That was a question I didnt think I would be doing. My dilemma: I love to sleep but now I wish I could sleep less and keep myself totally fresh. I need around six hours daily but sometimes I get four or five. I know this will have its consequences. Right now I dont have a fixed schedule so its even harder for me to organize my time. (I went "blank" here. Give me a moment please).
Well, forget about the time, thats something I have to manage somehow... I just wanted to share some of this with you, I mean, grrrr. How can I say it? I try to read but I feel pushed away when I see those blocks of letters (I came back here to apologize since I have extended with some of my characteristic nonsense). ("Blank" again).
I hope you get what Im trying to say. I want to make lot of things. To read more and write more and work more on my projects and I know I always complain about this, I hate to complain, makes me feel guilty but I think I needed to let this out. You know, you all have your own business but still you post and post and its all great stuff so... I dont know anymore. I think I will go and make myself a sandwich or maybe Ill have a bowl of cereal. (Oh, they brought me a salad, nice).
All of this makes me wonder. We need to sleep to recharge, to make theories about the subconcious, how much culture, folklore, science development can we make of the sleep process? Am I missing something? (Besides sleep hours?). How many stories have been told in which, at the end, everything was a dream? What about the nightmares? The persons who curse because of their hard bed or because they dont have a bed at all? What about the sleep disorders? Sleepwalking or sleep paralysis for example? All of those that are in a bar or a dance floor? And where are the watchmen? The poets who need to stare the moon and the stars? Most animals go to sleep as soon as it gets dark. Eclipses anyone?
Our body was configurated to have this need to sleep, according to those scientist (I sometimes bore for telling me what to do), eight hours and then I say, yeah right, we all know you [the doc] take five cups of coffee daily and nightly and like Winston Wolf "with lots of cream, lots of sugar". (I do love granizados de café!! Its a heavenly pleassure!!). Day jobs makes you more like a... day-person. Isnt this too medieval? "Oh no! Its night already! The wolves are coming! Booooo! Still, we rebel against this heritance. (Man, I do love cereal and ice creams and pizza!).
I know, I know, but I still can not get over this. Back in my days, kids were pushed to hit the sack too soon. Now kids established a 11 days/nights no sleeping record and they earned few minutes more. What happens to all of that energy!? Where is it? Now, I ask myself all of this and feel as if gravity would be harder. We all know energy can not be destroyed... so where is it? where did it go? And if you take a second to repeat this questions, maybe aloud, you could say... (grrr "Blank again).
I should stick this [post] on my refrigerator´s door and put a big red capital F with a cute minus sign on it. It wont make time flow in any different manner. F´s are cool. You can write many cool words with it. Its all about having fun and resting, sleeping, dreaming, having nightmares, "consulting things with the pillow" (I dont know if you have an expression for this one)... all of this is fun but Im not sure I can indulge in this way of having fun for more hours. Im a sloth (yay! I spelled it right this time!) and I know that if I dont get out of bed too early I will never get out of bed again.
Guys, Im really sorry but I really have to thank you once again for taking the time to read, to [verb] me (whats your favorite verb? Please dont tell me its "to sleep" because I would [verb] myself). Maybe Im too... I dont know but if I ever meet you guys I hope we could have some granizados de café and you would talk about books that I have never heard about and I would talk more nonsense or just listen and apologize if Im looking sleepy. (Whats the nightmare/dream you remember the most?). -yawns- So, as I said. I wanted to express all of this. I wont say more because that would be, maybe, too weird or who knows but... meh.
I think what you are trying to say is... CONGA!
But seriously, if you're really, honestly looking to cut your sleep time down, the most you want to safely do is about 6 hours a night. You have to consider that that is pretty good compared to a baby, may want to sleep 15+ hours a day. Finding more time to work on things is more in the realm of setting priorities (easy), organization and following self-set rules (medium), and stopping time (expensive). Energy might seemingly take off to nowhere (and it probably does, or maybe just to Cuba), but if you cut your sleep time you're probably going to find yourself getting less productive.
