I find as I get older, I'm more sensitive to losing sleep. Last Fall, I was extremely busy with taking two out-of-area courses, while at the same time changing thesis topics for my PhD. I was training Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu twice a week, and lifting two or three times a week.
The only way I could sustain this was to do almost nothing on Sunday. I would sleep off and on all day. No work, no training, just rest. At the time, I felt guilty about doing it, but I came to realize taking Sunday off was the only way I was getting through each week.
Thank you for linking to that. I found it incredibly fascinating and it got my gears turning.
The similarity between the mechanics of sleep, and the mechanics of the 'disconnected from inputs' model-building phase (which I call 'dreaming') of Restricted Boltzmann Machines* is astonishing.
Myth: Since we feel rested after sleep, sleep must be for resting. Fact: Sleep is for optimizing the structure of memories.
Myth: It is best to wake up with the sun. Fact: You should wake up at the time when your body decides it got enough of sleep.
Myth: Sleeping little makes you more competitive. Fact: The only good formula for maximum long-term competitiveness is via maximum health and maximum creativity.
From what I've read, it may be true that "sleep is for optimizing the structure of memories," but we don't know enough yet to know for sure. Also, I see no reason why sleep can't be for both.
That just means that current paradigms are not suited to what your body wants to do. I keep hours similar to those you keep over the weekends. It is no problem so long you can put yourself in a situation in which you decide your work-schedule around your lifestyle and not the other way around. hint: startup :). Grad school also works. Contractor work probably does also.
If you go to bed at 10PM, you'd wake at 7AM without the use of an alarm clock and you'd more time during the weekend. It won't be easy to make the transisition but you should consider it.
Except some of us can be ready to sleep at 7:30, but wake up at 9, only to get tired again at 12:30. I know that I have windows of opportunity to sleep myself.
And if I go to sleep at 7:30? Oh, then I wake up at midnight and can't get back to sleep until 5 in the morning.
So, for some of us it gets a bit more complicated.
The only way I could sustain this was to do almost nothing on Sunday. I would sleep off and on all day. No work, no training, just rest. At the time, I felt guilty about doing it, but I came to realize taking Sunday off was the only way I was getting through each week.