If you are awake at 4 am, and have to be at work at 7, should you even try to get back to sleep or should you try to do something with your time?
Even one more hour of sleep could change the course of your day. I vote sleep.
True, but I’ve found it is just as like to change things for the worse as the better. Waking up from a deep deep sleep after only an hour can leave me as a zombie for the whole day.
I ended up sleeping for maybe 20 minutes this time and it has worked out so far.
I thought the same thing, and fell asleep standing up at the expo line at Applebee’s.
Get what sleep you can. Trust me.
20 mins is about bang on the “power nap” zone btw
My cutoff is three hours. If I sleep for less than three hours, it’s worse than no sleep, at least in the morning
What about 3 hours early in the night, say 11pm to 2am?
If you’re just shifting the scenario, same answer.
For example, I used to save money when I had to fly by using an airport over an hour drive away and being willing to take the first flight. That meant getting up about 2-3am. That’s not even worth trying. I slept at my destination
Any sleep will improve your work day, at least in my experience. It will still be pretty rough, of course.
I try my best to practice the basic sleep hygiene tip of not laying in bed when I can’t sleep. I get up, do something else (like I am now) and wait for the sleepiness to set in before going back to bed (even if it’s 4 am).
Check out the phases of the sleep cycle. IIRC a full cycle is around 90 mins so in those 3 hours you can potentially hit 2 cycles and not feel groggy.
With all the benefits of sleep (and the problems from lack of sleep) it would be better to sleep
Cycles get quicker near the end of the night. Though I’m not sure how waking up effects things.
But those last cycles tend to be the most important. And studies have shown even trying but failing to fall asleep gives some benefit of actually falling asleep.
Between the time it takes to fall back asleep (which is nontrivial), getting ready for and getting to work, you’d be lucky to get 1 full cycle in before you had to get up anyway. And IME, rolling the dice on a rem cycle like that is more likely to fuck up my day by leaving me groggy AF than refresh me.
I’d do my best to try and fall back to sleep. I’d try until 6am, then give up and get up.
If I can get 2 hours, yes (“sleep”).
I slept only an hour last night, and was energetic throughout all of today, and I still have gas in my tank. Although, ymmv.
That was me up until my mid 20’s
I’ve still got plenty of time left then
Depends when I went to bed. I sleep 7 hours on average so if I’ve got at least 6, I get up. Less, I try to sleep.
Sometimes (infrequently) I’ll take a magnesium pill, and that will help me go back to sleep. Or, I’ll go read in another dimly lit room for about 20 minutes and then return to the bedroom go back to sleep.
But, once in a while, I’ll feel creative at 4am and just get up and do something (write, code, whatever) until it’s time to get ready for work. I’m an early bird out of decades of routine, but wish I could be a night owl. I love how quiet it is at night.
sleep.
my tip: put your phone on silent and place it in another room to prevent you from reflexively taking it while you struggle to fall asleep. just make sure to have the alarm volume be high enough for you to wake up.
If I’m fully awake I only give up when I’ve got less than 90 minutes left before I get up. That is long enough for a full rem cycle.
If not, then I am thankful for the flexibility I have at work. I can usually go to work early and subsequently leave early too.
I really enjoy lying in a warm, comfortable bed, especially a little groggy from sleep. I’m happy to wake up an hour or so ahead of my alarm so I can have that experience. That said, if my mind is really racing with anticipation of the day’s concerns, it kind of wrecks the lie-in. I’ll get up an hour or two early, have an extra special breakfast, start chores or some other thing I didn’t think I had time for.
This is my current conundrum. I was going to go in early anyway, but …
Fuck it, you’ve convinced me. I need to have a tête-à-tête with another tech about following procedures with intent. Probably should be there first.
there’s usually signs for me to help decide:
- yawning, teary-eyed: I need to top-off sleep
- eyes tired of being closed and/ or mind already wandering: time to get up
- if not those, I can always stay in bed longer and chill
I have terrible insomnia. I often wake up after two or three hour intervals.
I just go outside, smoke a cigarette, and go back to sleep. Maybe pee a little bit.
