Selfish Mom

My Crazy Sleep Experiment: Day Five–not insane yet

May 16, 2012 What's Going On

So far so good. Waiting for some kind of crash, but so far, nothing!

It can’t really be this easy, can it? I mean, if it were, everybody would be doing it!

Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 0. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.

Tags: Everyman Sleep Schedule, sleep

Day 2 of my crazy sleep experiment

May 13, 2012 What's Going On

Day two of my Everyman Sleep Schedule was totally messed up by something completely out of my control, so I think I might be back at square one. :-( And yes, I’m still wearing yesterday’s clothes. It was a rough night.

Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 0. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.

Tags: Everyman Sleep Schedule, sleep, video

Day 1 of my crazy sleep experiment

May 11, 2012 What's Going On

Last month I wrote about the Uberman and Everyman sleep schedules. Well, here we go…

Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 0. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.

Tags: Everyman Sleep Schedule, sleep, video

Can I get more time by sleeping less without going crazy?

Apr 24, 2012 What's Going On

Last week I was reading an article on Cracked.com titled 5 Ways to Hack Your Brain into Awesomeness (that’s about as close as I can get to self-help without barfing). The very first tip was about something called Uberman’s Sleep Schedule, detailed here and here. You may recognize the basic concept from an episode of Seinfeld, where Kramer tried something similar. It seemed to work for a while, but then he fell asleep during sex and slept so hard that his girlfriend thought she’d killed him and had him thrown into a river.

And while I definitely don’t want that to happen to me, I can’t stop thinking about the concept. How many times have you said, “I wish there were more hours in the day!”? I said it just yesterday! At this moment I have a lot of balls in the air: I have literally 11 blog posts half-finished that I started in the past week. I have to pack for a big trip. Our house is being appraised in a few weeks and still needs a lot of work, most of which will be done by me. My daughter’s birthday party is coming up and needs a lot of planning and coordination. And the kids’ school’s biggest fundraiser is also very soon and I need to learn an entirely new system for handling the money, via some online seminars that I don’t really have time for this week. And that’s on top of all of the normal every-day stuff that also has to get done.

Well, it sounds like I could get all of that done and more, if I were willing to try a crazy experiment.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: sleep

How to power nap correctly

Jan 27, 2012 What's Going On

Years ago I read something that totally changed the way I napped. Sometimes, when I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore, I would lay down for a nap, and wake up groggy a couple of hours later. Or, I’d set an alarm for 15 minutes, supposedly the right amount of time for a power nap, and then be jolted awake and feel sleepy for an hour afterwards.

But once I learned about the “caffeine nap” I found that I could lay down for about twenty minutes and wake up totally refreshed. I’ve become a regular caffeine napper, often grabbing one before the kids get home from school.

I saw this tweet today and thought it would be a good time to explain how and why to take a caffeine nap:

So, this is for Cecily and everyone else who, like me, could really use a pick-me-up in the afternoon and isn’t ready to try cocaine.

How to take a Caffeine Nap

Step 1: Drink some caffeine. I’m guessing for most of you that’s coffee (or maybe a Red Bull for Cecily?). For me it’s a Diet Dr Pepper.

Step 2: Set an alarm for 20-25 minutes from now.

Step 3: Sleep.

Here’s what should happen: caffeine takes about 15-20 minutes to start taking effect, so the goal is to have it wake you up before the alarm goes off. You’ll be waking up in stage two (out of four) in the sleep cycle, when you’re not in a really deep sleep yet. That, combined with the caffeine, should keep you from feeling groggy.

Researchers at a British sleep center found that out of all the things you can do when tired and driving, a caffeine nap was the most effective in waking you up. Keep that in mind on your next road trip when your eyelids start to droop.

Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 0. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.

Tags: caffeine, napping, sleep