A bowl of chicken soup and 11 hours of sleep.
And I’m still sick.
I guess it was bound to happen really. I had recently decided that I should train myself to sleep less. How exciting could life become if I could snag an extra hour a day… or two hours? man. A free 700 hours a year seems too awesome to not try it. Especially 700 hours of guitar practice. I bet with 700 hours of guitar a year I could be Jimmy Page.
Then I look around and see those that dominate sleep like it was a pile of stationary star bits in Super Mario Galaxy waiting to be owned by an experienced player two. Tim Baird survives healthfully off of about 5 hours. Irene can seemingly live off 4. JonAbad? well heck. Some say Jon hasn’t slept since the renaissance.
So I tried it. I started going to bed later and later and getting up at the same time.
And, as every rational mikedidonato.com reader would have predicted, I pretty much failed miserably. And this morning, as I woke up fully refreshed but totally sick after 11 hours of deep sleep I decided to do some quick web research about this idea. That’s right. I decided to research AFTER trying it instead of before. Anyway, in general people say that you can’t do it. But there are some good points of ‘if you improve the quality’ perhaps you can then sleep less. Paulette suggested that perhaps some yoga or relaxation techniques before bed would help. Tony said I should buy an expensive comfy bed. My mom told me I was an idiot and that I should go to bed.
Oh well.
Mom D, for the record, I told him the same thing.
Hope you feel better soon. I feel that I have an awesome and fufulling life b/c of my 8 hours of sleep a night. I sleep with earplugs, otherwise I am constantly waking up with every little noise and not sleeping well.
Mike, try Zicam + Buckley’s Cough Mixture to kill a cold. Works like a charm.
My ability to skip sleep is probably one of the few things I have in common with Chuck Norris.
Emily however has affected it and now i go to sleep earlier.
I feel that i’ve gotten sicker this fall/winter season more than the previous one though.
Sleep is magical, why would you want to have less of it in your life?
Have you tried doing a sleep analysis?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/sleep/profiler/
I think your mom is absolutely right.
Mom D is always right, from what I hear.
Yeah, I am a 5-hour-a-nighter, but without coffee I would be nothing.
I know, I’ve tried it.
Mike D, planet whhhhaaaaaat?
I know a bit about the science of sleep. People vary in the amount they need each night (which would explain the case of Tim), yet on average people need about 8.2 hours (is it 8.2 or 8.4? I forget). Older people tend to need a bit less. What is critical is the time spent in REM (rapid eye movement). You deprive people of REM and they will eventually die. How about that?
Paulette: Mike D, please don’t die.
Tony: Mike D, I withdraw my expensive bed comment (although still believe in it) and go with Mom D. you’re an idiot, go to bed.
Hope you feel better! Happy Thanksgiving!
Nearly 150 years ago, before Edisoi invented the electric light bulb, people slept about an hour longer than it is now, ie a bit longer than 8 hours. Some people believe that the increase due to an electric light period wakefulness not harmful to us, and we just have to sleep stronger and deeper. Others believe that the invention of Edison, which gave us the electric light and forced us to stay awake longer than it should have, just as insane and led to the rhythm of modern life.