Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

28h Days: year 1 update

sidhion.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 134 posts

Re: 28h Days: year 1 update

#31

Post by bix6 »

pcthrowaway wrote: post #23
spoaceman7777 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The greatest benefit is that you can stay up until you're absolutely dog-tired every day, and not have to worry about all the rituals of "sleep hygiene", like limiting screen time, dimming lights, no coffee, etc. On a >24 hour sleep schedule, you _will_ be tired when it's time to sleep. Guaranteed. Not only that, you can sleep longer and will always feel well-rested. Meeting people all around the world, when they're…

You're making some assumptions here that I don't think hold. OP is likely able to do this because they have a longer circadian cycle (though I think it's still less than 28 hours) A person who might naturally have a 24.4 hour cycle without external stimuli (which is the average sleep researchers found) will likely have problems trying to adjust to a 26 hour cycle or longer, because even if they push themselves to sta…

How do you figure out your cycle time?

Re: 28h Days: year 1 update

#32

Post by Aurornis »

I’ve been fascinated with alternative sleep schedules since I was very young. My initial interest turned to a fascination when I realized the only positive long-term reports were usually from people trying to sell something: Their book, a sleep plan, or just using their sleep cycle as a social hook to impress others (influencers, basically). All of the forum reports started out optimistic and then ended in disappointment with basically nobody enjoying them after a long time.

One of the common themes was that people would think their lives were better at first. A sort of placebo effect. They’d push through the adaptation phase, which was miserable, and when they adapted they felt slightly better. Often this improvement (relative to the miserable adaptation period) was mistake for an absolute improvement because it had been so long since they had a normal sleep schedule.

What was really interesting was that most people reported some variation of the same thing: They didn’t realize how much they disliked the alternative sleep schedule until after they stopped it. Some people stuck with it for a long time until life forced them to change (job, marriage, etc). It wasn’t until they went back to normal that they realized how much better it was to just not fight the sunlight and night time that drives us.

It would be interesting to see how this person feels at some point in the future if they go back to a normal sleep schedule.

Re: 28h Days: year 1 update

#33

Post by bcrl »

xyzzy_plugh wrote: post #20
xedrac wrote: post #2

This flies in the face of circadean rhythm research. I know the human body is extremely adaptable, but imagine making every single day a jet-lagged day. My younger self may have been able to tolerate it well enough, but there's no way I'd come out unscathed now.

I did 36-hour days (awake for 24, asleep for 12) for a long time and it was fine. I'm unable to do so now, due to other obligations, but I still think it worked better for me than a 24-hour day. Even today I inevitably stay up all night, getting at most 1-4 hours of sleep, 2-3 times per week. I don't see anything problematic with TFA's 28-hour days.

I lived on 36 hour days for a good year or so as well. It made being social very difficult, and was not the greatest thing for me overall, although I did get a lot of code written.

A few months ago I finally got a CPAP machine after getting a sleep study due to abnormal blood pressure patterns (my blood pressure wasn't dropping overnight on a 24 hour monitor). I can now wake up feeling alert and ready to go after 6 hours of sleep (even though I could use a little bit more); I haven't felt rested this way in the morning since more than 15 years ago in my 20s. I'm not particularly overweight, nor do I snore, so it's worth checking into if your sleep patterns tend towards abnormal.

Re: 28h Days: year 1 update

#34

Post by iambateman »

bix6 wrote: post #31
pcthrowaway wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're making some assumptions here that I don't think hold. OP is likely able to do this because they have a longer circadian cycle (though I think it's still less than 28 hours) A person who might naturally have a 24.4 hour cycle without external stimuli (which is the average sleep researchers found) will likely have problems trying to adjust to a 26 hour cycle or longer, because even if they push themselves to sta…

How do you figure out your cycle time?

This isnt scientific but I’ve found that I “feel like” going to bed about 24.5 hours after I went to bed the day before.

Without external stimuli, it’s very hard to avoid drifting into staying up very late at night for me.

