Tag: sleep

Sleeping at the Office

Based on vacation hours, I could either have worked the day after Christmas, or, thanks to flexible hours, I could try to get all my hours in before Christmas Eve.  

How

I took a blanket to the office, and stayed there till the deed was done.  I slept when I was tired, took time out for walking and eating and other minor things, but mostly worked.  Out of curiosity, I logged what I did in Excel:

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Analysis

Below is the distribution of sleep, work, and other (life) that I endured.  This is NOT STACKED though it looks like it.

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See the flat line of blue from 1pm to 9pm?  My wife picked me up, we went to look at a house, had dinner, then I went home, slept, and showered, then returned to work.

Comparatively, if I had done normal hours: (sleep midight to 7; work 9-12 and 1-4):

image

 

Thoughts

  • I converted “Other” time into “Work”.   Sleep was more or less identical.   Theoretically, this gave me more “Other” time on Friday.
  • It was quite stressful.  I should probably include the day it took for me to return to normal.  (Stress as in “my body was under stress”)
    • If I ever do this again, I’m taking blood pressure and other measurements.
  • Interesting that a segment of work translates to a segment of sleep shortly after.  This was certainly not planned, but it worked out that way.  You cannot escape needed sleep.
  • Assuming the ratio stays about the same, I could do a regular week of work from Monday 8am to Thursday 8am?   Assuming no meetings and scope changes, of course.  (hah!) 

Tips

If I were to do this again, what would I do the same or differently?

  • Invest in a cot or air-mattress to make sleep more effective.
  • When sleeping, sleep FULLY, not “just enough”.  You’re going to sleep the same amount in the end.
  • Nap after every good bit of work; but look ahead (preplan the next bit of code) before napping so subconscious can work on it.
  • Invest in fatty snacks rather than carby snacks.  Especially good for me this time was Dinty Moore Beef Stew.
  • Have minor things you can do for yourself in the middle so you don’t feel neglected, like going for a walk, taking care of an errand, etc.

Altered Schedules Part 2: Resetting Sleep Cycle

I’m continuing to try the Altered Schedule talked about earlier.   I don’t think its working.

I even went as far as trying to Reset my Sleep Cycle with a 16-Hour Fast.  Twice.  This is the second time. Result:  While hungry, I don’t get much sleep; Sure enough I wake up at 6am no problem.. its now 11am and I am draaaaggging.  If this is like the last time I did this (Tuesday morning), at about 1pm the sleepy is going to hit like a ton of bricks attached to my eyelids.

On the other hand, yesterday there wasn’t anything I could do before a 10am meeting at the client site, so I slept in.  I had a wonderful day!

I am about ready to throw in the towel.  My clock likes to fall asleep at about 1am or 2am, and get up around 8am.  Next week, I’m going to try and respect that:

  The Plan The Reality
8am-? Wake up, Shower, Journal, etc TBD
?-10am Get to work by 10 Probably more like 9:30.
10am-7pm Be work productive.  
First meal probably at noon.		 Will get cut short whenever anything sneezes .. family sports, etc.
7pm-9pm Household productive.  Dishes, sweeping, etc. Eating dinner with the wife would count as household productive. Smile
9pm-11pm Play I can be pretty good at this part when I get my target figured out.
11pm-midnight Wind down Not so good at this.
midnight-8am Sleep 1am: Cat.  3am: Cat  5,6am: Cat

Hey, Deployment done.  Back to work.