It has come this far…

I almost wasn’t expecting it – I’ve now been doing this 4 to 5 hour per night sleeping experiment for exactly a month. The experience itself has changed the way I think about and value sleep. It has also completely changed a lot of my sleeping habits – for better or for worse. 

I must admit, I have taken 2 naps throughout this Life Experiment. However, both were under an hour in length.

In addition, I slipped up on setting my alarm and had two nights were I accidently slept in, once for 6 hours, once for 7 hours. To redeem my pattern, however, I slept for only 2.5 hours the night after these slip-ups (I was so tired I set the alarm for “pm” not “am”).

I’m proud to say that I’m not a coffee addict either. I drink coffee only about half the time, and though it certainly does seem to have a noticeable effect – I do not guzzle it. One cup every other day, thats my creed and I’ve stuck to it.

I can definitely say that the experiment has its pros and its cons, so with thirty days experience in sleeping an average of 4.5 hours per night, here’s what I have to say:

Consequences of Less Sleep:

• I often find that by about 10 or 11 pm, my body wants to shut down – plain and simple. It usually cannot deal with sustained activity for more than 20 hours when it is running on only 4 hours of sleep. On more that one occasion this is prevented me from going out at night because I knew I didn’t even feel safe driving.
• When I’ve been awake for 20 or more hours, my nose gets stuffy. It seems odd, but I frequently get the sniffles after these long days. I’ll be up reading or writing and all of a sudden I’ll feel like I’m coming down with a cold. This might also have to do with allergies, though it seems odd that they would all of a sudden effect me at midnight…
• Spending too much time alone in the wee morning hours sometimes doesn’t feel right. Though the time is productive, I’m usually pretty eager to hop up and see my friends when I’ve spent the first 4 or 5 dark morning hours by myself (nobody else is up!).

Benefits of a Sleepless Lifestyle:

• The mornings are free for whatever I please. Waking up at 4 or 5 in the morning gives me plenty of time before any other part of my day begins. Even when I teach private lessons at 6 in the morning, I still have some reading or planning time while I hear the birds trying to chirp the sun over the horizon. If I don’t have any plans until noon, this time provides me with half a day for whatever productive activities I choose – which usually involves reading, writing, planning, and exercise (jogging is awesome right at daybreak).
• A little bit of time makes a difference. Right now I’m working on my reading speed and my typing speed. Getting up ridiculously early allows me to practice these skills on a daily basis. Imagine if you could pick any skill and work at it for 2 hours every single day. Be it stock trading, painting, a foreign language, etc… – you could become FAR more proficient with only a few months of 2 hour-per-day training. With the way I sleep now, I have an extra 3 or 4 hours per day – without feeling traumatic consequences in other areas of my life. Thats a lot of practice time.
• I’m getting used to waking up swiftly. This is a combination of having compelling things to do each morning, and also because my body doesn’t seem to go into full-blown hibernation mode when I only sleep for a few hours at a time.

Overall I’d call this habit of 4.5 hours of sleep per night FULLY IMPLEMENTED. I’m excited to see where else this project takes me, and if I alter it over time.

Here are some bits of wisdom I’ve picked up through living sleeplessly. These ideas might be of use to those of you looking to taper down your sleep, or those of you who just want to be more alert in the early morning:

Sleepless Wisdom:

• Having plans for the early morning hours makes waking up so much easier - I find that when I give myself some fun an exciting tasks for the morning (which I do regularly), getting up swiftly is easy
• Move around after waking up – Getting up and stumbling over to the computer to check emails or turning over to read a book is usually a ticket to slumbersville all over again. When you get up and focus on those things you’re eager to do during the day, take some deep breaths and walk like you do when you’re awake (the pre-coffee “zombie shuffle” only puts you back into Zzzzz-mode).
• More on body language - This is huge for me in this sleepless experiment. I notice that when I slouch on the couch or lay down to write or otherwise put myself into relaxed positions, my body takes the hint and my eyelids get heavy. When I sit up strait and walk with my head up high, its as though my body and mind associate this with alertness, and they respond accordingly.

If this gets too easy I might do an entire week on only 3 hours of sleep per night.

I’ll be updating this Life Experiment in another month’s time. Maybe I’ll have bags under my eyes by then… 

___

If you enjoyed this post and the material on this site, consider signing up for my RSS feed or bumping this material only StumbleUpon or Digg. Thanks a lot!