Formula for Healthy Sleep by Piotr Wozniak

Thanks for posting. I read this:<p><i>For example, DSPS students often get a short sleep in the night, wake up early with an alarm clock, go to school where they are semi-conscious and perform poorly, get a solid nap after school and only late in the evening they regain vigor and their full mental powers. DSPS students feel best after midnight when everyone else is asleep and they can focus on learning or other activities (reading, Internet, watching TV, computer games, etc.).</i><p>And thought, "this article is about me".<p>In an effort to understand my own sleep patterns, I bought a Zeo. After a week or so, I think I've found how things work. If I get a lot of deep sleep, I may not "feel awake" or refreshed, but I can think really well. If I get a lot of REM sleep, I feel great, but may not be in the mood to do anything. With that in mind, I am trying to figure out how to get a good amount of both in the same sleeping session.<p>I haven't had a chance to try this yet, but my plan is to tire myself out (hopefully corresponding to nighttime, just to be in sync with the real world), get a lot of deep sleep, and then when I wake up, check that I've gotten enough REM sleep. If not, back to bed until I feel satisfied. (I am pretty good at getting REM sleep in the morning. Alarm goes off, alarm set for +1:30, and I get about 1:15 worth of REM sleep. Great dreams in this period too. It helps that my work schedule boils down to "try and show up before 2" :)<p>Anyway, I guess I don't have enough data to say anything conclusive, but this is my plan.

<i>Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome</i><p>Holy crap, what I do <i>has a name</i>. That's comforting.<p>This "syndrome" comes and goes in cycles, for me. Currently, I'm enjoying regular "day" days. In about a two weeks I'll naturally switch into nocturnal mode, for about three weeks. After these three weeks I'll spend 3-4 four days "fixing" my sleeping schedule....<p>Is this how it is for other DSPS persons here? I highly value my sleep and vivid dreams, which are very prominent during the DSPS episodes, and I honestly feel more productive and creative in that time.<p>Someone once told me that the best thinking occurs at 3am, which is when the local world around you is most quiet and you can think more clearly. I think she said it was some Buddhist thing, though I can't remember exactly what she said. I always thought that was neat, and concurs with my experience of being able to focus better in the middle of the night.

I've known about DSPS for about five years now. Problem is, the world doesn't accommodate you anyway (my time in HS/college was absolutely terrible; I'm just getting out now), so I've resorted to using tricks like light therapy and taking melatonin at night. Even tried the Tim Ferriss method of ice baths when I needed to sleep for finals. My experience is that I can only temporarily hack my sleep to be 'normal' for about two weeks, max, and then it veers off again.<p>Hell, this is probably a big reason I'd like to get into startups and such. I don't think I could survive a normal job schedule and the progressive shift is too unpredictable for most companies.<p>How are you liking the Zeo?

<i>However, DSPS individuals may have their clocks running periods long enough to find it hard to fit to 24 hours. They also push their clocks ahead by activity late in the evening (the process opposite to the morning reset synchronization). DSPS individuals, when given a chance to sleep when they want, will tend to go to sleep later and later. They will also wake up later and later.</i><p>This is a perfect description of my dilemma. I've been struggling with school/college for years because of this crap -- now at least I have a reasonable excuse for all the classes I withdrew from to avoid failing.

any formula is irrelevant for married people.<p>And funny how this became a me-too thread.