The Serenity of a 5pm Bedtime
23 Feb 2013
We know of tangled sleep schedules, and we have all had your struggles with them. But sometimes sleep schedules can become so twisted, that they just happen to morph into something quite ordered. The figurative eye of a typhoon. Such was the case with my sleep schedule. One dawn, I took to bed around the wee hours of 7am with the expectation of only a couple hours shut-eye. After a short day, I fell into bed at 5pm. Then something quite magical happened.
I had stumbled upon a perfect sleep schedule. Love at first nap. Going to bed at 5pm and naturally waking up a bit past midnight.
The reversed day presents itself.
##1am to 8am: Distraction-Free Work, Study, and Leisure
The night is long, quiet, serene. My mind is refreshed. It is just Pandora, my computer, and me. Most of the Internet is sleeping, and there is little content being generated. Once I exhaust Facebook, Reddit, Hacker News, etc, the Internet is effectively out of my way. I put in some productive work (web development), and studies, with a clear head.
I could also use this time for leisure to work on pet projects, watch some shows, do whatever I would normally do after 5pm on a 9-to-5 day.
this is also cool since I start my day at the same time as overseas coworkers (e.g. the UK).
##8am to 9am: Exercise
The sun has risen, the leaves are frosted with dew, and the streets are mostly empty apart from the early-rising joggers. Many people are sleeping, and importantly, the gyms are empty. During normal hours my local gym is full, which caused me to work out around 11pm which made it hard to fall asleep. But in the morning, it is wide open. I get my work-outs and basketball shootaround done in a snap, and I am envigorated for the rest of the day.
##9am to 10am: “Breakfast”
I suppose in a 9-to-5 day, this would technically be lunch, but it still feels like breakfast. The restaurants are still serving breakfast food, which I do not mind at all. Who wouldn’t want bacon for lunch? A work-out followed by a meal, I have a full head of steam for the day.
##10am to 5pm: Work and School
Now I simply do what I would normally do during the business hours of the day. I go to work and I go to classes. Everyone is awake, I am awake, and most coworkers are available on-hand.
##5pm to 1am: Sleep!
I go to bed while the sun is setting and things are quieting down. I fall naturally asleep with no problem, and wake up naturally with no grogginess. No alarms involved.
This schedule works well for me. Rather than the day involving going to work and then having free time, I spend my free time first and then go to work. As with everything seemingly perfect, there are big caveats. Outside of 8am-5pm, I am out-of-sync with society; I go to sleep while people are hanging out, and I am awake while everyone else is sleeping. But for a somewhat introverted university student that works mostly remote and interacts with people mostly from class and work, this will do nicely until I am out of school.
Until then, I will contently rest in the blankets of happiness and serenity that is the 5pm sleep schedule.
Burn the land and boil the sea, you can’t take my bed from me.