How Do You Sleep?

One-third of your life will probably be spent sleeping.

I once researched a sleeping technique for sleeping less, but staying equally productive, called polyphasic sleep in college. I found it appealing, but never pursued it. Who wouldn't be interested in joining Leonardo Da Vinci, Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla? Improve your IQ while only sleeping 4 hours a day? sign me up!

In reality, who has time to take a 30 minute nap every 4 hours? And I mean, with clockwork precision. I suppose it IS possible to easily find time to nap during the week. It could even work over the weekend. But sooner or later, a special occasion might happen where you miss a nap or you may have a beer (oh, yeah, you can't drink alcohol or caffeine really) and then all of the advantages will all be over.

Now that Gasthof is around and needs to be walked every morning before work, I am setting my alarm earlier. This means that I will now be waking up at 5:30 a.m. weekdays. Consistency is the key to success. I need to self-impose a bed time. At least that is what I keep thinking to myself.

I am curious what your opinions are on the correlation between the necessity of sleep and the quality/effectiveness. To elaborate what I mean, here is an example:

Let's say that the amount of time I can stay awake without sleep can be measured like a fuel tank on a car. Now say I go to bed with 1/4 tank left, sleep 8 hours and wake up fully fueled. Now assume I need to wake up at the same time every morning. Can I go to bed with less in the tank, refuel in less time, and still wake up with a full tank?

Since I know that you could use more sleep and never have enough time, why don't you read about Polyphasic Sleep? Please share with me your beliefs or customs regarding sleep. I am always open to new ideas that bring success.

BTW: Mattresses are the cheapest during Labor Day sales according to my Manager who used to work for mattress store. And to Paul McCartney, "Those freaks was right when they said you was dead."

-Nick