Fellow web-creator, Chris Bowler, has put himself to the task over the next couple of weeks to see if he can change his sleeping habits down to 5 hours an in the process gain valuable extra time in the process.
The experiment: I’m going to take two weeks and see how I operate on 5 hours of sleep per night.
That probably sounds a little crazy, but there are a few caveats. 1) This will only be for nights before a weekday, Sunday to Thursday. Friday and Saturday I will sleep as long as possible. 2) I already happily exist on 6.5 hours per night (again, weekday nights) so it’s not a huge change for me.
While Chris has me doubled in young kids under one roof, I can relate to the fact that there never seems to be enough day available. I too exist on about 6-6.5 hours on a regular basis but I’m not sure I can say that because of, I operate at an optimal level.
Most of us grew up hearing that 8 hours was the perfect amount of sleep an adult needed but as I researched a bit more yesterday, it seems like anywhere between 7 & 9 is best. Most of the things that I found mentioned that under 7 is manageable but your health becomes more at risk the less (and more) you get. The potential of heart disease, diabetes, obesity and depression are all shown to rise as well as a shortened estimated life span.
I’d love to add an extra hour or two to my day but at this point think I’m better off refining other areas or becoming a little better at delegation of tasks in order to achieve.
Chris, wishing you the best of luck with the experiment, be careful to monitor the other aspects of your life as you go through the process to make sure they’re not affected too greatly.
Hat tip to Joelle_writes for this find of these early 1900’s mugshots from Sydney. Several things intrigued me about these shots as I spent time scrolling through them this morning. First off, the quality of the images is quite impressive for being approximately 100 years old. Second, I love the fact that in each of these, the men are all well-dressed which could either be a product of the times or of their circumstance. And finally, I love the fact that I can almost feel the story behind each one by their facial expressions and/or posture.
Purely for my own entertainment, here’s four with my own short take on how they ended up in each situation respectively.
1910 was the first year of Prohibition in Australia and it lasted for 17 years before repeal. Their July 7th, 1920 date has to be taken into account on this one. While not overly excited to be there, each of their faces shows that they know a night out on the town landed them here and that a simple slap on the wrist is in store.
Sidney Kelly had a rough day at work and I’m guessing things got a little out of control after-hours. His posture and lack of emotion make me think that he got into a little scuffle while the lack of dirt and wrinkles in his clothes make me think he probably won. (more…)
Not sure if you ever get all the way down to the footer on this site but if you do, you might have noticed a new little logo. Filtering through the noise for good reads can often be a challenge, so when Aaron Mahnke approached me with his idea for a new site to aid in the process, I jumped at it.
Launching just this week, Read & Trust has a goal of “gathering the best independent writers available” and ultimately creating a curated recommendation system to allow you to find quality content across a myriad of topics. I am absolutely humbled to be a part of the initial launch and can highly recommend any and all of the writers I have been afforded the opportunity to be grouped with.
I love the fact that such a variety of content can be consumed from one location and the fact that I know all of it will be of the highest quality. In contrast, I’m scared of the fact that now I’ve got to raise my own game just to be considered in the same ballpark as the rest of these guys. Speaking of, the current list is pretty Y-chromosome heavy, if there’s a quality recommendation out there for female writers I’d be interested in checking out their work. Send me a note or let me know on Twitter.
I recommend you take a bit of time to run through each one to figure out what they offer. If you’re game, they’ve even created a way to subscribe to all of them at once.
