Sleep | Slate Star Codex

The human mind is endlessly fascinating and I never tire of learning about its various quirks and mazes. I just wish I didn’t have to live in one all the time. Geologists don’t have to live in caves, and ichthyologists don’t have to publish their papers from within the bellies of giant sharks. All I want is the same kind of distance they and people in so many other scientific fields enjoy. My latest interesting observation is that my brain has arbitrarily decided to separate all attempts to fall asleep into “sleep mode” and “nap mode”. Any attempt to fall asleep after 1 AM is “sleep mode”. In sleep mode I want to sleep for about 8 or 9 hours, and when I wake up I’m still pretty groggy and could easily sleep for 2 or 3 more if I let myself. Any attempt to fall asleep before 1 AM is “nap mode”. In nap mode I want to sleep for about 3 or 4 hours, and when I wake up I feel incredibly refreshed and alert (I also feel a weird but pleasant tightness in my abdomen, which I relate not because I

The human mind is endlessly fascinating and I never tire of learning about its various quirks and mazes. I just wish I didn’t have to live in one all the time. Geologists don’t have to live in caves, and ichthyologists don’t have to publish their papers from within the bellies of giant sharks. All I want is the same kind of distance they and people in so many other scientific fields enjoy. My latest interesting observation is that my brain has arbitrarily decided to separate all attempts to fall asleep into “sleep mode” and “nap mode”. Any attempt to fall asleep after 1 AM is “sleep mode”. In