Question for Terra (and anyone else who wants to answer)

[Terra]

Do you sleep the short hours and work the long hours because you enjoy it and love it

Yes, definitely...

, or is it because no one can completely substitute for Terra yet?

Every member of the FutureQuest Team passes the bus test... That is a corporate necessity for a business like ours...

--
Terra
--sysAdmins are a dime a dozen nowadays and I'm easily replaceable--
FutureQuest

[CDarklock]

Originally Posted by PaulKroll

But there's considerable research that folks who do NOT get at least 7.5 hours a night are not performing as their peak or anywhere near it.

The *average* human being does indeed need an *average* of eight to nine hours of sleep a night. However, some people need more -- my wife simply can't get by on less than ten, and is much happier with fourteen -- and some people need far less. It's a very complex question related to your personal biochemistry, along with any supplements you may take and the kind of nutrition you're getting, contrasted with your daily activity.

There's a simple rule I follow: eat when you're hungry, drink when you're thirsty, sleep when you're tired. That seems to work for pretty much everybody.

Terra's clock-walking sounds like how I worked ten or twelve years ago. I was on what amounted to a thirty-hour clock; I'd be up for about 25 hours, sleep for five, and repeat. If I could still successfully interact with the real world on a schedule like that, I'd still be doing it, but I don't have that luxury anymore... I have to work with *normal* people. (shudder)

[Andilinks]

The schedule that I described includes 40 min. (often more) of aerobic (sweaty) exercise daily and rigorous resistance training which takes a long time because I go for reps not weight.

Without the exercise it changes, without interruptions from outside schedules it settles into a routine.

I will sleep longer than six hours at a stretch only if I have accrued a deficit, so it is usually 4-5 hours.

I wish I could say my diet is good, but one reason I exercise this much is so I can eat more with impunity.

Andi

[TVB]

My last post here last night (this morning?) was around 5am. I've been up for about 20 minutes or just long enough to boil a pot of water and let my tea (somewhat low caffeinated since it is white tea) steep for a few minutes, probably longer than I should be it has low tannen levels.

I saw a study last week or at least read something about it that indicated really creative people are apt to want/need more sleep. I know I do. If I am writing and jamming on my book, I'm sleeping quite a bit at odd hours and on a weird schedule. Actually those days I get almost all my sleep during the day when there is a good deal of ambient noise in the background and write almost exclusively during the nighttime hours. I'll need to remember that for the liner notes: "written in the dark".

Likewise, if I am working on one of our websites, I am doing it during the day and for really long periods if I get hung up on something. For instance, when the switch to mambo began in the background, I was moving a lot of content and it became a rote experience, thereby causing me to develop an almost OCD-like behavior.

Many things changed in my life along with my sleeping pattern the day I bought my current bed, particularly the current linens. It's simply too comfy some mornings to extricate myself from. It's those times that I really appreciate having my laptop using a wifi connection.

Betsy

[Dunx]

I used to be able to function on six hours of sleep a night during the week and then crash on the weekends, but I can't do that any more. I do best if I get eight hours sleep, less than that and I do not function well.

Part of this is that I've had an ulcer buggering up my sleep patterns for most of the last ten years, one way or another. I finally went to the doctor and had this diagnosed at the end of January because I spent most of January asleep - I was never rested, no matter how much sleep I got. The sleep issues weren't the only ulcerous symptom, but it was the one I was taking notice of because I was ceasing to function in any meaningful way.

But I'm going to stick to eight hours as my answer, because it's been reality for a long time now.

[Deb]

I'm still trying to figure out the answer to this question....

Years ago I was clinically diagnosed as an insomniac ... it got so bad for a while there that I was hospitalized and heavily drugged as they tried to force my body to rest and of course w/o sleep all kinds of BadThings^TM can happen. After finally getting some sleep I began to sleep too much which also has bad effects.... FINALLY it started to fall into a routine similar to what the other "clockwalkers" have described. Longish periods without sleep and then a good solid rest only to start over again seeing the days as about 30 hours long. This worked great for me and was accomplished w/o drugs or docs or anything of that nature so I was pretty happy with it

When FutureQuest began the long hours became longer as we worked aggressively to ensure everything started up correctly. Terra and I both worked insane amounts of hours and pushed ourselves beyond what we probably should have (as most new business owners with a goal will do). As the team grew and the company became more established I was pleased to see that I had no problem getting more sleep.

