03rd May 2020 - v0.1
In order to be able to properly pursue my new found astronomy hobby I decided to try a new sleep schedule, which would allow me to look up at the sky every night. And if the clouds should come I could use that time for other projects (like writing for the blog, as I am doing now).
I had a couple of constraints that I built around:
- be up at least 4 hours in the astro dark period (~23:00 - ~04:00)
- be up early in the morning
With this in mind I got to work and came up with my first schedule idea:
I realized however that to properly test this idea I needed 2 things: discipline and time, because I couldn’t just expect my body to adapt to this new change overnight. So I decided to do 7 days of “sleep trials”.
Day 1/7
Managed to actually sleep from 22:00 to 00:00 and wake up without an alarm. I decided the PC was off limits during these dark hours. However, I soon discovered my body was not used to being awake at these late hours. I felt dizzy, and tired. Not once I heard a ringing in my ears. Spent most of the time not going back to sleep and listening to Awaken Online: Dominion (I really enjoy the series). I also typed a letter to a friend.
I slept from ~04:00 to 07:14. Woke up tired, still hearing the ringing every now and then. Fortunately, morning calisthenics woke me up.
I slept in the afternoon, but I still felt tired waking up.
Day 2/7
I couldn’t sleep from 22:00 to 00:00.
This is H A R D. It’s messing with my emotions. Or rather, it’s lowering my defenses.
I spend another night listening to Awaken Online, I felt cold and dizzy. I started to realize just how hard the task of finding a proper sleep schedule is. But it is worth it. No great things come like that snaps fingers.
During the day I felt dizzy. I felt short bouts of anxiety. But they were more like the prelude leading up to anxiety, because they vanished as soon as they came. It was hard getting out of bed before 07:30.
Day 3/7
I slept very little from 22:00 to 00:00. But when I woke up the sky was clear. I had some user problems with the big scope, but even with the little one I managed to catch beautiful glimpses of the moon’s craters. After this I stayed up until 04:20 to listen to Awaken Online.
When I woke up in the morning I felt really dizzy and decided to sleep in until 08:00. It’s interesting, there’s some anxiety present when I try to force myself to sleep.
I dreamed during the afternoon sleep. It was hard to be productive.
Day 4/7
Again I couldn’t sleep from 22:00 to 00:00.
I slept ok from ~04:00 to ~07:30, but I couldn’t get out of bed before 07:30.
I feel a sinking feeling. I think it’s tiredness.
I was woken up by a courier during the afternoon nap. I had a dream that I remembered.
Day 5/7
I managed to sleep from ~22:30 to ~00:30, but it was hard waking up. I felt tired, and the thought of going through 2 hard wakeups / day wasn’t encouraging. I wrote about my experience [switching to Jekyll from WordPress and MediaWiki]((/2020/05/06/switching-from-wordpress-to-jekyll/).
I felt better in the morning, and I also felt very hungry.
I tested the big scope during the day, it worked like a charm.
Day 6/7
I couldn’t sleep from 22:00 to 00:00. (This seems to be an annoying recurring theme). I took some wonderful pictures of the moon, and stacked them to create something beautiful.
I could felt the lack of midnight sleep during the day.
After the afternoon nap I felt very tired, probably due to the growing number of missed sleep hours.
Day 7/7
Again I couldn’t sleep from 22:00 to 00:00. Listening to some Awaken Online. I suspect I couldn’t sleep because at that time I wasn’t really tired and my mind was keeping me awake.
Sleep till ~12:00 the next day, recovering some sleep hours.
Honestly, no regrets. I H A V E T O figure out how to sleep from 10 to 12.
Day 8/7
I managed to sleep to 00:00. I tried to move all activities that I performed in bed (like listening to audiobooks or reading) somewhere else. I saw Jupiter through my binoculars (90% sure). I felt very excited and happy to realize I have a chance at seeing it from my room.
I let myself sleep until after 09:00.
Calisthenics were nice. Honestly, they were a very useful/used lifeline in all of this.
11th 13th May 2020 - v0.2
Well, v0.1 is clearly not working properly. The hardest / worst part being the sleep from 22:00 to 00:00. My next idea involves increasing that period, but I am not sure what will happen. I will keep this post updated as I try more schedules.
So, v0.1 failed hard yesterday when I couldn’t even remember turning off the 00:30 alarm.
Day 1
Went to sleep at ~21:40, and managed to get a good sleep till 01:00. Still no dreams, but I feel quite all right, if a bit sleepy.