Nonphasic Sleep
posted by Scott Hsu-Storaker at 12:00 AM
Well, I've got a different method of time-saving sleep. It's something I have been doing for about 6 years, ever since the birth of my first child. I originally learned to do it temporarily while in art school, where there were no shortcuts to completing time consuming projects, but have over the years taken to doing it all the time. For lack of a better term, I am going to call it nonphasic sleep. Basically, I sleep about three to four hours a night. I get up early to get the kids ready for school, work and commute all day, get the kids ready for bed, do housework, and then start working on game art at about 11pm. I work until I pass out on the couch with my iBook sitting next to me. Sometimes I am gone by 1 am, but often I work until 3:30 or 4 am. I sleep a little on the couch, then go to bed. Usually this amounts to about 4 hours of sleep. It nets me a ton of time to work on stuff that I wouldn't be able to otherwise. The family and day job take up the rest of my life, and would be the entirety of my life if I did not steal time from sleep.
Strangley, though, my method does not produce the benefits of polyphasic sleep -- I do not feel refreshed during the day. I am not alert. In fact, I am often a zombie, especially when I am sitting in the long meetings I sometimes have to at work. Hmmm, I wonder why that is? Could it be I am not getting enough sleep? Does tripping over table legs, slurred speech and nonsensical babbling happen to you on a daily basis? Do you crash on the couch at 8pm every 8 days or so? Do you fall asleep with your eyes open when someone is talking to you for more than a minute? What? No, you say? Very curious.
Come to think of it, clinicians do have a name for this type of sleep pattern. They call it sleep deprivation.
I, however, refer to it as having kids
Stay free.
~shs~
There's an idea that has been kicking around the game development community for a couple months now, polyphasic sleep, the idea that instead of sleeping through the night a person sleeps in 20 minute increments every four hours or so, sleeping in total about 3-4 hours per 24 hour period. It got a kick-start by personal development blogger extraordinaire Steve Pavlina and a number of people in the indie circuit are giving it a go. Proponents who have had success with it claim that they are as rested and refreshed as if they had slept what most people consider "normal" hours. And, they get an extra 20-30 hours a week to do stuff.
Well, I've got a different method of time-saving sleep. It's something I have been doing for about 6 years, ever since the birth of my first child. I originally learned to do it temporarily while in art school, where there were no shortcuts to completing time consuming projects, but have over the years taken to doing it all the time. For lack of a better term, I am going to call it nonphasic sleep. Basically, I sleep about three to four hours a night. I get up early to get the kids ready for school, work and commute all day, get the kids ready for bed, do housework, and then start working on game art at about 11pm. I work until I pass out on the couch with my iBook sitting next to me. Sometimes I am gone by 1 am, but often I work until 3:30 or 4 am. I sleep a little on the couch, then go to bed. Usually this amounts to about 4 hours of sleep. It nets me a ton of time to work on stuff that I wouldn't be able to otherwise. The family and day job take up the rest of my life, and would be the entirety of my life if I did not steal time from sleep.
Strangley, though, my method does not produce the benefits of polyphasic sleep -- I do not feel refreshed during the day. I am not alert. In fact, I am often a zombie, especially when I am sitting in the long meetings I sometimes have to at work. Hmmm, I wonder why that is? Could it be I am not getting enough sleep? Does tripping over table legs, slurred speech and nonsensical babbling happen to you on a daily basis? Do you crash on the couch at 8pm every 8 days or so? Do you fall asleep with your eyes open when someone is talking to you for more than a minute? What? No, you say? Very curious.
Come to think of it, clinicians do have a name for this type of sleep pattern. They call it sleep deprivation.
I, however, refer to it as having kids
Stay free.
~shs~
posted by Scott Hsu-Storaker at 12:00 AM
2 Comments:
reality check for all us wannabe fathers ;D
im worried about you driving your new van in this state! :O
6:09 PM
Hahahaha. Naw, don't worry. I sometimes take a break from this schedule. I had to cart the kiddies around today, so I got extra sleep last night -- whic, of course, meant no progress here. I take the train most days.
~shs~
9:12 PM
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home