August 11, 2003

Sleep and computers

I just don't think I'm able to sleep as well during the night as I do during the day. Last weekend (my first scheduled long weekend), I ended up adjusting my sleep schedule a little so I could go to my aunt and uncle's cabin for an afternoon. That weekend consisted of short bursts of sleep at a time, and generally feeling tired the whole weekend. I've been on my holidays since Saturday, and I've been adjusting so I would be awake during the day. The first night of sleep was fine, but last night I woke up every hour or so.

I think this is partly why some people feel like crap when they work night shifts. On their days off, they'll stay up all that first day, go to bed that night, have a "normal" day the next day, and when they have to go back to work, they end up being awake for near 24 hours. I felt like shit after doing that last weekend, I don't know how people can handle doing that every week. Another thing is going to sleep right after getting home from work - and waking up 4 or 5 hours later. Maybe having a nap in the evening. By the time they get off, they're practically falling asleep (which isn't good if you have to drive home). No wonder they are always tired and/or sick. That sort of thing is hard on the body. Personally, I tend to keep the same sleeping pattern - go to bed around 2pm, wake up around 8pm. Then work from 11pm to 7:30am. Much easier.

I'd like to say that my vacation has been good so far, but I haven't really done anything yet. Which is pretty good in itself ;) I've been preparing my Pentium Pro system to replace my current Linux box acting as the main server here, so when I get the upgrades I got on eBay, the downtime will be minimal. I was planning to upgrade my own computer in October, but that's going to have to wait a little longer now, because I wasn't planning on upgrading the Linux box until later. But hardware problems forced that upon me. I had to readjust my budget for the next few months, but all is good. At some point, I'll get my Ultra 5 system running, but that's not a high priority. It's warm enough in here during the summer with 2 computers running, 3 or 4 is just insane.