I put 4-6 but sometimes it's none and sometimes (oh blessed joy) it's more like 10+.
As far as I can tell I'm non-24 and have been since I was a teenager. Left to myself I'll eventually "go through" and miss a night of sleep and get to bed in the day instead. Unfortunately the effect of my sleep phase seems to have been magnified by having to be up to care for the kids. Now that trigger has set things off I'm completely messed up.
The nights when it's none I can't sleep, feel awake and try to work (on the computer, though I'm fatigued and have done a days "work" already) and get to the point I can get to bed but the kids start waking up and so I'm into getting them up and ready for school. This is really hard.
Recently it's been the worst it has been I've had about 8 hours sleep in 5 days about a fortnight ago and had to look after the kids in the day. A real nightmare.
Alcohol usually will help me get to sleep earlier but I'm really concerned about becoming alcoholic. I guess drugs would probably do it but then I need to be up to attend to the kids so if they knock me out that would be no good.
If it's really that much of a problem why haven't you tried sleeping pills? I use them occasionally and they definately help, but they don't knock you out. If you're drinking alcohol to put yourself to sleep you're incapacitating yourself anyway.
Edit: and exercise can't hurt either. It only takes 30 minutes to go for a good jog and is something doctors always recommend.
I don't use any particular technique; I try to get 7 hours of sleep per day, but it often ends up 5-6 hours. I started collecting sleep time data few days ago and am in progress of writing a piece of Lisp code to compute a running average and apply some kind of proportional (or PI) controller to fix my sleeping time. You know, a kind of software that yells at you: "Hey, you really have to go to bed before 2200 today!" ;).
(I know it might sound overengineered, but hey, it's also fun! ;))
I get into the rhythm (the creative rhythm, I mean) by ~ 9 or 10 PM and could go on till early morning ~ 2 AM. Had to get up ~ 7 for day job. Sleep debt easily builds up over the work week and I try to catch up during the weekends and most of the time end up with a bad feel or a bad headache.
Pre-baby, 10-12. Post-birth? 6-8 :-) Not necessarily because the baby's any hassle but because I'd feel guilty about not using the time to tackle chores or spend more time with her :-) It's taken months to get used to that much sleep though..
I tend to build up sleep debt during the week and try to fix it on weekends. It's not healthy, but I get 6 - 8 hours during the week, occasionally less and 10 - 12 hours on the weekend.
I put 4-6 but sometimes it's none and sometimes (oh blessed joy) it's more like 10+.
As far as I can tell I'm non-24 and have been since I was a teenager. Left to myself I'll eventually "go through" and miss a night of sleep and get to bed in the day instead. Unfortunately the effect of my sleep phase seems to have been magnified by having to be up to care for the kids. Now that trigger has set things off I'm completely messed up.
The nights when it's none I can't sleep, feel awake and try to work (on the computer, though I'm fatigued and have done a days "work" already) and get to the point I can get to bed but the kids start waking up and so I'm into getting them up and ready for school. This is really hard.
Recently it's been the worst it has been I've had about 8 hours sleep in 5 days about a fortnight ago and had to look after the kids in the day. A real nightmare.
Alcohol usually will help me get to sleep earlier but I'm really concerned about becoming alcoholic. I guess drugs would probably do it but then I need to be up to attend to the kids so if they knock me out that would be no good.
TL;DR argh, I can't sleep.