Re: 28h Days: year 1 update

#35

Post by pskfyi »

pcthrowaway wrote: post #23
spoaceman7777 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The greatest benefit is that you can stay up until you're absolutely dog-tired every day, and not have to worry about all the rituals of "sleep hygiene", like limiting screen time, dimming lights, no coffee, etc. On a >24 hour sleep schedule, you _will_ be tired when it's time to sleep. Guaranteed. Not only that, you can sleep longer and will always feel well-rested. Meeting people all around the world, when they're…

You're making some assumptions here that I don't think hold. OP is likely able to do this because they have a longer circadian cycle (though I think it's still less than 28 hours) A person who might naturally have a 24.4 hour cycle without external stimuli (which is the average sleep researchers found) will likely have problems trying to adjust to a 26 hour cycle or longer, because even if they push themselves to sta…

Do you have any recommended books or links on this topic?

Re: 28h Days: year 1 update

#36

Post by Centigonal »

fastball wrote: post #15
S_A_P wrote: post #11

After reading the article I didn’t pick up what any of the advantages are of 28hr days other than being able to communicate with other regions of the world on certain days. I suppose that could be a very important factor for some people who do work in a geographically dispersed area. A few things I would be concerned with are: 1) your SO is not on the same schedule and really for what isn’t a solid reason. I could se…

I'm not the OP, but I've considered doing this (have personally tried tri-phasic sleep in the past as an alternative) so I'm assuming the motivation might be the same: I just don't have a 24hr circadian rhythm. I'd guess mine is more like 26hr, not 28hr, but same idea applies. If I wake up after getting 8 hours of sleep, after 16 hours I am just... not sleepy. I can go to bed and not use screens and take melatonin an…

From the linked post:

>Some time ago, I found myself with zero obligations to follow the usual daily routine: wake up in the morning and go to sleep at night (the “normal people schedule”). During my time awake, I was either working on side-projects or playing with my hobbies, and I’d go to sleep whenever I felt sleepy, wake up naturally (no alarms), and repeat. This led me to observe that without sticking to a daily routine, my sleep schedule would drift every day compared to the previous one. I also noticed that on most days I’d sleep a bit longer than 8h, sometimes 9h or even 10h.

>An example of the sleep schedule drift: if on day X I went to sleep at 10:00 and woke up at 18:00, on day X+1 I’d go to bed at a time later than 10:00, and wake up later than 18:00. I almost never went to sleep at the same time on two consecutive days.

>I realised that this was happening because it took me longer to feel tired than the “normal people schedule” assumed. If I followed it, sleeping would tend towards napping until the tiredness built up, at which point I’d need to sleep more. In fact, for most of my adult life (especially when I had a full-time job), I’d always have to force myself to go to bed during weekdays, and naturally this drift would occur, and then I’d “reset” during the weekend (often 10h+ of sleep), thus going back to forcing myself to sleep on weekdays to stick to the routine.

Re: 28h Days: year 1 update

#38

Post by tgsovlerkhgsel »

xedrac wrote: post #2

This flies in the face of circadean rhythm research. I know the human body is extremely adaptable, but imagine making every single day a jet-lagged day. My younger self may have been able to tolerate it well enough, but there's no way I'd come out unscathed now.

> imagine making every single day a jet-lagged day.

That's exactly what this pattern is trying to avoid. For people whose sleep cycle is longer than 24h, a "normal" rhythm makes every single day a jet-lagged day, and in the "wrong" direction (it's easier to travel west/stay awake longer rather than travel east/go to bed earlier for most people).

Re: 28h Days: year 1 update

#39

Post by r0ze-at-hn »

S_A_P wrote: post #11

After reading the article I didn’t pick up what any of the advantages are of 28hr days other than being able to communicate with other regions of the world on certain days. I suppose that could be a very important factor for some people who do work in a geographically dispersed area. A few things I would be concerned with are: 1) your SO is not on the same schedule and really for what isn’t a solid reason. I could se…

Biologically I have low melatonin and low cortisol. This means I have trouble falling asleep and then I have trouble waking up.

Countless times in my life I have lived 26-28 hour cycles and otherwise I am in a never ending struggle to live a 24 hour cycle. Once I hit retirement I will definitely try this 28 hour cycle and might even switch to it permanently.

Yeah there are obvious downsides having to do with SO, friends, etc. Having a husband with this same biological quirk would be ideal, but again once I no longer have to go into the office it will be really hard not to fall into a > 24 hour pattern.

Post reply on HN