microsleep
I’m thinking about staying up all night once per week, trying to learn about what physiological effects that might have. I’m proposing this as an alternative to building up sleep debt by getting 5-6 hours of sleep a night. I haven’t really found any conclusive information, but here are some interesting tidbits on sleep:
- The function of sleep has not been fully determined
- The Army is researching modafinil as a way of keeping soldiers awake 80 out of 88 hours, two 40 hour shifts seperated by 8 hours sleep
- Microsleep is defined as brief (several seconds) runs of theta or delta activities that break through the otherwise beta or alpha EEG of waking. This is what happens when you fall asleep at the wheel, etc
- All-Nighters are a bit of a macho thing among some business travelers (pdf, bugmenot )
For my own purposes … there is a lot of stuff I want to get done, mostly software. Late at night is quiet and free of interruptions. I’m wondering if getting on this schedule would make me more or less productive overall. Also will exercise help? How long would I be able to stay on the schedule?
Filed under: all talk, support, tiki lifestyle, tronix · 2 Comments
if you have to go without sleep, i think staying up once a week is definitely preferable to not getting enough sleep during the week.
exercising at dawn also seems to help w/ productivity (something about being up when it’s still slightly dark and none of the cars are out yet ). i rarely do this anymore but prob. should b/c my head has been feeling kind of smooshy lately.