I have no idea what to call it, so I’ll just call it a double-sleep schedule. I’ve had tremendous success with it in the past and this running in the early afternoon is doing something that is putting my body back into wanting to do it again. At this point I don’t question stuff like this. I just accept it.
The greatest advantage of a double-sleep schedule for me as a knowledge worker is that I can have two highly effective brain-times during the day right when I wake up and have coffee. That’s a hard thing to explain to anyone who doesn’t need their brain set to maximum to accomplish something. Coders, writers, and even students know exactly what I mean.
I started a double-sleep schedule without even thinking about it when I was in college. It was very different, however. I would wake up at 5am and get on campus and work very intensely for two hours from a quiet place in the lab on campus where I worked. I got more done in those two hours than in four of tired, caffeine-filled forcing it (and getting caffeine at BYU was like smuggling in drugs). Then I would sleep at odd times during the day (usually in the afternoon) that people found very odd (which is hard because people are not particularly quiet during those times). I would also train usually twice a day, in the morning and evening.
I suppose it is worth mentioning that I’ve always defaulted to this schedule when I have been focused on endurance sports and training. It’s a well-known fact that serious endurance athletes take a daily “nap” in order to recover. After all, your body doesn’t produce growth hormone (practically) unless you are asleep. It follows then, that sleeping from 6-9pm, then working until 2 or 3 am works for me now as well.
I still get all the hours in. And according to my watch I’m getting the same amount of REM sleep, it’s just basically in three or four REM cycles spread out in about a 1 to 4 ratio. I get a really solid REM cycle in from 6-9pm and then about three more from 4-10am.
I’m crazy productive in the very early morning hours, for some reason. I think the main reason is the lack of disruption and pure silence of the night. Even when I stream during those times I’m more productive.
Tags:
#sleep #lifehacks