Sliday team trial for a month “How is it to sleep 5.5 hours a night?” As business expanded we found ourselves lacking a valuable time. Midnight came unexpectedly quшckly after a work day, dinner, couple of things at home plus hobbyies and personal life. We were hoping to get at least 4 extra hours.
And what a coincidence, but roughly at the same time I read the article on one of the blogs on how to sleep a little, but to do it properly (in Russian). The author of a few pages post did try a lot of different sleep management techniques and gave some bullet points. Surprisingly I was already following some of his advice:
- Sleep time frames should be constant. — Even at the weekends it is highly desirable to get up earlier. You will have some time then for a breakfast rather than brunch and a weekend will become two hours longer.
- Have some morning exercise. — I have no time to run 3 to 4 k’s every morning but a quick walk to a bus stop uphill is good enough.
- Master, I need more light! — Here in Sliday we have windows from floor to the ceiling plus a French door to a deck, fresh air doesn’t hurt.
- Physical activity is important through the day. — I am still trying to walk to a bus stop and back. Cycling from time to time is also an option.
- You need to drink a lot of water. — Water and sugar is a fuel for our brains. It wasn’t as hard as I thought to start a day with a glass of water, instead of a cup of coffee. Yes, you heard me right. A glass of water and a nuts bar.
- Big NO NO to alchohol, tobacco, caffeine and energy drinks. — This advice was the hardest to follow, even the author of the post agreed. It seems irrational and illogical to skip Friday drinks after a week of hard work. Not long ago I wrote how tobacco is affecting your health - it is easy and important to quit smoking. On the top of that if you are a smoker then I am afraid this whole system of sleep management won’t really help you. Couple of years ago I drunk roughly one to two bottles of energy drinks every day, they stopped working after a while and so I started adding a cup of coffee on top. Stomach problems as the result of this treatment forced me to quit using taurine-beased sodas.
- If you want to sleep during lunch break, then have a 20-30 minute nap — It is not 100% clear how to sleep if you don’t have a spare room in the office. And what to do if you thought to sleep 15 minutes but it ended up being a full day? This is a hard one. In addition it is very important to calculate the comfortable sleep phases. In my case it is to going to bed at 2-30 AM and getting up at 8-00 AM or 2-00 AM and 7-30 AM.
This is how my ordinary day goes. Half an hour of a bus travel, 30 minute walk, a glass of water with a nuts bar, lunch with another bar, apple or yogurt, half an hour walk to a bus stop, good dinner at home, evening tea, a short rest, house chores and at 10PM I am ready for a blog, photos and all the other valuable work.
You may ask why I want to do all this. At my twenty something years I have that many hobbies, that simply not able to “afford” going to bed at a normal time, let’s say midnight. This is resulting in a pile of unanswered emails, undone business, failed deadlines is an iceberg top. A new sleep schedule and couple of new habits are nothing in comparison with those problems.