4 ms·

Similar previous research: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stefania_Follini https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stefania_Follini spent 130 days underground, isolated fr

Similar previous research: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stefania_Follini https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stefania_Follini spent 130 days underground, isolated from external clues about time and circadian rhythms. Her sleep cycle lengthened a lot.

joshuahedlund 4y ago
Thanks for sharing, I had not heard of that - that has fascinating implications for humans inhabiting planets with different rotation periods! (I'm surprised I haven't seen that explored in more sci-fi)
jgilias 4y ago
Super interesting, thanks for sharing! The 20/10 wake/sleep cycle sounds close to how I might function if it wasn’t for daylight cycles and social obligations. Actually, mostly the latter.
- f_allwein 4y ago
  Have you tried this? https://xkcd.com/320/ https://xkcd.com/320/
  - elihu 4y ago
    I tried that once over Christmas break in high school. I like the idea of it, but the mouse-over text seems like a fairly accurate representation of my actual experience.
  - jgilias 4y ago
    I can’t, there’s some short people living in my house that depend on me waking up before them to wake them up and bring to places. But I’ve always been curious about people doing non-standard sleep things, have you tried it? Can you share some experiences?
    - ekimekim 4y ago
      I've been on a 28h day for about a decade now. It's completely changed my life. I used to be tired all the time and end up napping during the day, sleeping through lectures, etc. Only to get home and be unable to sleep until the early hours of the morning. Now I can get a good night's sleep every "night" (I aim for 8 hours every 28, in practice I get to bed a little early and sleep in, so it's more like 9 on average) and don't get tired until the last 4 hours or so before bedtime. Besides the big one, some other positives: - Lack of a single time zone means I can participate in international work/online communities regardless of location - Jet lag is mostly not a thing, since my schedule is independent of where the sun is - Plenty of quiet time while everyone else is asleep. I live in a very safe area and love going on 2am walks in the park with the entire thing all to myself. And some negatives: - My social life suffers a lot. I can only attend events if they happen to fall on a day of the week where I'm awake at that time. Right now this is mitigated somewhat because I'm living in Australia but working at US working hours, which means my weekend schedule lines up with "local time". So I tend to see local friends mostly on weekends. - Requires flexible working hours, as it's not possible to be awake from 9-5 for 5 days in a row no matter what start point you pick for your schedule. From my coworkers perspective, I come in early on mondays (ending around their midday) and late on fridays (starting around their midday). - At larger companies where they may want to do a "follow the sun" on call rotation (so you're only on call during your waking hours), I don't fit in anywhere because my waking hours aren't always the same. - During winter, the lack of sunlight (since you're sleeping through it half the time) can get to you after a while. - Anything that you're meant to do "daily" you either need to stretch to doing every 28hr instead, or have some complex accounting to do to ensure you do it once per 24h period (I mostly opt for the former). (edited for formatting)
      - f_allwein 4y ago
        Oh, fascinating! Thanks for sharing.
    - pnt12 3y ago
      I'm a night howl. Having a work schedule helps this, but when I was a student doing my thesis I had awful sleeping schedules (6 am - 2 pm) which affected my social life a lot. I wanted to improve this, but going to bed earlier would make me restless, and have even worse sleep. Forcing myself to wake up earlier was torture - be exhausted during the day, only to feel energetic at evening again, and not being able to sleep earlier. So I "rotated the day". Each day, I went to bed 3 (or 4?) hours later, slept 8h, and woke up. This was a bit tiring, but not more than the other alternatives! It worked for a few weeks but later I went back to my old habits. After 2 rotations, I went to the doctor and got calming medications and the the recommendation to go to sleep 1h earlier each day. This was much easier and I didn't get dependent on the medication. Later, having a job with a schedule (not that rigid but also not super flexible) helped me get on track, and things haven't gotten so bad.
- IIsi50MHz 3y ago
  I did 21/9 during college. It was great! When bedtime came, I was actually tired, and thus fell asleep quickly. I was in sync with the world every four days. My work and school schedules were such that once per week I'd have to skip sleep, but I seemed to suffer no apparent deficit. When on a standard cycle, I'd lie awake in bed bored out of my mind for _hours_ upon hours, fall asleep with only time for 0.3 to 2.5 sleep cycles, wake up in sleep-deprived pain and misery. (X_X) In recent years, I deal with the standard cycle with the various in-vogue things like scheduled bluelight blocking, zero-lux bedroom (cities at night are so fekking bright compared to when I was a child), and sometimes morning-only caffeine sources. I miss my 21/9.

