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by lionhearted 6211 days ago
> This has to take a toll, right?

For a while, a friend and I went on a "steal sleep" schedule. We both underslept, got like 4-6 hours per night, and then stole sleep whenever we had nothing important to do. Sleep 10 minutes in a taxi, 20 minutes on a subway ride, 1 hour between meetings when you're in the middle of the city... surprisingly, it actually works, and you can go into deep sleep pretty quickly whenever you want when you're constantly underslept.

Now, I don't do it these days, and don't really recommend it, but if your schedule is crazy enough, it might be the answer. I was full-time running one company, building another, and studying full time. Also was dating two girls and had a couple hobbies. So basically, I did stuff every hour I could, and slept every time I couldn't do something. It's crazy but it kind of works.

Edit: I didn't mention my biggest takeaway from the experiment. We waste a hell of a lot of time, all of us. Like a ridiculous amount. 3-7 hours per day at least, between tasks, waiting in lines, in transit without reading or working on anything or sleeping, etc. A hell of a lot. I kept the habit of cutting down "dead time" as much as possible now that I'm more aware of it.

2 comments

It sounds like a fun experiment, but hard to control for the fact that your decisions, your "effective IQ", etc. are all greatly affected by being tired. This would let you do more stuff, but you were doing it all sub-optimally.
I agree, if I'm low on sleep I'm lucky if I can get through email, much less write anything coherent. If I'm not traveling I can usually get a full night and be fine during the day, but sometimes I still overdo lunch (I love food) and shut down in the afternoon.
That dead time isn't necessarily waste. Time to ponder is a good thing.