The Hardest Part About Sleep Hacking....

...has got to be waking up when it's dark out. I think there's a pretty strong argument that our bodies simply weren't made to wake up before dawn. Of course that goes for not just sleep hacking but anytime you have to wake up before 7:30am in the winter at more than about 35 degrees away from the equator.

I've tried using those gradual wakeup light alarm clocks but frankly they are way too week/lame to make much difference, besides being quite expensive. Setting the full room lights to go on at 2 am wouldn't endear me to my wife, so I'm still looking for good, gently ways to tell my body that 2 am is really dawn.

Anyway no real solutions here just starting off a discussion on the topic. Feel free to weigh in with your thought/suggestions/experiences with getting up before dawn or what you thing the hardest part of sleep hacking is.

-asher

I don't know how much this has to do with your initial topic...but I believe...that I have managed to turn myself nocturnal. Honestly. The minute I start to see the tiniest bit of light out I start to get sleepy. Even my eyes have become more dialated. It's quite bizarre...but at the same time...I like it. There's something...special, to be awake when everyone else (well everyone in your part of the world at least) is asleep. I've found myself truly disliking the sunlight and embracing the moon. I swear I'm not a vampire. I have no idea how I ended up this way...I suppose I just started working late into the night, and discovered that it is much easier for me to work at night when all is quiet and calm and there are no interruptions. Also...the sunlight makes it harder for me to see the colors properly on my laptop screen, and I've found that doing both computer design and making my jewelry is much better under controlled light sources.

So basically...I don't know that our bodies weren't made to wake up before dawn. I think it's just...whatever you are used to. Maybe? So as long as you practice it, you will eventually become fully accustomed to it. I am interested to learn more about this sleep hacking. I'm unfamiliar with it in fact. It might be of great interest to someone like myself.

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Originally Posted by Aquanina

I suppose I just started working late into the night, and discovered that it is much easier for me to work at night when all is quiet and calm and there are no interruptions.[/b]

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Couldn't agree more with that. My main office is at home, which makes working at 3 am even nicer. No calls. No interruptions. Time seems to go by quicker (or maybe just more smoothly. too. Does that happen to you?

Over the years, I have gone from being a "night owl" to being a "morning person." I mean an EARLY morning person. I wake up every morning, wide awake and before the alarm, when it is still quite dark out. Watching sunrises is a joy that never diminishes - especially when away from the city. As the days get longer, I wake earlier without consciously trying.

I also do my best and most creative work when it is dark out. I think this is a function of distraction, more than anything else... I really want to be outside (any time of year) in daylight. At night or in the early morning, my ADD brain seems to lock on and maintain intense focus easily. This is when I can easily compose and write songs, solve sticky problems, figure out new ways to do things... it is when I can THINK.

This is a big reason the idea of polyphasic sleep intrigues me. I would love to have more of that incredibly productive time in my days without checking entirely out of the lives of my wife, kids and friends.

Yup, there's definitely something to circadian rhythms. You discover that very quickly when you start with uberman.
The 2-3am period is the hardest for me, when still adapting.
IMO you can break the basic light/dark behaviour, but it does cause some strange sensations.

There's just nothing as wierd as the feeling of going right through the night and day, and night again .. and not feel tired or have any intention of getting some core sleep.
The time that feels the wierdest for me is when the sun rises. I ended up loving the feeling actually.

When I was adapted to uberman, I would become sleepy right before it was time for my next nap. Consistently.
I don't know if it's 'ultradian rhythms' as they call it, or just that built in timer in one's head. But it seems to be adaptable, IMO.
Many sleep therapists disagree though.

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Originally Posted by Placebo

The 2-3am period is the hardest for me, when still adapting.[/b]

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Oddly enough that's not a problem for me. But when I've been monophasic I've often been a late sleeper and don't go to bed until around that time, so I guess it's a late night up rather than the middle of the night to me.

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There's just nothing as wierd as the feeling of going right through the night and day, and night again .. and not feel tired or have any intention of getting some core sleep.[/b]

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Fantastic isn't it - and, as you said, very difficult to process at first. I am just adapting to this idea at the moment again, and it's like there's a continuity to your consciousness that a big block of monophasic sleep breaks up, when you're napping the waking periods almost seem to chain together into one looooooooong day, when I think about it now it doesn't feel like I'm going to be sleeping at all tonight, even though I'll be napping.

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When I was adapted to uberman, I would become sleepy right before it was time for my next nap. Consistently.
I don't know if it's 'ultradian rhythms' as they call it, or just that built in timer in one's head. But it seems to be adaptable, IMO.[/b]

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I also lean towards thinking it's conditioned - already I am feeling very sleepy right before my naps every 6 hours, I know if I was entraining uberman that after 6 hours I would be a zombie and would have been fighting off sleep for 2 hours.

Paul

It could be fun to have an alarm, portable and worn on the wrist or ankle, that literally shocks you awake. What do you think? It'd be especially cool if it could detect if you were asleep at the wrong time somehow, and shock you then. I'm looking into how to actualize it.

My biggest problem with Uberman was sleeping through my alarm even when I turned it on its most obnoxious mode. Because of this, I couldn't maintain any sort of schedule and I was either zombie, insomniac, or dead asleep for hours.

Res - actually, you're not the first to think of that.
Although my original plan didn't involve polyphasic sleep.
I wanted a device to detect REM and use a mild vibration or shock to alert you to it.
Logging the data would be useful too.

The idea would have some applications to polyphasic sleep. But my problem is that I'm a complete idiot with electronics