OT: Messed up body clock

hoffman2k · Post by **hoffman2k** » Mon Mar 07, 2005 4:28 pm

AUDIOBOOKS

choose one thats boring but interesting. this is a modern variant of an ancient hypnosis technique.
"listen to the sound of my voice, focus on it. take deep breaths"

It works for me. And i learn allot.
A little warning though. If you end up getting audiobooks that are really long and good. You might loose some sleep because of that.

Having a dayjob is the best way to get your clock back in order.
But you can do anything you want.
You can cry/smoke/drink yourself to sleep. Knock yourself out or try "spiritual" mumbo jumbo.
C-span/cnn/bbc can bore you to sleep too.

The doctor used to give me loads of crap to help me sleep. But nothing helped. The pills either immobilized me or made me sick.
Boring yourself to sleep is the healthiest way imo. And Dr Dre has some pointers too.

polyslax · Post by **polyslax** » Mon Mar 07, 2005 6:09 pm

I'm also in the wake up early school. I mean crazy early. I get up at 4:15am during the week and sometime between 3:30-4:30am on the weekend (I got up at 3:24 on Saturday!). I generally need 5-6 hours sleep, so I tend to go to bed between 10-11pm. This works well for me, but I've always been geared toward early morning. Even if I go to bed very late, I'd rather get 2 hours of sleep and stay on my regular time.

michaellacy · Post by **michaellacy** » Mon Mar 07, 2005 7:07 pm

i just wrote a whole long reply and lost it but heres a summary:

1. the body's ruled by circadian rhythms(look it up...do the research for yourself) and its based on sunlight.

2. melatonin(a hormone) plays a critical part in this.

3. the body needs sunlight to produce vitamin D. if were defficient, symptoms include depression( as in the wintertime in the north)

how can any sane person argue against the bodys natural tendency to sleep at night and work in the day? anything other than that is slightly to moderately pulling us off balance.

since mosy of us are night owls we have to be more aware of our sleep habits. make your sleep environment important. make it a quiet, dark, condusive space to sleep. and most importantly, get your 8 hours. ESPECIALLY if your trying to be creative. maybe you can burn the candle at both ends at a desk job becasue its just redundancy but theres no way you can be open and able to think properly if youre lacking proper, continuous sleep.

take care

kennerb · Post by **kennerb** » Mon Mar 07, 2005 7:09 pm

adhmzaiusz wrote:get a full time job 9-5 and your sleep troubles will be solved. Youll be just like me, tired all the time, with your last bit of energy to muster on music

I wish I could agree with you here but in fact I find just the opposite to be true. Between having a more than full time non-musical job and raising a family I find the only ME time to be from 10pm- 3am+, and all nighters on most weekends.

Machinate · Post by **Machinate** » Mon Mar 07, 2005 7:16 pm

kennerb wrote:
adhmzaiusz wrote:get a full time job 9-5 and your sleep troubles will be solved.[...]
[...]in fact I find just the opposite to be true. Between having a more than full time non-musical job and raising a family I find the only ME time to be from 10pm- 3am[...]

I'm with ya on that one, Kennerb.

SimonPHC · Post by **SimonPHC** » Mon Mar 07, 2005 7:50 pm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melatonin

minimal · Post by **minimal** » Mon Mar 07, 2005 10:36 pm

hey guys,

regarding the daytime job... I myself had 8 years of my life spent doing dayjob 8 am - 6 pm, with peaks of up to twelwe hours a day in critical moments (fashion businnes is just weird) in the last three years
This thing was really killing my inspiration. It was a very well paid job which gave the the way to build a decent studio, but it was really sucking too much energy.
I know not all the daytime jobs are so energy and time consuming, but I think in general the routine of a "regular" job just goes against creativity.
I'm living in quite sub-human condition now ( I got the equivalent of 500 euros a month when I'm lucky) but man, I have all the time I want to focus on my music, I work in average 5 days a month, just to pay the room I have now and buy food.
I found myself much more inspired and creative than ever. In a couple of months I did things they would have take ears before, so I'm not concerned if some weekends I just have money for cigarettes and no party, no pub nothing. I'm fine with this for the moment.
The crucial thing for me now is to mantain a regular life rhythm, in order not to mess up the precious body clock, but bing used to so many years of early wake up I hardly need a (how's called in english that thing that sounds in the morning to wake you up? Lapsus!) to go out of the bed.
Thus my advice is not to try to get a daytime job, but try to act as you would have one, find your inner strenght to be consant on this, it will be a benefit for your life and health. Some sport will help too. Staing away from regular drug assumptions is a good point too, at least for me.
And no, don't get use to take pills or medicines in order to fix such things.
The food contains all the substances we need, just eat well and varied, no need for chemical vitamines (which are not free from side effects, be aware) or herbalife like crap.

and to finish, I found very interesting what came out from the early morning vs late night sessions, I'm more an early morning person but I sometime enjoy the magic of those long nights in the studio, the mood varies a lot.

