Why Can't I Sleep? Adventures in Insomnia

[Rach3]

Still awake, and not even drowsy at the moment! Maybe it's the cumulative lethal dose of caffeine, or the painful frostbite on my ear (-8C outside, very windy), or the pleasant warm glow of the gray PF background - I'm still going after 90,000+ seconds of wakefulness! (okay, excluding the brief nap in Quantum Mechanics class...)

Plans for tonight? Dunno, finished all my homework sets last night + this morning + during lunch at cafe, so nothing left to do. Going to Australia tomorrow, need to adjust for time zone (but keeping in mind tomorrow's 10AM E&M). Hmm. Maybe I'll go out for a walk in the blizzard? Practice the Kreutzer sonata? Sit in discretely on a philosophy seminar? Write a blog entry? Solve the Riemann hypothesis? Eat breakfast? Make more coffeeee?

 

[Rach3]

(Incidentally, that explains the weird koala avatar this week.)

 

[ranger]

There are easier ways to adjust yourself for such trips. I remember seeing these cool glasses where it shines a light into your eye to mess around with your internal clock.

I second the walk in the blizzard.

 

[moose]

Take the walk.

I'm exhausted. There just aren't enough hours in the day.

 

[Rach3]

I second the walk in the blizzard.

The snow's temporarily let down, it was really awesome earlier during Quantum Mechanics. I went outside and ran around when I realized there was no way I could stay awake while inside the stuffy classroom. Droning repetitous monotony exacerbates the ennui of the dry stuffy lecturer.

yeah, you expand in powers of lambda, but you're really expanding in powers of V, the lambda is just a bookkeeping... ...again, we're really expanding in powers of V not lambda it's just that it's often simpler to keep track of the... ...so going back to the notation, V, or sometimes H_{int} in other books, but our book uses V, so we'll... ...you get terms with each power of lambda, by which we really mean V... ...and our expansion in terms of the interaction Hamiltonian, the V (or the lambda, if you prefer, it's really the same thing), which brings me to an interesting aside, in quantum fields, it's all the same thing, it's all perturbative... so QCD expands blah in powers of blah blah, which is just like what we're doing here, with lambda, I mean V, or H_{int} if you're in a textbook whose author is notationally so inclined... power series, like a power series in lambda, but actually in the operator V (or H_{int}), we get a power series, expanding on with our terms of various orders... yak yak yak...

 

[hover]

reminds me of my days in middle school. i would try to stay up all night. I was able to do it but in the morning i felt so run down. everywhere i would go i felt like i was about to fall asleep...:zzz:. after i did that a couple of times i figured out it wasn't the brightest thimg to do .

 

[Moonbear]

You'll adjust to Australia's time zone when you get there. Don't try to stay up now. Sleep on the flight, and when you get to Australia, don't let yourself nap during the first day even if you really want to by then...get through until the night, and then sleep. If you need a little help at that point, a 10 mg tablet of melatonin can sometimes help (take it an hour before you want to get to sleep). Even so, it can take several days to adjust to that much of a time shift (and several days when you return as well). But, it's usually easier on younger people than older people, so one sleepless night/day might be all it takes to get yourself tired enough to sleep on a normal schedule. If you do wake up in the middle of the night while there, stay in the dark (that means no turning on the computer to check on PF either). That will more quickly adjust your body to realizing night really is night.

Have fun in Australia! My "boss" is there on sabbatical right now too, and I keep trying to find reasons why I need to join him there for the nice summer weather.

 

[Rach3]

You'll adjust to Australia's time zone when you get there. Don't try to stay up now. Sleep on the flight, and when you get to Australia, don't let yourself nap during the first day even if you really want to by then...get through until the night, and then sleep. If you need a little help at that point, a 10 mg tablet of melatonin can sometimes help (take it an hour before you want to get to sleep). Even so, it can take several days to adjust to that much of a time shift (and several days when you return as well). But, it's usually easier on younger people than older people, so one sleepless night/day might be all it takes to get yourself tired enough to sleep on a normal schedule. If you do wake up in the middle of the night while there, stay in the dark (that means no turning on the computer to check on PF either). That will more quickly adjust your body to realizing night really is night.

