I once had the opportunity to just sleep as long as I needed … as in no alarms or anything … for an extended period of time (a few months).
I pretty quickly settled into a rhythm, which was surprising as I’m the kind that likes to stay up late and have always struggled with that. And I found that my preferred sleeping duration is around 9 hours. Also, sleep is nicer when you don’t have to worry about sleeping in or not getting enough sleep … the whole rhythm seemed to be much more stable if the essential task — resting etc — is reliably achieved.
It also, I suspect, revealed why my sleep rhythm has always been off. My natural sleeping time and sleep length didn’t seem to align at all with typical working times. It seemed I naturally wanted to wake sleep from around 1-2am and wake at around 10-11am. Other factors, of course, may have been behind that … but it seemed pretty obvious why I’d always had troubles … 8-9am starts were always putting me off balance while I was never giving myself the chance to get 9hrs sleep.
I’m the same. If I abandon societal norms and work commitments, and let my body adjust to its preferred cycle, I sleep 9 hours, 1am till 10am.
I think that’s pretty common, but not useful when I work every day 8.30am till 5.30pm. It means I wake up every day tired, even if I went to bed at 9pm.
Yea. I’ve always figured that from an evolutionary standpoint it made some decent sense that you’d people to have slight but meaningful differences in their preferred sleeping patterns. That way you have in the tribe or group at least one person who’s alert and energetic at nearly all times or at least can be if necessary. And even today, many jobs require wakefulness outside of the ordinary office hours. But, IME, you can see the toxicity of the “early riser” culture by how much it can pervade even in these relatively abnormal work contexts.
This has never not been an issue for me, and I’m absolutely convinced it’s because I’m forcing myself to conform to other people’s sleep schedule. During Covid I was able to WFH - not commuting, putting on makeup, and getting my clothes together saved me a couple of hours. It made a world of difference & I miss it every day.
I suspect a massive amount of people have Delayed Sleep Phase Disorder but have been societally forced into “normal” schedules and never got diagnosed. And then they’re just tired all the damn time.
That makes sense. But if it’s the case that artificialities of modern life (light, indoor work etc) are major factors that also happen to affect people in different ways, either due to their biological inclinations or other personal factors, it still becomes an attribute in which people effectively vary and we can either force everyone into one box along with the costs or work around variation.
Sleeping when your body tells you to sleep is the right way. Whether that’s early or late. Sleeping as long as you want to, during whatever hours you want to, is the healthiest sleep you can get.
Yes. Wait until you are sleepy to get in bed, then sleep until you wake up. Not “early to bed, early to rise makes you healthy and wealthy and wise.”. And exercise in the day, so you can get sleepy at night.
I have the luxury of doing this most days lately (am a diurnal person so sort of 23:00 to 7:00 or 8 more or less, feels best) and feel so much better. Not more energy necessarily but calmer energy.
On the original question, it always seems more like putting in some effort regularly makes everything easier. Lifting weights makes it easier to lift everyday items. Walking a lot makes it easier to walk somewhere comfortably. I don’t think that’s a bad system.
Sleeping in is the right way. Most of us have some amount of sleep deprivation because our alarms have to wake us before we get enough sleep
Which in turn can cause things like craving inordinate amounts of ice cream
I once had the opportunity to just sleep as long as I needed … as in no alarms or anything … for an extended period of time (a few months).
I pretty quickly settled into a rhythm, which was surprising as I’m the kind that likes to stay up late and have always struggled with that. And I found that my preferred sleeping duration is around 9 hours. Also, sleep is nicer when you don’t have to worry about sleeping in or not getting enough sleep … the whole rhythm seemed to be much more stable if the essential task — resting etc — is reliably achieved.
It also, I suspect, revealed why my sleep rhythm has always been off. My natural sleeping time and sleep length didn’t seem to align at all with typical working times. It seemed I naturally wanted to wake sleep from around 1-2am and wake at around 10-11am. Other factors, of course, may have been behind that … but it seemed pretty obvious why I’d always had troubles … 8-9am starts were always putting me off balance while I was never giving myself the chance to get 9hrs sleep.
I’m the same. If I abandon societal norms and work commitments, and let my body adjust to its preferred cycle, I sleep 9 hours, 1am till 10am. I think that’s pretty common, but not useful when I work every day 8.30am till 5.30pm. It means I wake up every day tired, even if I went to bed at 9pm.
Yea. I’ve always figured that from an evolutionary standpoint it made some decent sense that you’d people to have slight but meaningful differences in their preferred sleeping patterns. That way you have in the tribe or group at least one person who’s alert and energetic at nearly all times or at least can be if necessary. And even today, many jobs require wakefulness outside of the ordinary office hours. But, IME, you can see the toxicity of the “early riser” culture by how much it can pervade even in these relatively abnormal work contexts.
This has never not been an issue for me, and I’m absolutely convinced it’s because I’m forcing myself to conform to other people’s sleep schedule. During Covid I was able to WFH - not commuting, putting on makeup, and getting my clothes together saved me a couple of hours. It made a world of difference & I miss it every day.
I suspect a massive amount of people have Delayed Sleep Phase Disorder but have been societally forced into “normal” schedules and never got diagnosed. And then they’re just tired all the damn time.
That makes sense. But if it’s the case that artificialities of modern life (light, indoor work etc) are major factors that also happen to affect people in different ways, either due to their biological inclinations or other personal factors, it still becomes an attribute in which people effectively vary and we can either force everyone into one box along with the costs or work around variation.
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Yeah yeah, we all lived through the pandemic too, you aren’t special :-P
It wasn’t during the pandemic.
Going to bed at sundown is the right way, not staying up because people are doing cool stuff. Narf.
Silence, Pinky! I’m working on a plan for tomorrow night!
True, but then when am I supposed to eat all that ice cream?
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Sleeping is the right way, going to bed early is even righter.
Sleeping when your body tells you to sleep is the right way. Whether that’s early or late. Sleeping as long as you want to, during whatever hours you want to, is the healthiest sleep you can get.
Which is great if you don’t have a job or school or kids or responsibilities to wake up early for!
Unfortunately my body says it’s tired around 3-5am every day. And I need to be awake at 7.
I’m saying it is society that is wrong, for forcing you to sleep at odd times.
Agreed, but this can only be a rule for people who are in touch with their bodies enough so they actually notice when it’s time to sleep.
For everyone who loves to binge series or similar behaviors, going to bed earlier is probably the better rule.
Fucking morning people, you guys are insufferable
Why do people want to binge tv late at night?
Because they are not tired. That is not the best time for them to sleep.
Yes. Wait until you are sleepy to get in bed, then sleep until you wake up. Not “early to bed, early to rise makes you healthy and wealthy and wise.”. And exercise in the day, so you can get sleepy at night.
I have the luxury of doing this most days lately (am a diurnal person so sort of 23:00 to 7:00 or 8 more or less, feels best) and feel so much better. Not more energy necessarily but calmer energy.
On the original question, it always seems more like putting in some effort regularly makes everything easier. Lifting weights makes it easier to lift everyday items. Walking a lot makes it easier to walk somewhere comfortably. I don’t think that’s a bad system.
But that works only if you don’t disturb your time perception by artificial light- like looking into a computer screen in the evening/night.
Correct