28 hour day -- good or bad for you?

[Greg]

Has anyone heard of the 28 hour day system? This is probably not doable for most people, but it might be cool for freelancers. Or it might just throw off your week.

I'm thinking about giving it a try. Has anyone else tried it?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/28-hour_day

The 28-hour day is a concept of time management which is used by a limited number of students and other people with jobs that allow very flexible work hours. It is based on two principles:

1. A sleep of 8 to 9 hours is enough to fully recover from more than 16 hours awake for most healthy people.
2. The number of hours per week (168) is evenly divisible by 6.

People living by the 28-hour day stay awake for 19 to 20 hours each day and sleep 8 to 9 hours. This means an increase of about 2 to 7 percent awake time per week (114 to 120 hours) compared to the standard 24-hour day with 8 hours of sleep (112).

And here's the funny way xkcd explains it: http://xkcd.com/320/

[Gootsy]

That's kinda interesting. Unfortunately, with my schedule, I don't think it'd work (unless they'd let me sleep at work on monday hehe).

I could do a 24 hour day where I stay up 20 hours, then sleep four. Then on weekend sleep 10 hours each day to make up for it or something hehe.

How bout the Kramer sleep method? Every 1.5 hours sleep 15 minutes?! Something like that. Worked well for him

[Xin Lu]

I heard about this a long time ago. I think humans are kind of synced up to the 24 hour day naturally or something. I read somewhere that you tend to wake up when the sunlight hits your eyes. I'm not sure what happens if a government mandates 28 hour days. The sun isn't going to listen to the government.

[David DeFranza]

The Krammer sleep system is actually known as polyphasic sleep, or more popularly as Uberman's sleep. This became kind of a fad on the 'blogosphere' for a while and a lot of people documented their experiences with it.

It sounds pretty unhealthy.

The 28 hour day sounds more manageable though.

[David DeFranza]

A lot of people work at night and are forced to sleep during the day. I used to do this and personally, my sleep during the day was never the same quality as night sleep. Even after several months on the night shift it took several more hours sleeping during the day to feel as refreshed as a few at night.

I have also seen some research that shows people who don't get enough sleep, or quality sleep, can develop slower metabolisms and gain weight. I didn't have this experience, but I see how it could be possible.

[Kathryn]

Two thoughts:

1. We probably all have the experience of staying up for an extra 4 hours on occasion, by choice or by necessity. That extra four hours is, in my experience, the crappiest and least productive stretch of time imaginable! If you want to use those extra 4 hours to go out partying or sit around watching the SciFi channel, it might work, but the question would be why bother? You'd be a better person if you just cut back on the partying or crap TV. If you actually wanted to get something useful done, I think the increase in quality would be offset by the sacrifice in quantity.

2. Messing with your circadian rhythm messes with your metabolism and increases your risk for a number of serious illnesses, including obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and even cancer.

[lucille]

Messing with your natural sleep cycle isn't a good idea. There are some serious health implications if you don't go through all the phases of sleep properly. There are a number of serious illnesses and syndromes that have a component of improper sleep contributing to the problem. You could also end up ruining your actual productivity if your sleep is not all it should be due to fatigue, brain fog and that kind of thing.

[jkuo13]

Doesn't sound worth it to me. Your body works best when its biorhythm syncs up with the regular 24 hour day. The health and productivity issues with messing around with your sleep cycles are important points. I also find that when my sleep patterns get interrupted, it affects my mood. Not getting enough regular exposure to natural light just isn't good for your overall mental well-being. Also, I can't imagine having a social life would be that easy on a 28 hour schedule. You'd be out of sync with everyone else.

[hermione]

My sister and I have an online business and work from home and we've gone through periods where we've worked at night and slept in the day. I also maintain our websites and often do that at night when there is less traffic to the site and servers are faster. We've gone through periods of several months where we've gone to bed around 3-6AM, and there is a difference. We're groggier when we wake up and don't feel as well throughout the day, especially on days when we go to bed at or after sunrise.

It usually takes a big effort of making ourselves stay up a few hours later a time for several miserable days until we're waking up in the morning again, and on the days when we wake up at 6 or 7 AM we feel the best: refreshed and clear headed. And the day feels longer and much more productive.

[72Tiger]

I read it over carefully, and the math is interesting, but I would be fully, and certifiably insane in less than a week on that sort of schedule.