Terra is awake a LOT more than me now. I can't keep up with him ... not at all.. I'm fine with that though because first hand experience has shown me how bad it can be to stay awake too long. I, like Terra, have the privilege to sleep without the use of an alarm clock (just a pager/beeper these days to give an intermission to the dreams lol). Terra and I do keep an eye on each other though. If I start to notice his mood changing for the worse or his words becoming slurred then I'll push him to bed... fortunately that's not required too often since he does seem to obey his body's demands more oft than not. Likewise, if he notices that I'm lacking in the sleep area he'll start to coral the kids/pets etc and ensure I have some solid uninterrupted quiet time for sleep.

What's happening around me and emotions seem to play a large part in how much I need to sleep. If there's a great deal of stress I'm awake more....and when it settles I crash for a much longer period of time. If things are "normal" then I tend to do well with 4 to 5 hours of sleep and nap when possible in front of the tv... (I've seen the beginning of a LOT of movies...but the rest is a Hitchcock Mystery lol)

I think it's also important to note that rest, though not counted as sleep, plays a large role in the body's requirements. Terra may be 'awake' for 48 hours straight but he'll "rest" a for a good chunk of the time watching a movie, playing a video game, or tinkering with something outside of work etc... Likewise for me whether it be the tv or the fishtanks or sitting by the pond observing the turtles or anything of that nature. When you work as many days in a row as we do, hours "away" can feel like a good night's rest that sets us up to return to doing what we enjoy.... work

Deb
- Can't count the number of times we've asked the question "When did you last sleep?"

[Bruce]

Originally Posted by TVB

How many hours of sleep do you require everyday?

When my sleep isn't interrupted, I will generally wake up 7 1/2 to 8 hours after I go to bed, with no alarm. This has annoyed my wife to no end ("Why can't you just sleep in?!?"). She generally needs 9-10 hours, which of course has annoyed me too ("Why can't you just get up?")

-- "Ain't nobody's happy when momma's not happy!" ---

[Andilinks]

...only to start over again seeing the days as about 30 hours long.

This has long been a problem for me. I always want to stay up later than I did the night before until I circle the clock. This must be a very strange internal clock anomaly. I work best when I can stay up until I'm tired and then just awaken naturally--no clock, no schedule, no reference to the position of the sun, moon, or heavenly bodies.

I will be doing more gardening, dirt and hydroponic, a great respite from a computer screen. Maybe this will fix my clock. I just planted tomatoes in dirt, next will be hydroponics.


Andi

[Wassercrats]

I always want to stay up later than I did the night before until I circle the clock. This must be a very strange internal clock anomaly

People are built for a longer day. There's talk and links about it at http://science.slashdot.org/comments...29&cid=7723956

There was a recent controversial study about people who sleep less (like about 6 hours) being healthier or something than those who sleep longer.

[Randall]

See, if I didn't have to work today I could have stayed up late and followed this thread from the beginning instead of coming into it 18 hours late.

I've always found it waaaay easier to stay up late than to get up early, so I don't feel guilty about sleeping in. I figure I pack in as many waking hours as the next guy -- I just can't stick to a 24-hour clock.

I'm happiest when I don't have to be up at the same time every weekday, which is why I'm not hurrying to fill in my Mondays with another regularly scheduled work day. Ideally I'd live Terra's alarm-free existence, but I'd always sleep at least 8 hours.

Once at college I spent an entire January sleeping 12 hours and being up 16 hours, cycling through the clock every six days like ... uh, clockwork. (Sorry about that.)

Nowadays, when left to my own devices I'm more likely to sleep 8 hours and maintain a 24-hour day, but every few days my internal clock slips its gears and I find myself staying up 4-6 hours longer. Possibly because in these free periods I'm spending more time doing stuff I want to do and get caught up in it. For the past few years it's been mostly limited to weekends, which doesn't make that first day back at work any easier.

For reasons I won't go into right now I've been having trouble sleeping (getting to or staying that way), but a new prescription I got today should put the kibosh on that. I'm planning to pop that pill at 10 pm, so this is probably my last post for tonight.

I spent 19 hours asleep on Saturday, but that was a combination of lost sleep during the week and a different new medication that was just starting to kick in. I'm hoping to get back to some semblance of normality soon.

Randall