I’ve always found sleep quite intriguing; we all spend between a quarter and a third of our entire lives doing it, both us humans, and every other species, yet it seems to offer no obvious evolutionary benefit (something I’m surprised the intelligent design nutcases havn’t jumped on).
Yes, ok, it allows our bodies time to regenerate lost cells and our brains some downtime away from our problems, but surely in the times in our prehistory when staying in one place for more than a couple of hours might well have meant seeing the inside of a sabre-toothed tiger’s belly, we and our prey-shaped brothers of the earthly-mother could have come up with something more useful to do with that time than hiding in a nook and grabbing some shuteye?
Sleep Patterns
Most people sleep between 5-9 hours a night, leaving 15-19 awake from a 24 hour day. For most people this is determined by their metabolism (or more accurately circadian rhythym) and age, their lifestyle including working hours, and often seasonal sunlight cycles (people usually sleep a little more in winter than they do in summer). There is however a condition known as Non-24-hour sleep-wake syndrome which affects about 1 in 2000 people to differing extents (also DSPS).
The result of this condition is that people find it difficult to maintain a ‘normal’ sleep pattern relative to the rest of society, and thus often struggle with seemingly simple things like getting to work on time, or even going to bed at a reasonable hour, simply because they are not remotely tired, and no amount of trying to get to sleep will send them off to the land of nod.
My Sleep History
All through school and university, and for my first few years of ‘professional’ work, I was constantly late for classes or for early meetings. In high-school it was generally accepted that I would miss registration period but would make it in for the second class, and my part-time jobs (starting at 13) I always had very early morning starts so I could stay up beforehand, or late-afternoon jobs. My first couple of years in corporate positions were tricky and some management believed I was “just a lazy bastard” (yes, that’s a genuine quote) whilst I thought I was an insomniac.
When I got a job as a mostly-travelling consultant I fared a little better as I would stay up all night, then catch a few hours sleep on the early-train to London, Edinburgh, Newcastle or wherever else I was needed. I’d be more refreshed for the entire day than when I was in my local office, having usually spent 4-5 hours lay in bed wide-awake trying to get to sleep, managing to catch maybe 30 minutes before having to get up and head to work.
Self-employment Brings Freedom
Now that I work for myself, I’ve finally been able to manage what I originally thought of as a problem, and turn it into something beneficial to me. My current sleep pattern is about 18-20 hours awake, with 8-10 hours of sleep, giving me a well-rounded 6-day week each of 28 hours.
This actually gives me more time to support the people all over the world using my websites and software, and gives me enough peace and quiet to really knuckle-down and get on with the coding, image-processing or whatever other tasks need determination and focus.
I imagine it’s what dyslexic people felt like in the 80s… I’m not just a lazy bastard, I’m just not quite the same as everyone else :)
Thankfully I’ve managed to build an environment in which my cure is to embrace it and work out it’s benefits. Not something everyone can do, and I really feel for those still struggling trying to fit into the ‘normal’ world of work, but next time you’re in the office and see the same guy (it’s statistically going to be a guy) come in late everyday, cut him a little slack, you’re not perfect either ;)
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