by Southern Dad » Fri Jan 02, 2015 9:08 am
A couple decades ago, when I was a young dumb, lieutenant in the US Army, I got stationed at a remote nuclear site. Since this was before Al Gore invented the internet, we received our messages via radio or satellite. These messages required both an officer and an NCO to decode them. I worked 36 on, 48 off. This went on for a couple of years. Other duty assignments had weird hours and I never seemed to get to any regular pattern.
As a result, I spent many years trying to get back into a normal sleep pattern. I tried prescription medications, different mattresses, different time cycles. Nothing worked. At one point, I could go two or three days without sleep then I would crash for 12-15 hours straight. While I got a lot done and it really helped my career, it wasn't good for relationships. I know this is odd but your mate will expect you to sleep next to them for 8 hours or so a night. To try and fix my sleep disorders, I did something along the lines of the sleep every night plan. I slept 6 hours one night, 3 the next for a year. No more than six even if I was still tired. The next year I went to 8 and 4. Then I went to 6 and 6, which is where I'm at now. The most important thing is to be able to actually track it. I use an app called Motion X 24/7 on my iPhone 6 Plus to track my sleep.
I told you all of this so that you might understand that anything that you do that messes with your sleep patterns for a long time could have lasting effects that take decades to fix. I highly advise consulting with your physician before beginning a new sleep cycle especially for a long term.
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