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About the not eating or drinking before bed thing. I say this because the way it was explained to me is that during REM your brain will send a signal to each part of your body to repair it. The first thing it sends a signal to is your liver and if the liver is busy processing things out of the blood stream it will send a cancel signal to the brain which will break REM and wakes you up. Thats why drinking alcohol before bed is a really bad idea. It makes you fall alseep faster but the sleep you get on it is practically worthless.
Drinking water is tricky unless you've worked out exactly how much water you can drink with out the need to wake up and go to the bathroom. Most of my knowledge on the subject is from researching lucid dreaming and how to induce it so it pertains to maximizing REM. I've practiced lucid dreaming for over a year now and its helped me understand how to control my own sleep patterns a great deal. Id recommend it to anyone for that reason alone. Beside the fact that lucid dreaming is friggen awesome!
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I just want to chip in with two technological aids to sleeping better:
http://www.sleepcycle.com
First is a smartphone app called "Sleep Cycle". You place the phone by your pillow each night (and turn off its wifi etc) and by using the phones gyrometre, it "watches" you sleep. Your body moves differently according to which phase of sleep you are in (light, REM, or deep dreamless). After 5 days it configures itself to know what your sleep rhythm is like, and then you can set an alarm window.
The main feature of the app is that it will only ring the alarm when you're in your "light" sleep phase, so you won't be interrupted in the deep sleep phase and wake up feeling terrible. So you could set the window for "between 6 and 6:30 am" and since the app is "watching you", it'll wait until you're at a light-phase and wake you up then.
The app also saves all the data and produces some pretty good graphs, of how long you sleep each night, the time you go to bed, etc. I used this app for a while and i found it really helpful (but i admit my sleep is all screwed up these days and I need to fix it again :/)
The app can also measure your resting heartrate (which you're supposed to measure just after waking) by using your phone's camera and flash. It lights up the flash, and you cover it with your finger for a few seconds, the flash shines through your finger and the camera can see the blood circulate and count your heartrate.
http://justgetflux.com
The second app is called Flux, and it has to do with the whole discussion about computer screens tricking your body into thinking it's still day-time when it's actually evening. Computer screens emit blue light but light becomes orange in the evening. The app automatically (and progressively) changes the tint of your monitor as evening and night falls, to change the natural tint from blue to orange. It feels more pleasant and less glare-ish. Might want to be a bit careful when painting though.
"If you want liberation in this life, there is no area that you do not watch. Watch the breathing, watch the posture, watch the flow of energy, watch the texture of the mind, watch the response to objects." - Namgyal Rinpoche
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Wow a lot of good information here... thanks guys and gals! So far I've been able to do 7 hours and waking up before 0630, whereas I used to wake up "naturally" (as in waking up but going back to sleep) around 1000. I really dislike exercise outside where other people can see me doing it... so it'll be a hard push to get out at 1600, 1700. Morning theoretically is ideal, but so far it never worked..... I just hate going outside that early in the cold to do anything more than a walk.
Dizziness from morning exercise is most likely due to not having enough fluids in your body (you didn't drink water after waking up and before heading out), and then, to a second degree, the intensity of your exercise. Unless you're running 5 miles in the morning first thing waking up, fuel storage in your body will cover your need.
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Thanks for the links aks9, I've wanted to try out something like this for ages. Maybe I can borrow an iPod or something.
Hahaha meat that image :D
I can totally relate to that not wanting to be seen while exercising. When I started running a few years ago I always tried to go out when it was raining, so that I would encounter as few people as possible in the park. (Plus, I like rain). Since that is not always possible I found that insulting others in my head also helped :P Even though this is very much not how I normally think. Kind of going aggressive so I would not feel as embarrassed and defensive.
I think I'll give the morning exercise another try eventually.. when there are no minus degrees anymore...
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You can always exercise indoors if you really want to :P though getting out in the world is nicer.
I guess the embarrassment to exercise in front of people is a self-confidence thing. You are always your own worst enemy. The thing you should think about doing is facing it head on. Dealing with it in defensive ways will only reinforce this negative self image. You aren't living your life for others, you're doing it for yourself.
