20240814 - six day week
20240814T220603: First "day"
This week I am sleeping six times instead of seven.
Each sleep cycle will be 8 hours long and will be spread evenly throughout the week. 20 hours awake then 8 hours asleep on repeat. Cascading sleep schedule
I've wanted to try this since I was in high school. I've always had a weird relationship with sleep. Confusing dreams, borderline insomnia, waking in delirium.
I made a tool to easily try out different variations of my schedule. This is the one I've settled on for the week.
I am between semesters at my job as an adjunct instructor at NYU and can get my class prep work done on my own time so I have just a few obligations to plan my schedule around. Wednesday, I volunteer at Dream House from 2-6:30 and after that I attend a change ringing session. I want to have band practice at some point in the week and I need to let my landlord in to paint my roommate's ceiling at 10:30am on Thursday. I originally planned on starting my Six Day Week yesterday, but I stayed up too late watching a movie with Cathryn and missed my intended sleep time by three hours.
At Dream House, someone aks me if La Monte Young is still doing his 33 hour week. I don't know about this but La Monte and Marian had for a time followed a similar schedule, splitting their week into five days rather than my six. Maybe I'll try that over winter break.
For the rest of the evening I work on building an instrument. I make Yogi Bedtime Tea, put on a Celer album and try to fall asleep by 2am.
20240815T230846: Second "day"
So far this week has felt just like any other, but I think that will change tomorrow. I will fall asleep tonight at 6am and then the next day I'll sleep at 10am.
I spend most of the day feeling pretty delirious, which isn't uncommon for me. Now that the sun has set and my roommates are in bed, I feel sharp. I'm locked in soldering and coding and will keep doing this until 6am.
I am excited to stay up working and listening to beautiful music. I listen to The Bird Of Music by Au Revoir Simone and I love it. I had assumed they made corny chamber twee because of the album cover but I'm glad I took the chance on it. Now I'm listening to The World Keeps Turning by Razorcuts, which was one of my favorite albums in 2019. Listening to it makes me happy and brings back memories of living in Georgia. Their music feels timeless in a way that a lot of old british jangle pop does. I wonder if any music from the 2020s will feel that eternally beautiful in 40 years.
20240816T155642: Third "day"
I miss my schedule pretty majorly by not falling asleep on time. In the morning I wake up early to let my landlord in, resulting in a total of 6 hours of sleep. By 4am I am majorly fading and it's not looking like I'll be able to stay up until 6am as planned. I fight it but nod off at 4:45am. I wake up at 11am and am not able to fall back to sleep. I worry that I won't be able to stay up until 10am tomorrow.
I finally realize why my cat meows at me so much when I'm up late working. She likes to sleep in my office chair at night and gets upset when I'm using it. I give it to her and grab a chair for myself from the kitchen. She is happy.
20240817T050004: Third "day"
I feel out of it most of the day. I go to Lovette's in the evening, hang out and play kingdom hearts iii. Go home, write some code. build a sun barricade on my window in anticipation of my upcoming 10am-6pm sleep.
in the evening i feel very sleepy but get a second wind around 2am. im feeling energized and think i can stay up until 10am.
20240817T161504: Fourth "day"
Feeling alert, creative and self-assured today. Planning on making some food and getting some work done at the kava bar. Excited for the day :3
202408188T080428: Fourth "day"
I get a ton done today,, proud of myself. Finish some tutorials for ACMC, do some lesson planning. Solder together OLEDs, SD slots, LEDs and shift registers for new MEAP instruments. The parts all work individually now I just have to combine it all.
my morale is up and down today. there are several points where i wish for normalcy. throughout the day, the number of hours until I sleep is always on my mind. i'm thinking about whether I'll be able to stay up until then, how I'm going to fill the time, how much work I'll be able to get done. I am way more conscious of my time than during normal weeks. I also feel excited to sleep. Tomorrow maybe I'll take a break, play some video games, go for a walk. I've been working all waking hours for several days. On this schedule I feel like there is no time for leisure, it all seems so regimented, like I need to plan out my time as efficiently as possible.
all the same, the days feel wide open, how can i possibly fill them?
20240821T112841: Final thoughts
I become too sleepy towards the end of the week to keep up on my journal. My friday into saturday "day" is difficult. I start the "day" around 8pm after failing to sleep more than two hours the previous "night" and tossing and turning all afternoon. I meet up with Cathryn and Callie for a bit and goof around until it is time for them to go to sleep and for me to start my day. I am already feeling very sleepy but I endeavor to carry on with my sleep experiment. If I can suffer through one long day today, I can bring my sleep schedule around to a normal time. The only way out is through! I make it to the morning by drinking a large red bull and staying busy programming. By the time the sun rises and the caffeine wears off, my problem solving skills seriously decline and I need a change of pace. I get two sun-dried tomato bagels with strawberry cream cheese. On the walk home I react to the sun like a vampire. Back at home, I wonder how I could possibly stay awake for the next 8+ hours. I make a delirious walk to Lovette's to water her plant since she is out of town. This luckily eats up a good half hour. After that I realize I need to keep doing things for the rest of the day or I will fall asleep early and never get back to a normal schedule. I do my laundry and solder circuit boards for the rest of the day, sometimes nodding off for a couple minutes with a hot soldering iron in hand. Laying out my bed at 9pm is the most blissful experience I have ever felt, I put on my headphones, play Ornitheology by Chubby Wolf and am out within minutes. The next thing I know, it is noon the next day and I have slept for 15 hours.
The next two days cycling back feel normal. I am loose with the timing of my sleeps but ultimately I am successful in sleeping just 6 times throughout the week. Suddenly my days feel very short. Before I know it, the sun has set and I feel I've wasted my day. I want to get outside and do things with the short bit of summer I have left.
I do not think I will be trying this again. I treasure my normal evenings in bed listening to music and cuddling with my cats and I miss that most of all.
actual sleep
night one: 4am-10am (6 hours)
night two: 4:45am-11am (6.25 hours)
night three: 9:15am-2pm (4.75 hours)
night four: 11am-1pm (2 hours)
night five: 9pm-12pm (15 hours)
night six: 4am-11am (7 hours)
total sleep: 41 hours (a bit less than the intended 48 hours, and very lopsided)