Sleep Diary1/26

Productivity: B
Mood: B
Sleep Time: 3:00PM
Wake Time: 2:00PM
Dinner: 2:00AM
Wind Down: 5:00 AM

Exercise: Ran 1.5 miles

Note: A period of low energy consciousness is emerging after about 6 hours of sleep. I will begin monitoring this phase.

Sleep Diary 1/25

Productivity: BMood: B
Sleep Time: 4:00 AM
Wake Time: 2:00PM
Dinner: 2:00AM
Calm Down: 5:00 AM

Exercise: None

 

Sleep Diary 1/24/13

Productivity: A
Mood: B
Time of Sleep: 3:15 AM
Wake Time: 10:15 PM
Dinner: 10:15 AM
Wind-Down: 1:15 AM

Exercise: Ran 1.5 miles.

Sleep Diary

Productivity: A
Mood: B
Time of Sleep: 4:15 AM
Wake Time: 12:45 PM
Dinner: 2:15 AM
Wind-Down: 3:45 AM

Exercise: Ran 1.5 miles. Later walked a mile.

Sleep Diary 1/22/2013

Productivity: A
Mood: A
Time of Sleep: 5:30AM
Waking Time: Noon
Dinner: Midnight
Wind-down: 3AM

Exercise: Walked to lunch after taking car for oil change.

The DSPD Experiment

Being unemployed, my body has rejected my alarm clock and adopted a sleep cycle that is far off from a normal 9-5 work day. This is a struggle I have faced my entire life, with the periods where I have been forced to a morning schedule strongly correlating with the most depressed parts of my life.

During one of my summer breaks during my college years, I shut off my alarm clock and allowed my body to adopt its own sleep cycle, independent of societal norms. I naturally settled on a 2AM-10AM sleep cycle at that point in my life.

I have renewed my interest in the idea that I have delayed sleep phase disorder. This blog will serve as a sleep diary, aimed at documenting my sleep hygiene, mood and productivity.

By good sleep hygene, I will aim to follow the NIOSH guidelines, ignoring actual time of day, starting each day at the time I wake up naturally.  This includes:

• Allow 7-9 hours a day for sleeping (15-17 waking hours).
• Avoid heavy meals and alcohol prior to sleeping, and caffeine several hours prior to bedtime.
• Sleep in a dark, quite,comfortable and cool environment.
• Avoid TV beds and other media furniture.
• Follow an exercise routine, but not within 3 hours of sleep.

Even when I awake naturally, it take a couple hours before my energy level rises. Also, I am caffeine dependent, with severe headaches if my caffeine intake is reduced.

This leads me to the following sleep day schedule:

• Hour 0: Wake up naturally.
• Hour 3: Productive Period/exercise.
• Hour 9: End Caffeine intake.
• Hour 12: Dinner.
• Hour 15: Dim lights, with my Pandera Enya channel playing in the background.

For example, today I woke up at 6PM, and started a pot of coffee and went for a run at 10PM. By this schedule, I would stop consuming coffee at 4AM. At 7 AM I will eat dinner, and begin winding down at 10AM.

Based on a rough sketch of the past few weeks, I know that this is actually later than my natural cycle. I will actually stop drinking coffee about midnight, eat about 3 AM, and will fall asleep near 6AM. I will then likely wake up around 2PM, and be energized by about 5pm.

Regardless, I intend to post an update after dinner each day. This update will include:

• Time of sleep the previous day
• Waking time of current day
• Exercise of current day
• Productivity grade
• Mood grade

A grade of B will indicate an acceptable/average productivity and mood. Today I have an above average productivity, as indicated by initiating this experiment, and an above average mood. Thus I score an A for both today.

Time of Sleep: 6AM
Waking Time: 6PM
Exercise: Ran 1.25 miles at 10PM
Productivity: A
Mood: A

Cloths Make the Man

I am by no means a style expert. I will not waist anyone’s time on how to build a sharp crisp image. This post is about how looking like a thug,  tramp or pretentious self-absorbed elitist rightly leads to being viewed as a thug, tramp or pretentious self-absorbed elitist.

To most people, political correctness has crossed the line to absurdity. The rest will judge me for being judgmental for pointing out the fact that people instinctively judge the character of a man or woman based on the cloths they choose to wear.

How ironic that those who say a man should be able to walk around with his pants below his boxers and a hoody, or a woman with 80% of her skin exposed, without being judged would be the first to throw stones at a woman wearing a fir coat. Or Joe Namath for that matter.

Profiling based on race, religion or any other demographic basis is counterproductive. Profiling based on body posture and physical presentation is useful. People adopt the behaviors of the company they keep, and clothing is a banner identifying which subculture a person identifies with.

To be clear, identifying with a subculture is never justification for being made a target for crime. But since when have criminals been overly concerned with moral justifications and equality?

If you dress like a thug, expect to be treated like a thug. Eminem, I am talking to you. If you dress like a tramp, expect to be treated like a piece of meat.

If that is what you want, that is your prerogative. I had no problem being treated like a hippy throwback when my hair was long. If, however, you want people to respect you, you must first learn to respect yourself. And dressing respectfully is the first step.

And you can wear a fur coat or $10,000 suit if you want. Just expect to be treated like a pretentious, self-absorbed elitist.

Why I am here!

I originally forged this blog to comment on other word-press blogs.

Today, my mission is changing, primarily due to a desire to produce an archive of my thoughts on split-octonion physics for others to stumble upon. This will start with building the split-octonions from first principles and fleshing out the refractive field theory of gravity.

Most of my posts are likely to be updates on the progress of this work.

Further, one could expect occasional asides on the theological impact of science. In particular, much of modern theology has far too much Aristotle and not enough God. Religion and science, when done right, should be about finding the truth. Dogma opposes truth.

Finally, my Tea Party views, and view that an Article V convention is long over due, are likely to appear from time to time.

If you find a mistake in my work on physics, send me an email at benjamin.prather@gmail.com. For other topics, post a comment. If you just like what I have to say, let me know that too. If you don’t like what I have to say, well, why then are YOU here?