Comments on: Squeezing 25 Hours into your Day

By: Diana

Diana — Thu, 17 May 2007 18:07:07 +0000

Personally I am trying to figure out how to sleep MORE, not less. Since turning 50 and adding an hour-long workout to my daily routine, I find myself waking up about an hour earlier than I would like to every morning. While I admit, having the “extra time” is nice, I am not really a “morning person” and would rather be catching a few more winks of REM sleep.

By: Ishmael

Ishmael — Thu, 17 May 2007 18:06:35 +0000

> That’s *nine* hours extra.
> 25 waking hours as opposed to
> 16 waking hours.

I stand corrected. My fault for not reading the original article first.

> Doing the math, that merely means that
> you get 15 minutes extra during the
> day. Not so helpful.

It makes more sense with the original purpose in mind:

> NASA had asked Czeisler’s lab to find
> ways to help astronauts adjust to life
> on Mars, where the days are about 24
> hours and 39 minutes long, or 24.65
> hours.

Mangesh, the wording you’re using here is a little confusing at best and completely wrong at worst. You said:

> researchers have figured out a way to
> keep you up for 25 hours at a time

and

> people who normally sleep 8 hours, and
> are up for about 16, can suddenly
> stretch their days out for another 9
> hours or so.
But the article says:

> Researchers estimate that the natural
> daily – circadian – body rhythm for
> humans is somewhere around 24.2 hours.
> The new experiment shows that
> 45-minute blasts of bright light late
> in the day can temporarily extend
> humans’ circadian rhythm to about 25
> hours.

Basically, this means that it puts you on a 25-hour cycle *including sleep*, so you only stay up another 40 minutes (at most).

By: Ishmael

Ishmael — Thu, 17 May 2007 17:23:03 +0000

>Ok, so you’re blasted with light for 45
>minutes and you wind up getting a whole
>hour extra. Doing the math, that merely
>means that you get 15 minutes extra
>during the day. Not so helpful.

That’s *nine* hours extra. 25 waking hours as opposed to 16 waking hours.

By: Sarah W

Sarah W — Thu, 17 May 2007 17:06:31 +0000

I’d rather have the 4 day work week myself. Can we get a bill passed in Congress? :)

By: Lucy

Lucy — Thu, 17 May 2007 16:36:46 +0000

This explains the rave culture!

By: Ruby

Ruby — Thu, 17 May 2007 14:13:53 +0000

Ok, so you’re blasted with light for 45 minutes and you wind up getting a whole hour extra. Doing the math, that merely means that you get 15 minutes extra during the day. Not so helpful.

By: greenstrawberries

greenstrawberries — Thu, 17 May 2007 01:37:36 +0000

Ok, so let me get this straight… You have to be blasted with bright lights for 45 minutes to get the extra time?? When they come up with a method that doesn’t involve me getting a migraine, then maybe I’ll think it’s a viable option.

By: Miss Cellania

Miss Cellania — Wed, 16 May 2007 16:38:57 +0000

This will be useful when we must work 80 hours a week to make a living.

By: n2y2

n2y2 — Wed, 16 May 2007 15:20:30 +0000

That’s very cool. But, If I adjusted my day to 25 hours, how would I make it sync up with everyone else’s 24 hour day?

I’m waiting for a way to skip sleeping one or two days a week without all of those nasty chemical dependencies or the need for catch-up hours of rest. (Yes there is Modafinil, but there has been not long-term study for this application and the FDA has been shy of approving its use for non-narcoleptics)