The plus side I’ve found is there are radically less distractions around at 1am, so I can often get more work done between 11pm and 2am than I can in the whole afternoon. Last night I managed to complete an entire application form for an internship with BP, whereas in the day all I’d managed was half a page of geometry notes.
Possibly even more importantly, mindlessly hitting refresh on facebook is not an acceptable activity at 2am, whereas earlier in the day it is, so if I am awake then, it’s because I’m actually working.
Indeed. If I moved to the US, after a few weeks I would adjust.
One solution is to create an artificial light & dark cycle that’s earlier than the actual daily cycle where I live. That would work—as long as I never left my room.
Surely you wouldn’t have to stay in your room 24 hours a day? You could go outside when the light and dark of your artificial cycle and the natural cycle coincided, couldn’t you? I don’t know how sensitive human clocks are—maybe going out at nine a.m. right after you woke up when you’re trying to fool yourself into “thinking” it’s noon would create problems having to do with the exact location of the sun—but it seems like there would be a window there.
You’re right, of course. I’ll do the calculations.
Assume I want to shift my sleep cycle 4 hours ahead (i.e. wake up 4 hours earlier, 8am instead of noon).
We currently have sunrise and sunset roughly at 6:30 and 17:00 local time. I assume for simplicity that this remains constant and also ignore DST.
I’ll want to simulate sunrise at 2:30 am and sunset at 13:00. So assuming the sun is “properly up” (high enough) starting at 7am, I can go outside from 7am-1200 and again after sunset at 1700. I have to stay at home during the night (for artificial lighting starting at 2:30) and during the artificial darkness period, 1300-1700.
This might actually be workable if there aren’t too many interruptions. Hmm...
One thing I don’t yet know is how exactly artificial lighting affects the body’s sleep cycle; how the body reacts to it differently than darkness and also differently than sunlight.
I’ve been nocturnal since I’ve started attending university, but it makes for a lonely life. I’d rather fix it if possible.
The plus side I’ve found is there are radically less distractions around at 1am, so I can often get more work done between 11pm and 2am than I can in the whole afternoon. Last night I managed to complete an entire application form for an internship with BP, whereas in the day all I’d managed was half a page of geometry notes.
Possibly even more importantly, mindlessly hitting refresh on facebook is not an acceptable activity at 2am, whereas earlier in the day it is, so if I am awake then, it’s because I’m actually working.
Move to another time zone.
That wouldn’t help for the long term; circadian clocks, even wonky circadian clocks, are set by cycles of daylight and darkness.
Indeed. If I moved to the US, after a few weeks I would adjust.
One solution is to create an artificial light & dark cycle that’s earlier than the actual daily cycle where I live. That would work—as long as I never left my room.
Surely you wouldn’t have to stay in your room 24 hours a day? You could go outside when the light and dark of your artificial cycle and the natural cycle coincided, couldn’t you? I don’t know how sensitive human clocks are—maybe going out at nine a.m. right after you woke up when you’re trying to fool yourself into “thinking” it’s noon would create problems having to do with the exact location of the sun—but it seems like there would be a window there.
You’re right, of course. I’ll do the calculations.
Assume I want to shift my sleep cycle 4 hours ahead (i.e. wake up 4 hours earlier, 8am instead of noon).
We currently have sunrise and sunset roughly at 6:30 and 17:00 local time. I assume for simplicity that this remains constant and also ignore DST.
I’ll want to simulate sunrise at 2:30 am and sunset at 13:00. So assuming the sun is “properly up” (high enough) starting at 7am, I can go outside from 7am-1200 and again after sunset at 1700. I have to stay at home during the night (for artificial lighting starting at 2:30) and during the artificial darkness period, 1300-1700.
This might actually be workable if there aren’t too many interruptions. Hmm...
One thing I don’t yet know is how exactly artificial lighting affects the body’s sleep cycle; how the body reacts to it differently than darkness and also differently than sunlight.
I’ll have to think about this some more.