I returned from China on Monday morning. The trip went great but I was excited to see my family after 11 days away. I didn’t really sleep on the 20 hour transit back because I wasn’t really tired. There were some good movies on the plane and I was able to get a ton of work done by squeezing out about 7 hours of battery life out of my macbook which made the 12 hour first leg of my trip back to the States relatively easy and productive.
That first night back I went to sleep at 3:30 am which is about my normal time when I’m in the states. I thought I was golden and had made an easy transition back across time zones (Beijing is exactly 12 hours difference from where I live so when it’s 8am at home it’s 8pm in Beijing). By day 2 I learned that this was not the case. On Tuesday I fell asleep before 10pm. I did the same for the past 3 nights. On each of those nights I woke up at 3am, 6am, and 5:15am respectively. While this might seem like a desirable change from my normal 3:30am to 9am sleeping pattern I’m actually hating it. I don’t really like to use alarms to wake up if I don’t have to and with the adjusted circadian rhythm buy Junction I’ve been sleeping more than usual and more importantly, I’ve seen my productivity drop considerably. The 10pm to 3:30 am time blocks is usually my high-gear productivity time. The time I can get a lot done and when my brain is operating at full tilt. Now it’s my ‘can’t keep my eyes open, fall asleep time.’ I’m hoping that I’ll go back to ‘normal’ soon as there’s no way I’ll be able to continue with my desired productivity with my current sleep schedule.
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ELNORABanks
June 6, 2009
I thought I was the only one. My psychiatrist tried to get me on a normal schedule when I was writing my dissertation. I’d wake up at 9 a.m., get to the desk by ten or eleven and piddle til 8 p.m. From 8-2 or 4 a.m. I’d get the most work done! After two years she gave up (I finished my dissertation in a year).
I am THRILLED to read someone defending an alternative sleep schedule. I have fought with the most well-meaning people about this. Let me stay up til 4 or 5 and sleep til noon because I do SLEEP til noon, and quite comfortably.
Honored that you’ve joined me on Twitter; I look forward to more of your posts.
Blessings,
Dr. Ni
June 18, 2009
[...] week but then on day 8 things started to shift and by day 10 I was back to my normal 3am bed time. I wrote previously that the new pattern was annoying me because I wasn’t able to get as much done. I was going [...]