Sleep Stupidity

We have made some advancements in stupdi... er, sleeping.

We have a programmer who learned that staying up late didn't boost his productivity.  In fact, he learned that by sleeping until he naturally woke up increased his production in less time.  He also mastered the trick of making a list of things to resolve before sleep, and in the morning had resolved some of his problems.

For what it's worth, I've done something similar.  When I code too much, I find myself dreaming in code. I will literally write the commands (including inventing variables on the fly) that allow the event in the dream to take place.  I know it sounds crazy.  I've also learned that if I wake up at 4 a.m. and allow myself to doze, I will resolve any problems that are lingering while I drift in and out of sleep.

Lack of sleep has been linked to heart disease, obesity, diabetes and stroke.  We try to juggle so many things in our busy lives that it makes sense to dip out of our snooze time, but that often backfires.

For those who want to try some different techniques, play with different ways to engage your brain before, during and right after sleep.  And if you are willing to spend a few bucks to try it, you can try masks that improve lucid dreaming, which allows you to take control of your dreams by becoming aware that you are in a dream state.