As for cultural and scientific influences of sleep, they're everywhere. That inherent vulnerability coupled with the unknown of the night and need for the body to recharge because of increasing exhaustion at the end of the day... there are a lot of things on levels simple and complex that you can find based off of sleep. Almost anywhere you look, there is something associated with sleep or its side-effect, dreaming/nightmares. There's a reason why the bad things come out at night and are afraid of / weak against the Sun.
CONGA!
Now what you really want is to be an elf and not sleep at all, but get all the benefits of sleep by undergoing 4 hours trance.
Biohazard, your words are true. Setting priorities its, well, very important. Its hard sometimes but lets leave that aside, I know Ill manage. Now, about the sleep influences... this is very interesting. Im feeling I should dedicate to the study of it.
Seraphine_Harmonium, I dont like elves... Within this context I know I have said to myself that their four hours trance could prove useful but do they dream, have nightmares, trance disorders, trance walking, trance paralysis, do they talk when they are in trance, do they research their trances to learn about it? do they know what a pillow war is? Do they make spoons when they trance? Bah! I dont like elves! Now I really dont like elves!
Sleep (including lack of sleep) is a form of beauty. I have totally forgot about this... hmm.
CONGA!
I enjoy a good 7 to 10 hours of sleep per day. I wish I could sleep more... I have no idea how to make some one sleep less beyond keeping one's self busy with engaging material (play a video game!).
My favorite verb is Mastication because it sounds like a dirty word! Na, Mastication is a lame verb... Yawn is a fun verb, if only because you feel the urge to Yawn every time you write or read the word Yawn! :) Another fun verb is Disentangle. I don't know why but the word, to me, has a lot of connotations or rather, it sparks many different images in my head, not least of which is the Orc Barbarian disentangling himself from the massive tentacles of the Steel Kraken or the more mundane image, that being your dad, disentangling himself from the chirstmas tree lights... Good times, good times.
Well as Squidward would say, 'another day, another nickle!'
Elemental_Elf, consider yourself and exception jajajaja. will stick yout post in the refri´s door too.
I did -yawm- when I wrote it.
(What Im doing here yet!? Gotta go...)
GRANIZADO DE CAFE!
I counter you with my Mega Sleeper Voltron Zord!
Hmm, i remember that Amazon, together with some science company, were selling a real-life sleep pod on the web at some point. Optimized for extreme comfort and minimum amount of sleep. It was pretty crazy if i remember correctly. Anyway, might not be that constructive, but that all depends on your, to me unknown, funding.
Now I like elves even less...
It is hard to cut back on sleep, I feel your pain. I wish I could. I work with someone that works two jobs 4-5 days a week and sleeps about three hours a day every day...you don't want to go there. She's got more medical issues than she can keep track of. Her doctor has told her to cut back on work is she doesn't want to find an early grave.
Probably not the best suggestion but there are some drugs that will let you go 24-48 hours without sleep without side effects. There not uppers that get you wired and *won't* let you sleep, I forget exactly what they do but I believe they block a receptor in the brain that lets you just keep going without being tired (if you want, you can wind down if you feel the need).
I don't know the name of the thing however. Personally I hate falling asleep, just lying there is boring. I tend to listen to some music so its restful even if I'm not asleep.
Quote from: BlueSilenceSeraphine_Harmonium, I dont like elves... Within this context I know I have said to myself that their four hours trance could prove useful but do they dream, have nightmares, trance disorders, trance walking, trance paralysis, do they talk when they are in trance, do they research their trances to learn about it? do they know what a pillow war is? Do they make spoons when they trance? Bah! I dont like elves! Now I really dont like elves!
Don't know about 4e, but in 3.x they didn't dream
per se, but went through unconscious mental exercises that resemble dreams on all practical levels.
I don't know about elves and pillow fights, either, but the closest I can think of is that they enjoy art in pretty much any form, so my guess is unless they're too Vulcan-like, they
might enjoy a good pillow fight...
QuoteCONGA!
Agreed!
Quote from: LlumProbably not the best suggestion but there are some drugs that will let you go 24-48 hours without sleep without side effects. There not uppers that get you wired and *won't* let you sleep, I forget exactly what they do but I believe they block a receptor in the brain that lets you just keep going without being tired (if you want, you can wind down if you feel the need).
