The Intuitive's Sleep Deprivation

[goldkin]

(Disclaimer! This post is being written while sleepy and under the influence of sugar. It comes with no warranty of coherency, express or implied.)

On the subjects of bad habits I'd like to get rid of, I'm very aware of my ability to chronically sleep deprive myself. This is related to my ability to be sidetracked easily -- the hallmark of someone that spends too much time focusing on what he's doing at the moment, and not enough managing the analytical sense to know when to stop.


I actually wonder if this is a common problem for intuitively-driven people in general (or geeks, really). I've mused previously on my intense drive to keep playing the same game to an unhealthy degree, and find this equally applicable to all of my artistic obsessions as well.

Of course, this doesn't jive well with my attempts to rediscover balance after what's been a terrifying year for me.* I've been busy attempting to reassert myself in a manner both professional and magnanimous, and am finding my lack of sleep both severely embarrassing and directly blocking my progress.**


In a way, this can easily be defined as Western laziness -- except that, in my case, I fill my time with meaningful activity. I simply can't find the time to stop.

Assuming this is common, is anyone experienced enough to know how to fix it?

--
* And with the recent news that my previous employer was just acquired by a European firm that may dismantle the company, I definitely made the right decision.
** This is less apparent in my journaling, of course; I unapologetically edit everything I write.

Comments

[klitaka.livejournal.com]

This is a terrible problem for me too.

I find that I can't sleep till I'm completely exhausted, which is unfortunately bad news for nights like tonight, where I have a late shift followed by an early shift tomorrow. It's only one day a week, and I can function in a sleep-deprived state (thank you college, this is the best thing you have taught me thus far).

But I'll be up late more often reading, writing, or emailing people than playing games, but I'm fond of playing Pokemon, Tetris, and Zelda in bed on my Game Boy/DS, and of playing tower defence games, which can just eat up hours.

I wonder if it's common to intellectuals to stay up late and sleep late? If it's an evolutionary quirk of intelligent people? I know I always feel the most productive during the witching hours when I know that no one is around to bother me. I wonder sometimes if a 36h day would be better for me and fit my circadian cycles better (I don't know if I even have a rhythm any more, or if last quarter of college broke me utterly).

I have tried taking melatonin as a natural sleep aid, but it's not terribly effective (though I've also found that caffeine in pop, coffee, or tea doesn't have a huge effect on me either). I've also tried other various things (including mind-numbing late-night talk radio), but it's hard to turn off my brain.

[goldkin]

While not necessarily related, I know one of the factors is the lack of interruptions that plague daily working life. I require long periods of uninterrupted quiet time to do my best work, which is why I have an affinity for the evening hours.

My problem is, despite shifting my schedule later (a whole four and a half hours, if you count it against my schedule in Florida), I still suffer from too few hours of rest. I attribute part of this to my naive belief that I'm more tolerant to this abuse than I actually am, and the (lack of) rest to simply not being able to stop.

I've ventured a continuation to this in my reply here, due to the direct relevance of spiritual pontification.

But, fair warning: I happen to be very bad at summarizing my thoughts right now, for the aforementioned cause.