Experiment 10 | Searching for Happy

Happiness Experiment 10: 8 Hours of Sleep Per Night – Conclusions

Jan 292012

I’ve said it before, and now that the week’s testing is complete, I think I can say it with some confidence.

This experiment was not at all what I expected, but I think that the failure was in the design of the experiment rather than the experiment itself.

Essentially, in the face of a very stressful week, I changed my time schedule and cut out my exercise time

That’s a poor strategy in the best of times, but in the face of more stress, it’s even worse. So, I ended up sacrificing sleep quality over the last week even when I increased sleep quantity. On Friday, when I made more time for exercise, my sleep quality shot back up.

Do I regret that I got more sleep? No. If I had gotten less sleep that was equally poor quality, I’d definitely be in worse shape.

However, based on the fact that the experiment was impacted by something beyond the scope of what I had designed, I think it’s fair to say this one requires a repeat some time in the future.

Well, even if I didn’t answer the question I started the last week with, the true purpose of these happiness experiments is learning, and I certainly did learn a few things over the course of this experiment.

I’ll summarize everything I learned over my last 10 happiness experiments in the next post.

Happiness Experiment 10: 8 Hours of Sleep Per Night – Day 6

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Jan 282012

Hypothesis more or less confirmed.

It would be easy to say that sleeping in on a weekend is a better way to feel rested, and I would love to have slept 10-12 hours, but that’s not what this experiment is about. This experiment is about 8 hours of sleep.

I woke up after 8 hours of sleep feeling more rested than I have felt for days.

So, quality, not quantity of sleep appears to be the winning theory at this point in time.

Of course though, I’m not going to make any conclusions until I’m done this experiment. However, I have decided to make some changes to the experimental procedure, which I’ll be discussing tomorrow.

One could make the case that true science should involve exploring every different combination of habits, but I argue that as an intelligent human, I can adapt what works and establish a new baseline.

So, I will now “take stock” of things after every 10 experiments. This will allow me to work things I learn from my successful experiments into my day-to-day life.

Happiness Experiment 10: 8 Hours of Sleep Per Night – Day 5

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Jan 272012

Unfortunately, today was another rough day in the world of 8 hours sleep.

However, I feel justified in a bit of patting myself on the back here, because I’ve come up with a realization. The issue this week is quality, not quantity, of sleep.

That’s not to say that 8 hours of sleep a night isn’t a spectacular goal, but I don’t think it’s the holy grail of personal health and happiness.

I think quality of sleep is equally important to quantity. As you might recall from my happiness experiment with Yoga, I was able to increase my quality of sleep without increasing quantity.

In the case of this experiment, that’s particularly important as I’ve hardly exercised this week.

Why 8 Hours of Sleep a Night might not be enough on it’s own

It all comes back to my bad habits and time management.

Typically, I get around to exercising at about 9:30 to 10pm. I try to finish at least an hour before bedtime if not more.

However, when I’m going to bed at 11-11:30pm, I found myself skipping exercise most days, as I didn’t want to jump into bed right after exercising.

So, in a week that’s been more stressful than normal for a variety of reasons, I was denying myself some of my normal stress outlets.

It seems like a fairly obvious realization, but it took me a surprisingly long time for me to realize it. I’m just going to blame the quality of sleep I’ve been having recently *grin*

Tonight will be my test to see if this theory is right. It’s a Friday night, tomorrow is a low-stress day with a lot of fun, and I spent about 2 hours walking outside tonight. If my quality of sleep improves, then my theory is proven. If not, then I’m confused.

But let’s not forget the successes

Even in the face of this realization, I still need to remember to acknowledge what has worked. This morning I woke up to a snow storm.

I won’t bore you with any more pictures of the clock on my oven, but I was awake and out the door with time to spare. Even with a slower than normal drive and snow on the ground, I made it to work on time.

Also, while my sleep wasn’t as high a quality of rest as I might have wished, during a stressful week, I certainly wouldn’t have wished for LESS sleep.

Partial victories, I’ll take them where I can get them.

Happiness Experiment 10: 8 Hours of Sleep Per Night – Day 4

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Jan 262012

While I plan on continuing this experiment properly and seeing it through, I’m beginning to suspect that I know how this experiment will work out.

