Sleeping, you bastard

That's probably one of the most commonplace thing in the world of productivity and technology - but I do hate sleeping. Sleeping takes so much time and acts like a frightened hungry lion. If you don't care about it and feed it - then it will eat you alive.


It's one of those days when I'm trying to come up with a short post - which is not just a list of my favorite stuffed animal names. And I have many ideas. Funny enough, I've got my tabletop today from IKEA. It's made of pine tree. You know what it means? It smell like God! And it can speak as well, it's saying: please, work on me tonight. And then sleep says: all right buddy, we'll see each other tomorrow. See what I mean?

I've just read an excellent article today about why developers tend to work late - or early. Their focus is the best when not much energy can be shared for other incoming signals or in fact there are nothing that could destroy it. I hate sleeping for 2 reasons. In the mornings I feel like a pain factory. And then sleep deprivation will make me sick after couple of weeks. The first I can handle but the second one is tricky. You need quite some effort to avoid sickness. Lots of tea, lots of vegetables, chicken and happiness. And avoid all the sick people. Or just simply all.

I've tried a few things to improve the process. I clearly can state that it's a few - I know how much you can apply when you have the right circumstances. I'm a big fan of power naps. Check out the link if you have never heard about it. When doing power naps it's important to keep the rules and make it a conscious action. My beloved colleagues at Pronovix know my power nap habits very well ;) Something that may be different is sleeping on short breaks. Sleep on the train, on the bus or bus stop, sleep when waiting in the line or when compiling.

Then I used Sleep Cycle a lot. I managed to get the right time to wake up couple of times - however I fall into a special trap soon. It eats a little battery power up and I was actually worried while sleeping if it lasts till the morning and wakes me up. Also when I was half conscious I knew that the app is looking for the right moment so I tried to hack it with my movements to keep me there for a little longer.

For couple of month I tried to get up around 5am. It was a winter season - where couple of hours didn't matter and I had a warm chocolate at the office before 6am. Which made it a nice ceremony. I liked that a lot. Making such habits help to make the waking up mood better.

I know guys taking pills, but I try not to take anything - so on that field I have absolutely no experience. The company that makes the vitamin I'm taking added pills containing guarana - needless to say I'm really disappointed in them.

I think one trick I can share still is the conscious realization of the fact that tiredness is something that excitement can beat easily. When you're tired be grateful that you're not sleeping that much. I guess I'll have plenty of time to thank this tomorrow :/

Oh, by the way. Did you know that sleep deprivation can help on your depression? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_deprivation#Treatment_for_depression I guess now everything is answered.

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If you're like me don't like wasting time with sleeping, please, join and tell a story about how much you hate sleeping. If your mood is still telling you the opposite read the sleep part of The 4-Hour Body from Tim Ferriss.

Peter