4 AM: Sleep or Make the Most of It?
If you are awake at 4 am, and have to be at work at 7, should you even try to get back to sleep or should you try to do something with your time?
You are viewing a single comment
If you are awake at 4 am, and have to be at work at 7, should you even try to get back to sleep or should you try to do something with your time?
Check out the phases of the sleep cycle. IIRC a full cycle is around 90 mins so in those 3 hours you can potentially hit 2 cycles and not feel groggy.
With all the benefits of sleep (and the problems from lack of sleep) it would be better to sleep
Between the time it takes to fall back asleep (which is nontrivial), getting ready for and getting to work, you'd be lucky to get 1 full cycle in before you had to get up anyway. And IME, rolling the dice on a rem cycle like that is more likely to fuck up my day by leaving me groggy AF than refresh me.
Cycles get quicker near the end of the night. Though I'm not sure how waking up effects things.
But those last cycles tend to be the most important. And studies have shown even trying but failing to fall asleep gives some benefit of actually falling asleep.