So far I’m on day 4. I’m no worse than I was at this time last week when I was on less sleep, but I don’t feel much better either.

Obviously, circumstances differ week-to-week, but this experiment isn’t having the impact I expect.

Today, I woke up a bit late and got out the door by about 8:15am. That’s a bit later than I have been doing recently, but still far from a tragedy. Unfortunately, in the rush out the door, I didn’t get a good picture of my stove clock.

Since I know you miss the picture of my stove, I’ll be substituting this picture instead:

(Smiling Baby by Pink Sherbet photography – Creative Commons)

That might or might not be how my hair looked this morning.

Today was still an excellent day by any account. I’ll try not to draw any conclusions prior to reaching the end of my experiment, but we’ll see how it develops!

Happiness Experiment 10: 8 Hours of Sleep Per Night – Day 3

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Jan 252012

Today was a day of incredible high’s and deep crashes.

I managed to get to sleep last night in time for me to get about 7.5 hours of sleep. I’m still slipping below the 8 hour average, but I think that will balance out over time. Also, I’m getting 30-60 minutes more of sleep per night than I was at the beginning of this experiment, so the principle is still sound.

This morning saw me get up and out the door at the usual time:

Then, right when I parked my car at work, things started going a bit crazy, but all in a good way.

I won’t bore you with the details, but even when things in life go excellent, they can still be exhausting. This was one of those times. By the end of the work day, I was pretty darn tired.

It’s been a while since I’ve had a day like this. Did this happiness experiment set the stage for a day like this, or was this the result of time invested at work? As tiring as a day like this can be, I’m more than happy to see if I can duplicate it.

Until tomorrow then, we shall see what the new day holds. As for the rest of tonight, I don’t think that there’s much risk of me making it a late night.

Experiment 10: 8 Hours of Sleep Per Night – Day 2

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Jan 242012

Last night I hit my first serious problem with this experiment.

I was getting too much done to want to go to sleep.

I know it sounds silly, but when I get on a good run of getting things done I don’t want to stop.

So, when 10pm rolled around, I was on a run of writing and I didn’t want to stop. This meant I also didn’t want to make my lunch yet.

I think this might be one of the reasons my sleep schedule is so messed up. When I build up a good momentum of productivity, I find it incredibly energizing. This counteracts the typical “sleep signals” that tell me when I’m due for sleep.

As a result of all this, I’d estimate my sleep time last night to be about 7.5 hours. Not bad by any means, but it’s a great example of how easy it is to get distracted when you have a goal in mind for sleep.

Especially worth noting is how little time it takes me to fall asleep. If I was sleeping too early, or too much, I would likely have more trouble falling asleep. However, I still drift off to sleep within 10-15 minutes of getting into bed and closing my eyes, so I think I’m still not getting too much sleep.

Problems with my schedule last night aside, the morning still progressed very well. I hit the ground running and ate breakfast while watching the morning news and catching up on weather and traffic. I was out the door by…. *drumroll*:

Yes, that’s right, I seem to be getting better at this. Last week, I was getting out the door on time, but this week I’ve fit in more in the mornings. This might be a matter of practice or a matter of more rest. We’ll see how things progress over the week!

Cheers!

Experiment 10: 8 Hours Sleep per Night

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Jan 232012

I mentioned what I wanted for this experiment last week, but to do this properly, I’ll lay it out the experiment anyway.

It’s no secret that lack of sleep is a serious problem for society as a whole as well as for individual happiness.

The impact of sleep on your health and ability to function is explained very well in this infographic.

Hypothesis: Approximately 8 hours of sleep per night will lead to me being a higher functioning, healthier and happier person.

Last night was when I jumped into my first night of this experiment.

Day 1 results? Not a bad start.

Last night I was in bed by 11:15pm. That’s a bit later than I had hoped for, but not a bad start considering I typically am in bed at 12:00 to 12:30.

While I can’t say the exact moment that I fell asleep, with my alarm set for 7:15 and a snooze button to 7:30, this suggests I did get about 8 hours of sleep.

Waking up was pretty easy. It’s a Monday morning after the weekend, so this is far from conclusive. We’ll see how things look on Friday morning. And best of all:

Yup! To no one’s surprise, getting a good night’s sleep is helpful to getting started in the morning.

One single day won’t give us the full story on this experiment though. We shall see how the week plays out!