Do you know who you're lecturing about sleep patterns? I've just been awake for 29.5 hours. I'm immune to sleep deprivation! Bwahahahahahahaha!

 

[Rach3]

Gah. 30 hours awake, 50mg doxylamine succinate (almost 30min ago), and still not even a hint of drowsiness. *grumble*

 

[Moonbear]

Do you know who you're lecturing about sleep patterns? I've just been awake for 29.5 hours. I'm immune to sleep deprivation! Bwahahahahahahaha!

Oh, to be young again. Want to join my lab? I have a student who is trying to plan a 55 hour experiment. I've suggested we start with the 6 hour experiment so he knows how to do everything without me for the longer experiment.

 

[Rach3]

Gasp! Quit physics and join the icky world of research biology? Give up the fascinating landscape of Jackson's Electrodynamics problems, for some algebra-free dissection of mouse brains?when can I start?

 

[Moonbear]

Gasp! Quit physics and join the icky world of research biology? Give up the fascinating landscape of Jackson's Electrodynamics problems, for some algebra-free dissection of mouse brains?


when can I start?

Not mouse brains...sheep brains! They're a little more challenging.

 

[Rach3]

Maybe it's the sleeping pills talking, but I really would much rather be an experimental biologist right about now...

idle wondering, is there a theoretical/experimental distinction in biology?

 

[Rach3]

Sheeps, mouses, meese, same difference - they're all rodents.

 

[Moonbear]

Maybe it's the sleeping pills talking, but I really would much rather be an experimental biologist right about now...

idle wondering, is there a theoretical/experimental distinction in biology?

Yeah, theory is useless without experiments in biology.

 

[Moonbear]

Sheeps, mouses, meese, same difference - they're all rodents.

Let me know when you're counting the mice jumping the fence. Totally unaffected by sleep deprivation, huh?

 

[Rach3]

Yup. Clear, focused mind unaffected by sleep deprivation or otc sleeping pills. I can see clearly, physics is all stupid and wrong and a waste of chalk. Dissecting stuff is where it's at, yeah. Also, I'm going to run for senate, because I have incredible powers of diplomacy and oratory. I'll be the first rodent biologist in Congress! 'bout time too, somebody's got to round up them ratty senators.

 

[whitay]

Have fun in Australia! My "boss" is there on sabbatical right now too, and I keep trying to find reasons why I need to join him there for the nice summer weather.

Right nice summer weather? What planet do you live on? seriously it's like a a billion degrees everyday and severely humid. I live in Air-conditioning.

 

[fuzzyfelt]

happy Australia Day!

 

[jtbell]

meese,

Gaah! Now you've reminded me of a punch line from Saturday morning TV cartoons when I was a kid:

"I hate those meeses to pieces!"

and I won't be able to get it out of my mind for at least a week

(or is that "meeces"?)

 

[Moonbear]

Right nice summer weather? What planet do you live on? seriously it's like a a billion degrees everyday and severely humid. I live in Air-conditioning.

When you're coming from winter, it's enjoyed much more. And I heard it was actually rather chilly and rainy over the weekend (but apparently the "locals" were glad to have a break from a drought).

And, yes, Happy Australia Day!

 

[Rach3]

30 hours awake, 14 hours asleep, 44 hour "day". I like it!

 

[Hurkyl]

Do you know who you're lecturing about sleep patterns? I've just been awake for 29.5 hours. I'm immune to sleep deprivation! Bwahahahahahahaha!

Isn't this thread proof otherwise?

 

[scorpa]

Haha awake for 30 hours and still functioning...seems like lately I have the opposite problem, all I want to do is sleep lol.

 

[Rach3]

Maybe I should train my self and get it to a 48 hour day - 2 days + 1 long night. That would be really, really convenient...

(except the choice of the days would alternate on alternate weeks, which have 7 days in them (odd number))

 

[Cyrus]

This thread is just sad. Go out to a bar and make some friends. Staying up this much is just stupid.