I don't know the name of the thing however. Personally I hate falling asleep, just lying there is boring. I tend to listen to some music so its restful even if I'm not asleep.
I got that effect from mixing orange Powerade and Sobe Adrenaline Rush. Epic. Straight through an anime con without need for sleep.
I drink caffeine to stay awake, but for some reason black coffee knocks me out.
No pills for me, no thanks. Music is better. Right now I cant put music until I fall sleep but soon I will be able to do it and Im looking forward it. Eyes closing slowly while the lyrics loses sense and zzzz. One mix I try sometimes is coca-cola with condensed milk (I dont know how do you call it) but this is for short term purposes.
I have heard about persons who get knocked out after having coffee, I dont know why.
Crazy machines that improve sleep? It made me remember those Japanese Hotels or like in Fifth Element, the plane scene?.
Elves sure like art but they way I think of them they would see a pillow fight somewhat... low-class like. It would be more a dwarf kids behavior for them... I guess.
Ninja D!, Your co worker must be a strong person, I hope she can be alright. I have met persons with similar situations... not nice.
[spoiler In response (to E_E´s Mega Sleeper Voltron Zord)]
I play Vogarld´s Dream on BlueSilence´s Avatar. Vogarld´s Dream reads: "Affects target creature. If the affected creature is countered, pick a race. All the creatures of such race in the field, deck and hand or player fall asleep or enter trance. Sleeping/In Trance creatures cant take any actions. This effect will last 12 posts."
I choose: "Elves".
: D [/spoiler]
BS,
I won't bore you with the chemical and psychological reasons behind it, but let's just say that there is a 're-charge' imperitive biologically and lets also make clear that the sunconsious needs a 'rinse-reset/process' very regularly. Many of the theories behind this are tied together.
However, many people find that creating a very fixed schedule allows them to somewhat streamline the sleep process. Military histories are full of examples, and virtually every biography that includes a person who is extraordinarily productive despite short sleeping hours normally involves a very rigid schedule.
There is also the funky sleep schedules. There is one (called polyphasic sleep I believe) where you train your body to enter REM sleep (the type you need in order to refresh) very quickly. Thus people who use polyphasic can follow a schedule of sleeping for half an hour and then being awake for 4 hours. You technically only get about 3 hours of sleep every day. However, because it is almost all REM sleep that you get, you will stay healthy. However once again, polyphasic sleep requires a rigid discipline. You cannot miss many naps before things get all messed up. You also can't miss any at all while training your body to sleep polyphasically.
Or you could just be this guy (http://www.thanhniennews.com/features/?catid=10&newsid=12673)
Yeah... a friend told me something about that once but with my everchanging schedule its not an option. I lack discipline to be honest. This week was weird, I slept much more... like 7-9 average and by the end of the day I felt funny or tired even if work was soft this week.
Im confident things will be much better as I reach some goals. Soon I will be able to re start my studies so I will work all day and study at nights, eat pasta, drink cocacola, and sleep as much as I can. I like how that sounds.
It does kind of depend on the person too. I for one sleep between 8 and 10 hours a day. Might have to do with my love of the dream world hehe. Though I would like to try polyphasic sleep sometime. If for no other reason then it rewires your mind (so that you can have 20 minute naps that are all REM... which I am told feels totally awesome).
Thats my point. Im trapped. I love the dream world but I also love the errr... "awakened" world.
Anyways, if I ever get to become a researcher on sleep phenomena then I will call you to try polyphasic sleeps if its OK with you.
One of my PC's is a sleep tech.
And I sleep just a tic over 6 hours a night. Otherwise, nothing gets done.
I would like to see that PC.
Six works for me awesome most of the time. I read at the tavern that some of you stayed awake until like 4am last saturday (?). I love to do that. Sunrise is at 5:30 am for me and its great to hear how the crickets stop and then you start hearing the birds. Or how the ghostly sound of the wind of the night fades.
Sometimes I wonder if the moon ever gets bored of so many lovers...
If you stay away from all clocks and sunlight for long enough, you'll involuntarily begin to slip into a 29-hour sleep cycle instead of a 24-hour one. I'm not sure why.