getting old so need less sleep
I hate it when I have to leave something at 10pm because "I have to work tomorrow." That is the reality of the situation these days. I must submit to the fact that I am no longer a youthful uni student. I cannot stay out until past midnight and still be fine the next day. I can't even stay up at home past midnight without feeling like someone unplugged the power cord whilst I was charging my batteries the next day.What is with that? I still want to pack my nights as much as possible and be out as late as I want. Stupid body. Why can't function on 3 hours of sleep? Having said that though, I actually have found that I need less sleep now than i did a few years back. I remember the uni years sleeping endlessly. At least 10 hours a day was required and then some. You would wake up and it still did not feel like it was enough. Still tired and fatigued. But that was fine, because the whole day was full of nothing (class), and you could just crash if you wanted (why would you when you're out with friends).
What I really miss is how I was not restricted to sleeping at a certain time (12am now). I liked to just do whatever until I truly felt tired, which would be around 2-3am and mill around online or playing games. Stupid forced sleeping at arbitrary hours for the sake of work. I was never that enthusiastic or conscientious for 9am class! I think my attendance rate for 9am class was pretty close to ~10%. 10am class was slightly better at about 50%. 11am class was pretty much 100%.
Having said all this, I think the one remarkable thing is that I can sleep 7 hours and function properly the next day. No wait, the remarkable thing is how it stays as 7 hours and 7 hours only. If I sleep at 11, I wake at 6. If I sleep at 10, I wake at 5. If I sleep at 9, I wake at 4. On the dot. Absolutely amazing and I don't know why.
What sucks though is how it impedes the esteemed from getting a decent sleep in. I want my sleep in on the weekends! Why must the sun also conspire to rid me from this luxury in life by shining through the only gap in the window? This weekend will be perfect because the sun will be outdone by the clouds. What's more, it will be perfect sleeping weather with the sound of raindrops on rooftops.
And you know what? It turns out the sun sneaked in and I am now awake. Despite the fact that earlier I claimed I can sleep 6 hours rotational and still feel fine, I currently feel horrible. Seems like the 3am to 9am rotation does not work out too well. That's more excuse for a nice afternoon nap.
benny | Saturday, May 23, 2009 
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I did not mention "old" man. I just submit I am just not a youthful uni student, merely older.
The circadian rhythm I believe needs an inbuilt monitor for weekends as well. I know- I can also wake up without alarms on weekdays too. Why don't you go and get yourself a job? You can get some good money for your ski trips this year.
Luckily, I am not as 糊塗 as you were in Hong Kong and imagine a saturday as a weekday.
I now shall go early to bed as another Benjamin had said. Thanks for the advice.
benny |
Sunday, May 24, 2009 11:28:00 pm
I must submit to the fact that I am no longer a youthful uni student.Hahahahahaha, old man.
From my experience in my Asset Relocation Engineer job at uni:
- you can't function on 3 hrs of sleep now because you're not doing nothing during the day,although since you have a govt job, that might not be so far from the mark. When I was working, it was mentally easy, but physically draining which meant I needed to recover from that; class was (and still is!) neither mentally nor physically draining, so it was basically rest time anyway
- the hours thing, well, it's because your body just gets used to a routine. Circadian rhythm or something. I used to be able to wake up without an alarm if I didn't want to because the body was just so used to it. Of course, being a jobless student now, the closest thing I have to a routine is waking up around 930ish, so the odd 9am class is a killer.
- also it seems that the body is not so good at telling apart weekends from weekdays, so too bad about sleeping on on weekends! At least you haven't done (or haven't admitted to doing) what I did once on a Sat when working back in HK: waking up to think that I'd slept through my alarm, then rushing to get ready to work, heart pounding because I didn't want to be late and then suddenly realising that it was a Saturday and I didn't need to work...
- anyway, there there, it's okay. Take heart in that a fellow Benjamin, of the Franklin variety, once said, "Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise"