Sleep x 8 = Knowledge

So after reading this, I pondered for a bit on my approach to work tasks, duties and clutter. If anything, it made me realise how much I value my own productivity. I am in awe and a bit envious of those who can work during the day, then go home and do what they want to do until the early hours of the morning. Then wake up feeling refreshed and without that red faced, messy hair look I’m pretty good at managing.

I accepted years ago that I’m not that kind of person, and that 8 hours of sleep would ensure that following day I could imbibe knowledge like a three year old drinking Coca-Cola for the first time. So even though I am aware of this, I haven’t bothered trying to alter my sleeping patterns whatsoever to help optimise myself. I do stuff until I’m tired.  

If I manage to sleep for 8 hours, I’m exceptionally efficient in a natural way where I take everything in my stride. Over time this has been really hard to achieve, I have become mindful that I need more sleep but my body doesn’t automatically wind down at 10pm. Unfortunately, my mind is buzzing around this time and if I don’t start thinking about resting, I can quite easily go to bed at 12:30 after watching a film, reading a book or listening to a radio programme. It then takes me another half an hour to sleep. So in a bid to try and find a way to sleep better and at a decent time I tried a few different approaches over the last 3 weeks and weighed up what were effective and what were not.

Cold Turkey

I made sure I was in bed for 10pm for a couple of nights, regardless of how I was feeling. The idea was that being in bed would entice sleep within the hour.

Verdict: Didn’t work at all and I became a restless and bored.

Au Natural

For these days I just let myself fall asleep when I wanted to. The first night was around 12 and the second 1am. My natural clock is set to wake up at 7am, but because I wanted to get the full 8 hours I went back to sleep until 8 and 9, respectively.  

Verdict: The 8 hours was much appreciated but the day tends to start off on a bad foot if I get in just before 10am. Also, I tend to stay late as a result and basically shift my day along a few hours.

Preparation time

Around 9:30 I’d make sure I’m not doing anything active, i.e. watching a film, being sociable or actually thinking about stuff. Then at 10:30pm I go to bed listening to the radio at a very low volume and then I’m asleep by 11pm.

Verdict: Easily the most effective but in order to get the sleep at a decent time I’m going to have to stop engaging with everything, I don’t know how I feel about that. Not that good, actually.  

Alcohol approach

Some red wine or Scotch with ice are great ways to sedate me, and after two glasses of vino I do tend to feel ‘chilled’. Sleeping is a bit easier although it can leave me with a heavy head.

Verdict: It’ll be quite expensive after a while and probably not the best way to tackle the issue.

Having tried all these methods to sleep 8 hours and within a reasonable time I can conclude that preparing to sleep at around 9:30 is the most effective by far. Yet, as mentioned earlier, it comes at a cost. I have to be disciplined and will also have to sacrifice anything that goes on after these hours, which is the best time, in my opinion. So I guess I find myself in the same position as to when I started this blog entry, I am aware of what is required to help me develop and perform tasks quicker, but I am not willing to sacrifice ‘my time’, in order to achieve this.

In other news, I was telling someone how much I loved this song. They unfortunately hadn’t heard of it but as I sat down on Tuesday night, it appeared as the title music to Luther on BBC. I’m now a major fan of the Luther production team. Good programme too.