Exhaustion is Neat

It has recently come to my realization that exhaustion is a very neat thing.  Perhaps the only reason I think that, is because I am exhausted, but who knows really.  Anyways, so I have developed this amazing abilitity.  I can sleep, for aproximately 30-seconds to a minute, and then wake back up.

And honestly, it feels like great sleep.  I didn't mean to start doing this, it just kind of happened.  You have to be alert at my job, but there are often a few minutes of down time between things that I have to do.  So I was sitting there, and then my eyes closed in the standard "dozing off" manner.  You know, like that infant in the back seat of the car that is whining and crying and then 5 minutes later it's passed out with its head and neck either fallen forward, or in such a crazy position that any mother other than it's own will start screaming at the actual mother upon seeing it?  Yah, just like that.

Anyways, so I guess I was so exhausted that for about 30 seconds, I passed out.  I was completely unaware of my surroundings, but it was only 30 seconds, so there was no major upset to anything around me in that time.  Now, anyone reading this may be thinking to themselves, "Yah, 30 seconds of sleep cannot be good, actual sleep."  And if that's what you're thinking, then screw you, people reading this!  This sleep was so amazing and deep, that I was instantly dreaming.  That's right.  There was fire and explosions, and all that crazy dream stuff.  It's hard to say how long the dream "felt" though.  I know it was obviously only the same 30 seconds, but dream time is always different.  I don't think it's ever possible to tell how much "time" you've spent in dream land.  Either way, it was awesome.

So this 30 second deep sleep thing got me thinking.  I know that you are supposed to get 8 hours of sleep per night to be healthy, but who says you have to sleep all 8 hours in a row?  People take naps right?  Well how about a whole bunch of tiny naps.

If you calculate it out, 8 hours of sleep, with 60 minutes in an hour, and 60 seconds in a minute equals out to 28800 seconds of sleep.  That leaves 16 hours of "awake"-time, or 86400 seconds.  So there are 1440 minutes per day that you're awake and 480 minutes you're sleeping.  Since this is just a 3-1 ratio, it stands to reason that if you could instantaneously go in and out of deep REM sleep whenever you wanted, for every minute and a half of wakefulness, you should have 30 seconds of sleep. 

Now, this on it's own is probably not the easiest feat to accomplish as many of us have jobs that require us to be awake for more than a minute and a half at a time.  However, the average job has an 8 hour shift, with one 30 minute lunch break and two 15 minute coffee/smoke breaks.  If you were to use this time to sleep as well, that effectively shaves an hour off the amount of time you need to sleep during the day.  Also, you could lower the time as well by getting atleast a couple hours of sleep during the actual night time.  (You know, that time that most normal people would be asleep anyways?).

So, if we assume that you are sleeping 3 hours per night, plus the 1 hour during the day made up of work breaks and lunch time, that cuts the time you need to sleep at other times in half.  Meaning rather than sleeping for 30 seconds for every 1.5 minutes of wakefulness, you can now sleep only 15 seconds.  Of course this can be done in any combination as well.  You can stay awake for 15 minutes, and then sleep for 2.5 minutes, Stay awake for 4.5 minutes and then sleep for 45 seconds , etc.  The combinations are endless. 

Sure, it would probably take some getting used to, but with proper training I think it would be a worthwhile way to get the recommended full night's sleep!

Thus concluding Stupid Idea #1.