If you have to stay up this much to do your coursework you are overloading yourself and have a high probablity of getting bad grades in the process: is it worth it?

 

[Rach3]

This thread is just sad. Go out to a bar and make some friends. Staying up this much is just stupid.

If you have to stay up this much to do your coursework you are overloading yourself and have a high probablity of getting bad grades in the process: is it worth it?

I don't have to do anything - it's just so much easier to do 3 of a week's 4 problem sets all at once, at night, with no distractions. Most days I work on non-homework stuff - studying, reading interesting papers, etc. - all the homework's been taken care of. Now I'm just going to sit back on a stuffed airplane seat, relax, and starting reading up Kramers-Kronig relations for Monday's Jackson set.

 

[Rach3]

(Hmm, an engineering student laughing at a physics student for studying physics instead of barhopping? Isn't there a joke about that somewhere?)

 

[Cyrus]

Yeah, if your up 30-48 hours at a time, I am going to laugh at you...because that's really bad time management. All work and no play makes Rach3 a dull boy...All work and no play makes Rach3 a dull boy...All work and no play makes Rach3 a dull boy...All work and no play makes Rach3 a dull boy...All work and no play makes Rach3 a dull boy...All work and no play makes Rach3 a dull boy...All work and no play makes Rach3 a dull boy...All work and no play makes Rach3 a dull boy...All work and no play makes Rach3 a dull boy...All work and no play makes Rach3 a dull boy...All work and no play makes Rach3 a dull boy...All work and no play makes Rach3 a dull boy...All work and no play makes Rach3 a dull boy...All work and no play makes Rach3 a dull boy...All work and no play makes Rach3 a dull boy...All work and no play makes Rach3 a dull boy...All work and no play makes Rach3 a dull boy...All work and no play makes Rach3 a dull boy...All work and no play makes Rach3 a dull boy...All work and no play makes Rach3 a dull boy...All work and no play makes Rach3 a dull boy...All work and no play makes Rach3 a dull boy...All work and no play makes Rach3 a dull boy...All work and no play makes Rach3 a dull boy...All work and no play makes Rach3 a dull boy...All work and no play makes Rach3 a dull boy...All work and no play makes Rach3 a dull boy...All work and no play makes Rach3 a dull boy...All work and no play makes Rach3 a dull boy...Heres Johnny!

And considering that engineering students always get slammed with tons of projects that eat up time, I have every right to laugh...muwhahahhaahah.

 

[Archon]

It's interesting...I've had a similar experience since the start of the school year...in the past two weeks, I've stayed up for 49 hours once, and about 40 hours two other times...and never once did I feel tired, until after I went to sleep and woke up again. I mean...after two days awake, I didn't feel great, but I didn't feel as though my mind was functioning abnormally slowly or anything...though that was probably a sleep-deprivation-induced delusion. :)

I'm at about 30 sleepless hours right now. Bloody math/physics major. I've found that a full day and a half is easy for me, at least if it isn't too often. Which is strange, given that until this winter, I could barely function without at least 5 hours of sleep a night. Now...I average like 4-5, and I'm fine. I think. Or not. Whatever. If not, I'm too sleep-deprived and apathetic to care.

And I've always wanted to stay awake until I started hallucinating. One of these days...

 

[Moonbear]

but I didn't feel as though my mind was functioning abnormally slowly or anything...though that was probably a sleep-deprivation-induced delusion. :)

Just look at the rambling above while Rach3 was insisting he wasn't experiencing any bad effects of sleep-deprivation. You lose the ability to realize how loopy you get.

It's not healthy to mess with your sleep rhythms, but it is easier to adjust to anything that is a multiple of 24 hours (i.e., stay awake 36 h and sleep 12 is easier than staying awake 24 and sleeping 12) because it keeps you from shifting completely off your normal sleep time.

 

[scorpa]

This summer I am going to be working 12 hour rotating day and night shifts. I'm sure that will wreak havoc with my sleeping patterns haha.