Early rising combined with going out; inconceivable?

[Freelancer]

About 6 months ago I routinely woke up at 5 AM and started the day with 2-3 hours of solid work, it felt GREAT. At 9 AM I had completed more then what most people did in a entire days work. I meditated, worked on my projects, did a few exersizes and I was energized for the rest of the day.

Then...'disaster' struck...

I went to college, one of my many goals was further developing my social skills. The most logical avenue was going out and talking to 'strangers', I learned a lot through that and made many friends. Yet it was disaster for my 5 AM routine, it completely crumbled and wasted away.

I now run into a issue; rebuild the habit that gives me so much power and give up the easiest and fastest way to socialize (not to mention that a lot of social activities occur in the later parts of the day) or continue building my social skills and accept the lack of sleep.

Me don't likey those options.
Time to find new ones.

This is what I came up with so far:
- No alcohol; done. Everyone that knows me is aware that I won't drink a single drop of alcohol for a entire month, good chance it'll be for life but no reason to upset people about that.
- Eat healthy, reduces necessary sleep.

Those are some baseline things that reduce the amount of sleep needed when socializing.
Some other not yet implemented options include:
- Early rising, when going out sleep a few hours before leaving. Lately I've noticed that my entire evening is occupied with social stuff. Going to friends, eating together, playing a few games, etc. I'm not quite sure how to implement this exactly. Perhaps tell people that I'm waking up at 5 or 6 AM?
- Sleep in on the days I go out. This doesn't seem like a great idea, I'll never be able to settle into the routine of waking up early which negates most of the benefits.


Right now I'm considering the following regime:
- Wake up at 6 AM, this leaves me about 2-3 hours before I have to leave to university (earliest class is at 9 AM and it takes about 5 minutes to walk to it).
- Take a 1.5 hour nap at 8 PM every day. At first I considered 6 PM but I realized that there are often social stuff that comes in the way at that point. A meal frequently run's late as we'r talking about various stuff. So I settled on 8 PM, there's usually a dead point then between social stuff that I can use to take a nap. Basically this settles me into a biphasic sleep pattern. It isn't uncommon that I return around 3 AM the next day, this leaves me about 4,5 hours of sleep when I go out. Its on the short side.
If I'm sleep deprived what do you believe is the best way to resolve it with this routine;
1) Sleep in.
2) Wake up at 6 AM then at some later point in the day take a few naps.
3) Wake up at 6 AM, stay awake untill 8 PM, do the 1,5 hour sleep, then go to bed early.



Any help appreciated, thanks in advance.



Ps. Yeah I know I answered some of my own questions later on in the post, I could edit the earlier parts but I like it this way. Shows my thought processes...

[Desmond]

I vote option two.

[ruchirkc]

Or you could try being biphasic. You'll only need 6 hrs of sleep per day that way. Just take the nap when there isn't a whole lot going on...

[Scipio]

A lot of very productive "social" events happen in the morning and during the day. I don't know what your goals are, but if you want to shift your social activity to something more "career track" than going out and partying, you could be making potential future business contacts and working on your public speaking skills in the mornings. There are Toastmasters groups that meet in the mornings, as well as other clubs and things.

This is just another side of the coin. At some point you may feel you've worked enough on your "college-style social skills" and will want to invest in business, speaking, or professional development related social skills. You'll find you can probably keep your 5AM wake up time since a lot of productive and interesting people will also be running on that schedule.

[SarahJaynee]

Hi Freelancer,
Personally I'd focus on learning how to "powernap", that should refresh you enough without having to put in a couple of hours for napping. It doesn't take too long too learn but I found it quite tough at first and discovered that using self-hypnosis got me too sleep immediately.
Secondly don't forget to have fun at college. Its one time in your life and its only for a couple of years so don't be too hard on yourself. Maybe focus on freeing up some time by dropping some unessential classes (I read how Steve did this at it was very inspiring to read), drop all screen time (surfing, TV, video games etc).
Keep us all posted!

[MartinP]

Hi Freelancer,

What a great post! I have this constant struggle between wanting to stay up late and party, and wanting to get up early and be "good".

You are lucky that you are at college, because it means you can nap quite nicely in the middle of the day. The only problem I find, is that if I nap during the day, I sometimes cant get to sleep at night.

Sadly, the evidence is that some people need more sleep than others. if you need 7 hours then you need 7 hours, and its difficult to get around that.

Dont you feel jealous of those people (Like Margaret Thatcher) who only need 3-4 hours sleep per night?

Keep us updated with how your plan goes.

Martin

[Plato]

Are you sure going out at night is your best and only option for socialising?

[Hanselich]

Try to party only at weekends and work during the weekdays.

[Brutha]

Try to party only at weekends and work during the weekdays.

That doesn't solve the problem at all as it still destroys a regular shedule.
The human body is made to have daily rhytmus but not weekly ones.

[Bruce Achterberg]

Originally Posted by ruchirkc

Or you could try being biphasic. You'll only need 6 hrs of sleep per day that way. Just take the nap when there isn't a whole lot going on...

Freelancer, if you do go down the biphasic route, one thing I learned when I tried to go biphasic (but later failed when I realised I was becoming very sleep deprived) was that it's important to make sure you won't have your naps interrupted.

I thought "awesome; I'll just go biphasic," thinking the timing of the naps (i.e. both the nap duration, and the time of day when I napped) would be the most of my worries. I failed to consider the whole package, and as such, tried to "build" the biphasic habit on a poor foundation (I was basically lazy, opting for a "ready, fire, aim" approach. I didn't enough effort into my early game and paid for it later when I got an early checkmate and turned into an irritable zombie instead of a highly productive, well rested biphasic sleeper).

So my point is, consider the whole package of what doing or plan to do, especially when it involves sleep. Getting mildly sleep deprived made me feel out of whack for months.

[newdad]

I'd vote for socializing with a different crowd. The late night social group will either catch up with you in a few years or they will no longer be the ones you need to socialize with.

[James81]

Why not get the best of both worlds?

Party til 11 PM, go home, go to bed, wake up at 6 AM.

Just because you are out partying, doesn't mean you have to do it until 2 AM like everybody else.

[pauldickinson]

I'd go with the napping option. I'm experiment with them myself, and I find it really does help if you feel tired, or in your case sleep deprived!

I'm only doing the one nap a day, so I can't say what the multiple naps a day would do, but I think it is worth a try!