The reality is no one actually gives a shit about some random fatty pounding down the pavement (I'm not calling you fatties, just making a point :P ) They will literally just get out of your way and not spare another thought for you while they go about in the internal fascination with their own self-obsessed lives. You know this, you've probably done it yourself. So don't compromise your ideal schedule on the basis of your (most likely) false assumptions of the reactions of other people to what you are doing. Face it and realise that while you are not in control of your external environment or other people, you are in control of how you react to it and them.
Spiritual Master speech over.
Great phone app aks9...might have to give that a go. More data is better!
About Flux, I knew about it and it sounds great, but the only reason I haven't got it yet, is because I worried about what affect it would have on my painting. Rather than add another unknown to the colour calibration aspect, I just choose to wind down and screen off when I need to. Personal choice :)
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I would add one thing to the spiritual mastery stuff:)
Part of that is also simple lack of experience, routine, call it what you will. Everything "new" and "unknown" is frightening. So is public performance in any of its forms. But I promise you, when you bite the bullet and go and exercise like three times among people, your anxiety is over. And you'll even might be like "oh it's refreshing to exercise with all these folk around".
Remember, I don't know, first day of school, you were like "omg I'll go in the wrong classroom", "omg where is the toilet", "omg I look so stupid with this bag" or whatever. And after like a week you were like "well, I could shit on my desk with everybody watching right now if I wanted to" :D
So, meet your enemy head on. The more you cycle that duel, the farther you are from it. It's like jumping in a pool from a 10m thing. If you don't simply jump, there you are, half an hour later, talking to yourself that you can do it:) And then you get down because well, you'll do it tomorrow:)
If it's something which isn't in the range of "should I marry this guy" or "should I sell this apartment and buy the smaller one", you shouldn't brood over it. There are virtually no consequences for this exercise thing, so just do it:)
And now I'll stop before wandering off to talk about ego and projecting and identifying with stuff...
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"...though getting out in the world is nicer. "
O Reality, Reality! Wherefore art thou Reality.....
If thou be shapeth by thoughts as sweet dreams do
What wonders would this world cometh to?
Don't take my silliness seriously....
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Oh whoa, this developed in awesome ways! Thanks for all the posts everyone.
I can't wait for my notice time to be over so I can start building up my schedule too :)
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I recently started doing this because I have a feeling of obligation to myself to live the life I want to be living. I have had different schedules in the past but this is what i'm working with in my current situation.
I work electrical construction so my day starts at 6:00am and I get home after 4:00pm
This is my schedule for those who work and just cant find the time to fit in studying and getting in personal work while working a full time job
i carry a jaja touch pen and my ipad in my cooler to work
Two tone compositions during my break, thumbnail during my lunch, come home do 3d (in the case you don't do this just do personal work to wind down from when you get off.)
After about 8:30-9pm wind down take a break for ten minutes, get into studying something for an hour or so right now i'm working on my construction skills and draftmanship with scott robertsons new book
repeat until the weekend
on the weekend take the time you have to commit to long studying the morning, my body is trained to want to get the hard things done early so I do this on my weekend and no matter how terrible they are i push through the feeling.
Do value studies, master studies, anything just do it in the morning!
at noon get back into working on what i want to work on.
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An update on the schedule - it's basically been shot in Week 2, partly due to outside Life Events(entertaining visiting family, then medical emergency), and 2 days completely and thoroughly due to my own fucking up. I want to believe this can work, but 1 shot week out of 1 month trial is a big lost...
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Do you normally keep any kind of schedule for your day? Like do you make a mental note or write a to-do list to remind yourself? If you're not already use to planning out your daily routine it seems a bit extreme to jump into a full on weekly schedule where your whole day is mapped out. Try something light like a little note pad that you jot down things you want to get done the next day. Keep it at your work area in plane sight, somewhere it wont get forgotten about. You have to write it down every night before bed so when you wake up it will be fresh in your mind. Its nice because you dont have a strict time limit on things and your day has some wiggle room but still remains some what structured. For me this is far more practical.
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Stick to it meat, give it at least a month imo. Life events happen, there's no stopping that so regardless I think you're ahead with the one week down!
