elime

I find that I lose a lot of time to yet another shortcoming of the human condition: sleep.

Even if I do manage to burn the midnight oil and work late, I inevitably end up getting up late. Without enough sleep, I'm sluggish and nowhere near as productive as when I'm well rested - something that doesn't happen very often.

So, as we all know, computer people are notorious for lack of sleep...especially those in our industry. I mean, we all know the rumors about DeStone. The guy never sleeps, fueled only by hot pockets and a never ending lust for that next mil.

All joking aside, what methods could you guys share for how to sleep less while still remaining cognizant enough to work properly? Any suggestions on how to get better sleep?

Let's just leave out the obvious coffee, caffeine, etc. I could seriously drink two pots of coffee and a few red bulls and have no problem sleeping like a baby right after.

I guess the elephant in the room would be Adderral - never messed with it myself, but I know a lot of you use it. Anyone care to share experiences?

What I'm really after is a good way to minimize sleep while maximizing awake time + productivity.

loyolabenson

maybe it's your metabolism that's an issue. Ever since I started running again, I have more energy through out the day and sleep less.

elime

That's a good point. I actually used to do light exercise in the mornings and it does seem to help, but I've been busy the past few months with work, moving, etc.

The neighborhood I'm in now is actually really nice, so I was considering getting a bike and doing half an hour or so of cycling around in the morning. If I actually manage to remove my ass from this seat, I'll report back on the results.

eyekon1

exercise.


i used to have a hard time waking up in the morning, would feel groggy until lunch. I started hitting the homegym and doing some cardio, after getting into a routine, I found waking up was SUPER EASY. Once i'm up...im up and have alot more energy compared to when I was a couch potato. Sometimes I'd only get 4 hours but I still have the energy to make it through the day without struggling. Of course doing this (4 hours of sleep) on a regular basis isnt good at all.

Also, its not like you're exercising to do a whole total body transformation (thats up to you if you want to)...just do enough to keep fit....you'll find you'll have more energy. Would you try it for a week/2weeks?

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Janaic

Personally, i wouldn't take the chance of establishing a dependency (adderal). Exercise is very essential to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

ScottDaMan

Jogging for 30 minutes a day will work wonders for you. I was in the same boat.

Now, I tend to get a lot of hardcore take-no-prisoners ideas when jogging in the morning.

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Here's what worked for me...

Regulating my eating, exercising and sleep patterns. I try to eliminate as much variance as possible. That way, my body can grow accustomed to a persistent schedule. It begins to "know" when it's "time to eat," "time to exercise" and "time to sleep."

It doesn't work for everyone, of course. It just works for me.

Other things that seem to help me maximize my productivity with as little sleep as possible:

- limiting caffeine (disrupts sleep patterns)
- eliminating most heavy foods with a ton of saturated fat
- drinking tons of water
- limiting alcohol
- limiting TV (kind of like life support for the brain)
- reducing my emotional responses (anger, extreme joy, etc.)

I realize some of the above sounds odd. But, again, it works well for me. Given the type and level of work I do daily, I've come to accept my optimal amount of sleep is around 6 hours, 15 minutes.

Of course, when I was mass-building search spam sites, 4 hours a night was fine.

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Hypnotic

Polyphasic sleep - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Demon

Do cardiovascular exercise (i.e. jogging) every day, and GIVE UP caffeine altogether, so no more coffee.

John

elime

Summary of this thread: "get up and move around, fatty"

LazyHippy

I read an interesting article a while back, basically saying sleep in multiples of 90 minutes, so 6 or 7.5 hrs, not 8.

I'll try and dig it out...

Cheat on the Need to Sleep - Wired How-To Wiki

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turbolapp

LOL.

Jogging may work for you. When I tried it it just made me more lethagic and down right pooped. Powerwalking (I manage to make it NOT look gay) works the best for me. And yes since I've been doing this I wake up right away in the morning and am not tired until bed time. I drink no caffine (except the occasional ice tea) but then again I'm not trying to stay up really late and wake up really early. I get a good 9 hours of sleep a night now that I work from home. It's fucking AWESOME.

emp

Newest research also supports the theory that sleep patterns are genetic.
No way to "re-train" yourself.

Being self employed, though, gives you the possibility to follow your natural sleep pattern.

::emp::

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kofiannan

Finding your natural sleep pattern is useful. Some people just cannot function if they wake before 8am or 9am, even if they've slept the same amount of hours. Also, never doze off once you wake up as your blood sugar level drops again, making you groggy for the rest of the morning/afternoon.

Oh, and er.....yeah....a lil duromine for those weeks when you need to get a lot done...but only those weeks mind you!