joshuahedlund 4y ago

Thanks for sharing, I had not heard of that - that has fascinating implications for humans inhabiting planets with different rotation periods! (I'm surprised I haven't seen that explored in more sci-fi)

jgilias 4y ago

Super interesting, thanks for sharing! The 20/10 wake/sleep cycle sounds close to how I might function if it wasn’t for daylight cycles and social obligations. Actually, mostly the latter.

f_allwein 4y ago
Have you tried this? https://xkcd.com/320/ https://xkcd.com/320/
- elihu 4y ago
  I tried that once over Christmas break in high school. I like the idea of it, but the mouse-over text seems like a fairly accurate representation of my actual experience.
- jgilias 4y ago
  I can’t, there’s some short people living in my house that depend on me waking up before them to wake them up and bring to places. But I’ve always been curious about people doing non-standard sleep things, have you tried it? Can you share some experiences?
  - ekimekim 4y ago
    I've been on a 28h day for about a decade now. It's completely changed my life. I used to be tired all the time and end up napping during the day, sleeping through lectures, etc. Only to get home and be unable to sleep until the early hours of the morning. Now I can get a good night's sleep every "night" (I aim for 8 hours every 28, in practice I get to bed a little early and sleep in, so it's more like 9 on average) and don't get tired until the last 4 hours or so before bedtime. Besides the big one, some other positives: - Lack of a single time zone means I can participate in international work/online communities regardless of location - Jet lag is mostly not a thing, since my schedule is independent of where the sun is - Plenty of quiet time while everyone else is asleep. I live in a very safe area and love going on 2am walks in the park with the entire thing all to myself. And some negatives: - My social life suffers a lot. I can only attend events if they happen to fall on a day of the week where I'm awake at that time. Right now this is mitigated somewhat because I'm living in Australia but working at US working hours, which means my weekend schedule lines up with "local time". So I tend to see local friends mostly on weekends. - Requires flexible working hours, as it's not possible to be awake from 9-5 for 5 days in a row no matter what start point you pick for your schedule. From my coworkers perspective, I come in early on mondays (ending around their midday) and late on fridays (starting around their midday). - At larger companies where they may want to do a "follow the sun" on call rotation (so you're only on call during your waking hours), I don't fit in anywhere because my waking hours aren't always the same. - During winter, the lack of sunlight (since you're sleeping through it half the time) can get to you after a while. - Anything that you're meant to do "daily" you either need to stretch to doing every 28hr instead, or have some complex accounting to do to ensure you do it once per 24h period (I mostly opt for the former). (edited for formatting)
    - f_allwein 4y ago
      Oh, fascinating! Thanks for sharing.
  - pnt12 3y ago
    I'm a night howl. Having a work schedule helps this, but when I was a student doing my thesis I had awful sleeping schedules (6 am - 2 pm) which affected my social life a lot. I wanted to improve this, but going to bed earlier would make me restless, and have even worse sleep. Forcing myself to wake up earlier was torture - be exhausted during the day, only to feel energetic at evening again, and not being able to sleep earlier. So I "rotated the day". Each day, I went to bed 3 (or 4?) hours later, slept 8h, and woke up. This was a bit tiring, but not more than the other alternatives! It worked for a few weeks but later I went back to my old habits. After 2 rotations, I went to the doctor and got calming medications and the the recommendation to go to sleep 1h earlier each day. This was much easier and I didn't get dependent on the medication. Later, having a job with a schedule (not that rigid but also not super flexible) helped me get on track, and things haven't gotten so bad.
IIsi50MHz 3y ago
I did 21/9 during college. It was great! When bedtime came, I was actually tired, and thus fell asleep quickly. I was in sync with the world every four days. My work and school schedules were such that once per week I'd have to skip sleep, but I seemed to suffer no apparent deficit. When on a standard cycle, I'd lie awake in bed bored out of my mind for _hours_ upon hours, fall asleep with only time for 0.3 to 2.5 sleep cycles, wake up in sleep-deprived pain and misery. (X_X) In recent years, I deal with the standard cycle with the various in-vogue things like scheduled bluelight blocking, zero-lux bedroom (cities at night are so fekking bright compared to when I was a child), and sometimes morning-only caffeine sources. I miss my 21/9.