There was a time a few years ago when I was playing online poker or working on personal projects every evening until about midnight or a little later, then waki

There was a time a few years ago when I was playing online poker or working on personal projects every evening until about midnight or a little later, then waking up before 5 am to work. Both the work and the poker were fascinating. I had no problems staying awake while doing them, and I did well at both. I didn't even feel tired most of the time. There were some bad effects though. If my immediate task wasn't engaging (a boring task or speech for example), I had to work really hard to stay awake. My typical daily cycle of alert and productive in the morning, and dull and sleepy in the afternoon became much deeper. I felt more creative and congenial during the high points and much more lethargic during the valleys. After a few months, I began to realize another downside. Although I was able to function well tactically on moment-by-moment tasks that required constant attention, my ability to make good strategic decisions really began to suffer. It was as though the effort to deeply think things through long-term went totally down the drain. This began to scare me after a while. Everything changed when I took a new job in a distant city and simultaneously decided to stop playing poker for a while. I lived by myself in a tiny room in the suburbs and rode my bike to work seven miles each way. The new environment, exercise and huge lessening of daily commitments caused me to take things a lot slower. I began reading a lot, reflecting about things, and started sleeping around seven hours a night. I became less manic, definitely healthier, and more peaceful and introspective. I didn't instantly fall asleep when I was bored, but slept very soundly at night. Of course a lot of that could be the result of a simpler, more active life. But I think the increased sleep had a major influence too. I started playing poker again, and I found that I was consistently doing better than before. I started reacquainting myself with math, and could think much more deeply about it. I wonder how this applies to Thatcher? She obviously had a very engaging job, and she seemed able to keep up with the details of her work. But if she had slept more, would she had been less radical, perhaps more conciliatory? Would that have dulled her edge and reduced her achievements or helped her bring more people on board and be less polarizing? Would she had made better long-term decisions? Did the extra hours of wakefulness really help her get more done or was she just trading weekday hours awake for weekend hours asleep? In my own life, I've decided to keep to a longer sleep schedule for now. I'm always tempted to go back to the exciting mania the previous schedule, but for me, the benefits are uncertain and the costs are pretty scary.