I've actually just put together my own based on Daves in the OP. Although mine focuses around more of the fundamentals, as that's what I'm needing practice in :)
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+1 Hypnogogic Haze. (List making is a good time management and prioritisation tool)
+1 Mayenla (takes about 21 days to form a new habit, or break old ones, apparently)
Like I said before, if you keep telling yourself you blew it, because you didn't do exactly what was on the paper, then it's going to be a rough ride. Make it easier on yourself, when D&*S happens that you can't help, then that's what happens. Get back on the horse at the earliest next opportunity and don't feel guilty about it. Don't let yourself off the hook, if you are just wasting time of your own accord though. That bad.
On Mayenla's thing, I've recently decided to go somewhat Paleo in my eating. I used to be really healthy and onto it, and then art came along (dundundun) and I started eating a whole lot of fast crap that has no business in my body. I'm also going to be using the 21 day test to see if I can get back on the long bolted horse. Gotta say I'm only a few days in, and I already feel so much better and actually enjoy eating fresh and healthy again. Meat, you just gotta love what you are trying to do because that makes it easy, I think that's the real secret. :)
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Oh paleo is gold. And easy. I've lost 85 pounds from just changing into paleo (though I went full-on low carb, less than 20g/day.) Lots of energy :D
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Yeah 'Sula I find I am hyper as heck, and always eating...but eating smaller healthier meals. Plus bacon and eggs for breakfast isn't exactly horrible haha.
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excuse me is it ok if I take some ideas off these schedule studies this might clarify the time I spend, because I do, do other things in my life aswell, I hope its ok
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Hypnagogic_Haze: Schedule, order, plan are the antonyms of my life..... I sometimes make a to-do list for the day, but they often end up being impossibly long and populated. I'll keep practicing.
Mayenla: Thanks man, I'll keep at it!
monkeybread: Yeah, I try to remind myself I'm not supposed to get flogged or short a finger for not following a schedule to the T. Thanks for helping me on that... I'm really having a hard time with this... for years I keep telling and making myself do things I think I ought to do, and forsake what I enjoy doing to the point nothing comes to mind when I think of things I enjoy doing, AND nothing that's ought to be of my life has come to pass EITHER. What a big loss! Alghough since coming to this forum, I'm slowly starting to enjoy doing some art - the oil paintings, the armor studies, some fan arts... . None of that's gonna make anything out of me, so I'm dreading that it might be my fate to be scratching by on a random day job, and just do random art that interest me at night, 'cos I'm having such a hard time doing things with discipline and not at random like a firecracker.
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@eru , of course mate, this is all free info to a good home, :)
@meat: be careful about prejudging yourself and what you do. If you say in yiur head all the time, "this won't get me anywhere" it actually won't! This is in almost every self help book, so the message has become tainted with the egos of self righteous smarmy asses, but the message is sound: be positive about all that you do. Tell yourself you will do it. May not be 100% succesfull all the time, failure is key to the process, but always believe you will make it. Because then, you will!
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i'm still trying to develop a schedule for myself, rather then putting down specifics like colour studys and stuff i'm trying to just set aside a good 7-10 hours a day to draw and writing down a list at the end of the day for what I think I need to study, there's so much shit I need to learn at my level that I think just building a schedule on a set of things like that would be a bad idea.
In terms of sleep though, poyphasic is way to extreme for me but I have no doubt it works for some people because of all the people online who've been successful with it, but what does everyone think of biphasic sleep?
I'm in the uk and I have alot of skype friends in america, aside from this site and my family they're generally the only interaction I get with human beings on a regular basis XD so I generally stay up late but I also need to get up early so i've generally been trying to get into a biphasic schedule of one core sleep from 4-9 and then a 1 and a half hour nap at 3pm or 4pm, it seems to be workin when I get the full hours of sleep, I just have problems getting to sleep in the first place.
Oh and i'm trying out that flux program, good thing is there's a way to disable the effect at night for painting so I can't really see any drawbacks to using it.
Sleep schedule is also incredibly handy.
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Basically everything (peer reviewed) that I've seen suggests that you CAN function on biphasic and polyphasic, but you won't be functioning at your ideal potential. Especially true if your focus is for a brain function that serves well for creativity.
I often think we think we are way smarter than we are, by trying to bend nature to our whims. Just do it the natural way, that's how our brain developed. Of course if there is any decent study which shows that the brain function actually improves as a result of alternative sleep schedules I'll be interested, but there aren't any.
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