4 ms·

Most people I know don't wake up without an alarm after 2-3 of sleep, assuming they were awake for 16-17 hour prior of going to sleep. How did you end up with t

Most people I know don't wake up without an alarm after 2-3 of sleep, assuming they were awake for 16-17 hour prior of going to sleep. How did you end up with this approach?

aliqot 4y ago
They're likely 'awake' and don't know it between cycles. I just noticed specific intervals where I'd have a period of wakefulness categorized by the ability to remember the time on the clock when I'd see it. When you sleep your brain is cycling through phases between wakefulness and deep sleep. Between cycles of deep sleep where you're darting your eyes and twitching around, you have periods of semi wakeful sleep. There are tools that allow you to try an experiment: Use a tool like sleepyti.me and input the time to wake up. Try to time out a single rem cycle for yourself by staying up late without a device in your hand or TV on, and wake up at the desired time. This isn't how I started, but when I saw the app I recognized the cycle immediately. When you wake up, you'll feel more rested than if you woke up at the midway point in one of the cycles, even if it is longer. In my case there's less fog, less agitated state, and quicker boot up time (my term for the time it takes to go from awake to writing code) If you want to get weird, I'm happy to talk about another sleep cycle I had for a while, but I'm already rambling. The gist of it was many naps, many rems, less cumulative sleep.
- kbenson 4y ago
  > When you wake up, you'll feel more rested than if you woke up at the midway point in one of the cycles, even if it is longer. Do you mean at the end of a cycle and before another one starts, or halfway through a cycle? I'd heard the former, not the latter.
  - aliqot 4y ago
    I'll do my best to explain, it does look a little confusing in retrospect. Let's say for the sake of argument that these cycles are 2 hour blocks: 0-2, 2-4, 4-6, and so on. If you sleep 0-2, and wake up at the end of that cycle during the wakeful period between 0-2 and 2-4, you'll feel more rested and have a faster bootup time than if you do 0-3 and wake up midway through 2-4 interrupting a period of deep sleep. You may notice more feelings of fogginess, agitation, and sleepiness, and a longer bootup time as your brain is shifting gears metaphorically speaking. When you first fall asleep, you move through a few stages of sleep until you reach the end at the REM stage. Interrupting this stage is what causes the issue for me. I wake up still dreaming or speaking as I wake up.
- LocalPCGuy 4y ago
  Yah, I timed out my sleep cycles and it's about 90 minutes for me. Sometimes Fitbit and similar devices can show people this as well, but it's not always accurate (it was another confirmation for me rather than the primary way I determined the cycle length). And you are correct (and I encourage others to figure their cycle out), if I wake up on the cycle break (for me, 3/4.5/6/7.5/9) I am much less foggy and sleep inertia is reduced than when I wake in the middle of the cycle. Another way to try to wake at the proper point is an alarm that gradually increases in intensity - you can set it about 30-45 minutes before you have to get up, and if you are already in a wakeful state, you'll hear it when it's low, but at the end it will get loud enough to ensure you get up. Lastly (and not a shill for Fitbit, it's just the one I use), Fitbit has an alarm feature that will try to detect when you've moved into a light sleep stage and go off then (again, you tell it the latest time you want to wake, and it'll start monitoring 30-45 minutes ahead of that time, and go off when it thinks is optimal). Long story short, I feel like, while they aren't perfect, we are starting to get some awareness of the importance of sleep cycles and some tools built around that awareness, which is pretty cool.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

Most people I know don't wake up without an alarm after 2-3 of sleep, assuming they were awake for 16-17 hour prior of going to sleep. How did you end up with this approach?

aliqot 4y ago

They're likely 'awake' and don't know it between cycles. I just noticed specific intervals where I'd have a period of wakefulness categorized by the ability to remember the time on the clock when I'd see it. When you sleep your brain is cycling through phases between wakefulness and deep sleep. Between cycles of deep sleep where you're darting your eyes and twitching around, you have periods of semi wakeful sleep. There are tools that allow you to try an experiment: Use a tool like sleepyti.me and input the time to wake up. Try to time out a single rem cycle for yourself by staying up late without a device in your hand or TV on, and wake up at the desired time. This isn't how I started, but when I saw the app I recognized the cycle immediately. When you wake up, you'll feel more rested than if you woke up at the midway point in one of the cycles, even if it is longer. In my case there's less fog, less agitated state, and quicker boot up time (my term for the time it takes to go from awake to writing code) If you want to get weird, I'm happy to talk about another sleep cycle I had for a while, but I'm already rambling. The gist of it was many naps, many rems, less cumulative sleep.

kbenson 4y ago
> When you wake up, you'll feel more rested than if you woke up at the midway point in one of the cycles, even if it is longer. Do you mean at the end of a cycle and before another one starts, or halfway through a cycle? I'd heard the former, not the latter.
- aliqot 4y ago
  I'll do my best to explain, it does look a little confusing in retrospect. Let's say for the sake of argument that these cycles are 2 hour blocks: 0-2, 2-4, 4-6, and so on. If you sleep 0-2, and wake up at the end of that cycle during the wakeful period between 0-2 and 2-4, you'll feel more rested and have a faster bootup time than if you do 0-3 and wake up midway through 2-4 interrupting a period of deep sleep. You may notice more feelings of fogginess, agitation, and sleepiness, and a longer bootup time as your brain is shifting gears metaphorically speaking. When you first fall asleep, you move through a few stages of sleep until you reach the end at the REM stage. Interrupting this stage is what causes the issue for me. I wake up still dreaming or speaking as I wake up.
LocalPCGuy 4y ago
Yah, I timed out my sleep cycles and it's about 90 minutes for me. Sometimes Fitbit and similar devices can show people this as well, but it's not always accurate (it was another confirmation for me rather than the primary way I determined the cycle length). And you are correct (and I encourage others to figure their cycle out), if I wake up on the cycle break (for me, 3/4.5/6/7.5/9) I am much less foggy and sleep inertia is reduced than when I wake in the middle of the cycle. Another way to try to wake at the proper point is an alarm that gradually increases in intensity - you can set it about 30-45 minutes before you have to get up, and if you are already in a wakeful state, you'll hear it when it's low, but at the end it will get loud enough to ensure you get up. Lastly (and not a shill for Fitbit, it's just the one I use), Fitbit has an alarm feature that will try to detect when you've moved into a light sleep stage and go off then (again, you tell it the latest time you want to wake, and it'll start monitoring 30-45 minutes ahead of that time, and go off when it thinks is optimal). Long story short, I feel like, while they aren't perfect, we are starting to get some awareness of the importance of sleep cycles and some tools built around that awareness, which is pretty cool.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]