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Sunday, January 09, 2005
AWAKE WALKING
So I think my circadian rhythm is off. I seem to remember reading something about how normal, pre-electricity human beings had this system whereby they went to bed a bit after the sun went down, woke up & were awake for about an hour during the night (I'm guessing sometime around midnight-2 a.m.) and then woke up a bit before the sun came up. I seem to have shifted my rhythm significantly. Occasionally, I can get to sleep if I go to bed before midnight, but I always wake up. The earlier I go to bed, the longer I'm awake, it seems. Last night I went to bed at about 1. I was probably asleep by 1:30 (unusual for me to go to sleep so quickly), and was awake by 5:30. I probably woke up sometime in that period, but I can't remember for certain, so I must have gotten about 4 hours of pretty solid sleep, which is outstanding for me, of late. Typically, I wake up between 4 and 5 (if I go to bed between midnight and 2 a.m., which is normal for me), and then fall back to sleep and can sleep really well until about 9 a.m. I'm thinking that my circadian rhythm has been pushed back so that instead of waking up around midnight or whatever like a normal person, I wake up around 4 or 5. So by the time most people are thinking about getting up, I'm only halfway through my night's sleep.
Anyway. By 6 a.m., I was bored, so I decided to get up. Took me until 6:15 to make it out of bed (I move slowly in the morning). I took a shower, got my boots and coat on, grabbed the new camera, and went for a walk. Laramie rules at about 6:50 on a winter morning. It was just starting to get light, and it wasn't even that cold - 33 or something when I left. I walked downtown, and then up onto the pedestrian overpass that goes over the train tracks. There was a nice view from there - sun coming up over the Laramie Mountains to the east, and painting the Medicine Bow Mountains to the west. A few trains rumbled to a start and headed east by south. I watched the trains for awhile, watched the sun come up, snapped a few pictures, then headed home the long way. I probably walked about 3 miles. Just enough to wake me up. I was sweating by the time I got home.
7:19, from the pedestrian overpass above the train yard in Laramie, Wyoming:
-m
So I think my circadian rhythm is off. I seem to remember reading something about how normal, pre-electricity human beings had this system whereby they went to bed a bit after the sun went down, woke up & were awake for about an hour during the night (I'm guessing sometime around midnight-2 a.m.) and then woke up a bit before the sun came up. I seem to have shifted my rhythm significantly. Occasionally, I can get to sleep if I go to bed before midnight, but I always wake up. The earlier I go to bed, the longer I'm awake, it seems. Last night I went to bed at about 1. I was probably asleep by 1:30 (unusual for me to go to sleep so quickly), and was awake by 5:30. I probably woke up sometime in that period, but I can't remember for certain, so I must have gotten about 4 hours of pretty solid sleep, which is outstanding for me, of late. Typically, I wake up between 4 and 5 (if I go to bed between midnight and 2 a.m., which is normal for me), and then fall back to sleep and can sleep really well until about 9 a.m. I'm thinking that my circadian rhythm has been pushed back so that instead of waking up around midnight or whatever like a normal person, I wake up around 4 or 5. So by the time most people are thinking about getting up, I'm only halfway through my night's sleep.
Anyway. By 6 a.m., I was bored, so I decided to get up. Took me until 6:15 to make it out of bed (I move slowly in the morning). I took a shower, got my boots and coat on, grabbed the new camera, and went for a walk. Laramie rules at about 6:50 on a winter morning. It was just starting to get light, and it wasn't even that cold - 33 or something when I left. I walked downtown, and then up onto the pedestrian overpass that goes over the train tracks. There was a nice view from there - sun coming up over the Laramie Mountains to the east, and painting the Medicine Bow Mountains to the west. A few trains rumbled to a start and headed east by south. I watched the trains for awhile, watched the sun come up, snapped a few pictures, then headed home the long way. I probably walked about 3 miles. Just enough to wake me up. I was sweating by the time I got home.
7:19, from the pedestrian overpass above the train yard in Laramie, Wyoming:
-m
Comments:
This is one of those comments that probably should have been it's own blog entry, you know, on my own blog. I guess I am flogging on your site...
Your sleep issues are exactly what I went through in my graduate school days. It isn't the problems that you see on television commercials (around 1am, lol) talking about people with sleep disorders and being ineffective all day long. To the contrary, I would put my (or M's) productivity up against anyone's with a full night's sleep. Nor is it the mattress, like those other commercials imply (but a great mattress is nice, I plan to get one some day).
It is a mixture of nervous energy, and simply, the lack of a need for 8-9 hours of sleep. I remember talking to another graduate student who told me that he's be worthless without 8 hours of sleep at a minimum. I remember thinking "how does he get anything done?"
I kept this pattern up a few years into my job here. And I also realized that anxiety sometimes played into it. I am not a worrier, really, but I like to know what's next, and there is nothing in graduate school that satisfies that.
There is good news, though. In your early thirties, you will need more sleep. Probably more than 6 hours, most likely. I feel like I am up to a consistent 6-7 hours a night, which is awesome! It is almost like I am normal.
A lot of good things should be happening to me when I turn 40. These include financial and professional goals that I would have been working on for 20 years or so. But I anticipate breaking another barrier, then. I hope to be one of those 8-hour a night people by then.
After a decade or two of that, I will probably start doing that old man thing of needing less sleep...
--gh
Your sleep issues are exactly what I went through in my graduate school days. It isn't the problems that you see on television commercials (around 1am, lol) talking about people with sleep disorders and being ineffective all day long. To the contrary, I would put my (or M's) productivity up against anyone's with a full night's sleep. Nor is it the mattress, like those other commercials imply (but a great mattress is nice, I plan to get one some day).
It is a mixture of nervous energy, and simply, the lack of a need for 8-9 hours of sleep. I remember talking to another graduate student who told me that he's be worthless without 8 hours of sleep at a minimum. I remember thinking "how does he get anything done?"
I kept this pattern up a few years into my job here. And I also realized that anxiety sometimes played into it. I am not a worrier, really, but I like to know what's next, and there is nothing in graduate school that satisfies that.
There is good news, though. In your early thirties, you will need more sleep. Probably more than 6 hours, most likely. I feel like I am up to a consistent 6-7 hours a night, which is awesome! It is almost like I am normal.
A lot of good things should be happening to me when I turn 40. These include financial and professional goals that I would have been working on for 20 years or so. But I anticipate breaking another barrier, then. I hope to be one of those 8-hour a night people by then.
After a decade or two of that, I will probably start doing that old man thing of needing less sleep...
--gh
Great pics, Mark. Where people from Ithaca come for enlightenment, eh? (Have you been reading the UTNE Reader by any chance?) But then, I don't actually come from here, though it's feeling more and more like I come from here than from Po-Dunk, North Dakota. At any rate my addition to Ithaca's status as the "Most Enlightened Town in America" is slight. I guess I just need to keep reading your blog!
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