The truth about sleeping patterns

Jeremy needs sleep

A couple of weeks ago I promised to myself that I would stay awake until my I.T. coursework was finished.  I ended up working from 6 p.m. , way past midnight, had a break for some munchies about 4 a.m., ran a final spell-check at about 9.30 a.m., printed it, and was in college for 10.30 a.m.  I had a 10 minute nap during a free in the afternoon, was rudely awakened by the head of year, and remained awake until 9.30 p.m.  All in all I was awake for around 38 hours.  Why wasn’t I tired?

I figured that the longer you are awake, logically the more tired you must become.  At 12 I’d be groggy, 1.30 lethargic and 3.30 a practical zombie.  But actually, as the night progressed I felt less and less tired and more productive.

The little taskbar clock reads 00:57.  I told my girlfriend I would have to leave lest I inadvertently drop off on the keyboard and write a 125,000 character thesis on sleep deprivation consisting mostly of the letters G, F and J (again), but actually I feel perfectly alert.  Turns out that, according to this excellent article on sleep, your body doesn’t actually make itself feel tired because you need to rest.  In reality, you feel drowsy because your circadian rhythm (read: body-clock) wants you off in order to perform some mental housekeeping.

You could, in fact, get by on just 3 hours of sleep per night.  Your capacity for learning and remembering will be reduced to something akin to Bernard, my adopted moth who has been attempting to immolate himself on my ceiling light for 20 or 30 minutes now, but it’s possible.  But your body won’t thank you for it.

(Cartoon thoughtfully borrowed from pbs.org)

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9 Comments

  1. god i wish i could stay awake that long without passing out and/or being sick! i would get soooo much more done. cool cartoon =)

  2. some of the information stated here could really help me out in my thesis about sleeping patterns…the links were absolutely helpful in giving further information about the topic…the thing is i need to know whose the author of these blog…i need to know him for the bibliography…but anyway thank you very much for the information!!! it could really help me a lot!!!

  3. hi julie it is aunt jill and nick how cute, I can just hear him saying that about conmig to get him. (\ /) > > > WOW!!!!!He must have learned this in his new typing class.nopeWe found you off of your sisters website. Bye 🙂

  4. Draga mea,Am prietene foarte bune gasite/facute prin intermediul virtualului. Prietene pe care nu le-am vazut niciodata. Si eu am jucat Farmville. Pana la urma e vorba de alegerea personala a fiecaruia dintre noi, indiferent de varsta. Ai fi uimita cati tineri prefera sa-si petreaca duminica seara la dans.Indiferent de varsta, poti alege sa traiesti in fata clculatorului sau poti alege sa-ti traiesti viata reala.

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