a nap yesterday that probably turned into 3 hours of sleep. When I woke up I wanted to go to bed but once I got up and moving I felt fine.

That's actually really common. In fact I'm making a product / wearable to help with that. I'll do a Show HN soon :).

Re: Sleep as a Competitive Advantage

#119

Post by [deleted] »

viraptor wrote: post #47
rayiner wrote: post #5

The key takeaway is this: > The research is overwhelming that the vast majority of us require seven to eight hours of sleep to feel fully rested, and only a small percentage require less than seven. I'm sometimes envious of people I meet that can function well with little sleep, but I resign myself to the fact that I wasn't dealt that particular card. You can't compete with those folks by simply trying to ape their h…

> Most of us have forgotten what it really feels like to be awake.” This may be one part of it. Some time ago, I'd definitely tell you I'm fine with little sleep. You can do it if you sleep very little every night. It's quite easy to adapt to, for example during university exam times But then after some years you realise you're not actually fine. You just don't remember how different is it to sleep longer. I'm still…

[deleted]

Re: Sleep as a Competitive Advantage

#120

Post by adnanh »

rayiner wrote: post #52
viraptor wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Most of us have forgotten what it really feels like to be awake.” This may be one part of it. Some time ago, I'd definitely tell you I'm fine with little sleep. You can do it if you sleep very little every night. It's quite easy to adapt to, for example during university exam times But then after some years you realise you're not actually fine. You just don't remember how different is it to sleep longer. I'm still…

In grad school, I made it a point to cut-off my studying to get a consistent 7-9 hours of sleep in the days leading up to each exam. It worked enormously better for me than my sleep-deprived cram sessions in undergrad, and I think some of my classmates suffered for prioritizing taking another pass over the material instead of being well-rested.

After doing cram sessions for my exams, I've started to fall asleep during the reading of the materials I was supposed to memorize without even noticing it. The interesting part is that I would reiterate over everything I read so far in my dreams after which I would wake up and figure out that I actually fell asleep. Everytime after such short power naps, I had much better recall of information I've retained and I felt refreshed and relaxed.
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