Since sleep hacking is a popular topic, here are some updates:
I have been waking up at 5AM for many months now. The last few weeks have introduced some challenges to that schedule. I have found that when I alter the routine, I don’t feel right. I tried sleeping late by an hour, and it threw me off balance for the rest of the day. I went to bed before I was tired, and slept horribly. For me, having a rhythm is apparently very important. That is, getting up at the same time every day seems to do the trick for me. One of the neat things is that I’m more productive, and have more energy, throughout the day with this schedule than I was when I was sleeping 2 hours more. Go figure!

So if a little sleep hacking works, what about a lot of it?

Steve Pavlina, who introduced me to the “how to be an early riser” thing, has been tinkering with his sleep and is now trying Polyphasic sleep. And a friend of mine is also trying it, or has he calls it, Sleeping Like Leonardo & Buckminster Fuller.

I can imagine having an extra 30 waking hours a week would be fantastic, but the system seems too extreme to me. I mean, sleeping only a few hours each day in naps spread over the whole day? It seems unnatural! No, it is unnatural. But maybe it works. I’ll let these two guys try it and see how they fare before I try it.