all the best and stay groovy

Tarekith · Post by **Tarekith** » Mon Mar 07, 2005 11:13 pm

I get up at 5AM every weekday ffor work, and on the weekends, I'm lucky if I can sleep til 7:00AM. I find that I am definitely at my most creative first thing in the morrning, late at night sessions can be more fun, but I don't get mearly as good results. In the morning my ears are fresh, and I find I have a ton of ideas and I just plow though them until lunch.

eisnein · Post by **eisnein** » Mon Mar 07, 2005 11:31 pm

after being an insomniac for twenty one years i m finally on a good schedule and find the morning hours to pleasant now.

to get back on schedule- stay up an hour later every night till you reach 8 am or whatever your desired time is. should take a little while and def be hard but it works well.

studies show that sleeping during the daytime is not as restful as sleeping during the night, not to mention the much needed effects of sunlight on the brain.

studies are also showing that work productivity and creativity drop drastically after a long periods of time. so while it may feel great to work 19 hours on music, after 8-10hrs, its more productive to get sleep and then pick it up again refreshed.

exercise early in the morning helps alot.

if you need to take anything i suggest tylenol pm as it doesnt leave you relyiing on meds or feeling foggy the next day.

MrYellow · Post by **MrYellow** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 12:45 am

John Mcglauclin

Not being an asshole or anything Astral, just once you see it written down
you'll never forget... I still don't get how Laugh turns into Glock.

John Mclaughlin

-Ben

Hypomixolydian · Post by **Hypomixolydian** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 9:44 am

Thanks for the correction Mr.Yellow. Actually, at the time of writing I knew I was spelling it wrongly but was too lazy to check the correct way.

ikeaboy · Post by **ikeaboy** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 10:38 am

Good thread, this is stuff I'm thinking about alright. I used to be a nighttime worker until i lived with my (ex)girlfriend for a year, seeing as the studio is next to the bedroom, i started working during the day. Now I'm single again i'm going to try keep it to the daytime, i don't have a regular job (god bless Irelands Social Welfare) but i do mind my little girl(6) two or three days a week and that means getting up for school at 8. I could be wrong but i think i'll have more energy if i get up and go to bed at more or less regular hours, so i bought a coffee making alarm clock to aid the self discipline.
I'm a firm believer in ritual(habit) when it comes to being creative. I'm also a firm believer in long stretches of uninterupted time. Working at night most likely has a positive effect of getting people in the right frame of mind, also it gives you all day to (sub)conciously prepare to work. It also offers undisturbed time which is what i miss the most. But you can finish half a track in the morning sometimes before I've wiped the sleep from my eyes, I'm more productive and less likely to get bogged down.

P.S. How does everybody deal with social callers, you know friends regularly dropping by, interupting flow, but hey everybody needs friends. Its something I sometimes find hard to deal with because i hate to be rude. But some people are out to kill time with you and have no particular reason to call. They might only stay for 2 hours but if you get three such visitors in a row your day is gone. Maybe nighttime is the way???

feyshay · Post by **feyshay** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 4:59 pm

I like Ice Nine's comments above. The condition is called Sleep Wake Schedule Disorder (AKA Circadian Rhythm Sleep Disorder). Search these terms on the internet, and you should find plenty of recommendations on how to normalize your sleep. It will require discipline and persistence.
Otherwise, you might want to mess around with heroin and methamphetamines to try to fix it.

mikemc · Post by **mikemc** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 5:38 pm

It will require discipline and persistence.
Otherwise, you might want to mess around with heroin and methamphetamines to try to fix it.

that will fix something

... I have a milder approach that seems to work for me. For many years I worked in the afternoons til nights, then through the nights til early morning, then 'regular daytime' hours. Lately I've been staying up a few nights a week til early in the morning to work on music. I'd agree that, creatively, melodic ideas seem to occur more clearly in the morning, when your dream process is still kind of engaged.

One thing, if the cause of your problem is travelling back and forth from North America to Europe, if you have the time I really recommend a stopover in Iceland. It's kind of this "free time zone" due to the a-seasonal sun positioning, you get to set your own time.

Something to try if you want to try to get back from "one shift" to another...

1) Stay awake to the time that is best to go to sleep for the "new time set". So if you stayed up til 3 and figured you're going to sleep until 1pm the next day, forget about it, stay up til about 10pm that next day. Drink coffee to stay up.

2) When it's time to sleep, you will be a bit jagged from the coffee. Take some Valerian root, recommended dose. Set your alarm for the beginning of the new time set.

The valerian seems to get you to sleep faster and also you sleep more soundly, so it's not as difficult as it might seem to get up at the start of the 'new time set'.

beamsville · Post by **beamsville** » Wed Mar 09, 2005 3:09 am

My sleep patterns have been F*ked ever since I bought Live 4... maybe that's your problem.

I tried a melotonin tablet once, but it made me tired but not sleepy (if that makes any sense)... I had no choice but to lie down and lament that I wasn't asleep. Couldn't sleep... couldn't do anything else but lie there. Awful.

Seriously, though, make sure you are getting physical exercise during the day, well before you try to sleep. Go for at least a 2km walk before dinner, for example. Also make sure you are hydrated. I have sleep problems whenever I drink red wine (tanin?).

Cheers

OT: Messed up body clock

Sleep Wake Schedule Disorder

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