We are living in unprecedented times and everyone, certainly in the UK has been affected to some degree by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. I’ve just entered a 14 day period of isolation which is bound to be very challenging. I also see it as an opportunity to try things I wouldn’t normally have time for and In the absence of a set routine or work pattern I began to think about non-standard day lengths.
I consider myself a bit of a night owl: when it’s time for bed I don’t want to go. The problem then is that my sleep is compressed and when it comes to bed time I haven’t had enough and don’t want to get up. The next night, I still want to stay up. It’s not sustainable and it’s not good for you. If only the day was longer: i’d be able to stay up and do all the things I want to and then still have room for a full night’s sleep. Now that I don’t have to follow a set routine I decided to give it a go.
Breaking the 24 hour cycle
Back when I was 12 or 13 I used to collect a fortnightly science magazine called Quest, I will be writing an article all about it soon but the short version is that every other week they would produce a pack based on a different science based theme.
In issue 26 the theme was Underground and included an article on subterranean building and construction. In support of this article there was a description of an experiment where an Italian volunteer spent 4 months underground in living quarters constructed in a cave in New Mexico cut off from all natural cues of time and day as well clocks and other methods of telling the time. I was intrigued by the idea that we have adapted to a 24 hour cycle based on the rotation of the earth and day and night patterns. When this is removed the mind is left to its own devices and forms its own routine: sleep when you are tired and wake up when you are rested. The factory setting if you like.
Fast forward 10 years and I read Chaos: Making a New Science by James Gleick. In the prologue he begins to discuss the work of mathematical physicist Mitchell Feigenbaum who was a pioneer of chaos theory. Gleick mentions that Feigenbaum is experimenting with a 26-hour day. He would often work at night free from distractions from colleagues and potentially have longer, more productive days. In fact lots of people live non standard days: night shift workers, long distance aircrew, truck drivers. Sleeping patterns and circadian rhythms are an important area of research for human space flight and potentially living in space or on other planets.
Enter the 28-hour day
I first heard of the 28 hour day from an xkcd cartoon from 2007 entitled 28-Hour Day. The benefit of the 28 hour day is that is synchronises with a week, because a week is 168 hours long and 168 divided by 28 is 6. Why is it important to sync with a week? Perhaps you like to go out on Saturday nights and need to be awake, in my case I have 2 weeks of isolation so it would be nice to sync up at the end.
Compared with Feigenbaum’s 6 hour week: the lowest common multiple of 26 and 168 is 2184. 2184/168 = a 13 week cycle, so it only syncs up every 13 weeks. It’s a much more comfortable day length buy hardly ever syncs with a normal week.
Awake/sleep split
What about sleep. There a few ways to do it: the suggestions from the cartoon are 8 hours asleep followed by 20 hours awake or 9 hours sleep followed by 19 hours awake. I think in order to compensate for the longer time awake I would prefer 9 hours for sleep. In normal circumstances I would aim for 8 hours sleep. Over a 7 day week this means 56 hours of sleep. On a 9×6 week I now get 54 hours. I am not sure I would do well on a 8×6 sleeping hours per week: 48 hours total. So what am I gaining: just 2 extra hours per week in productive time. This isn’t a lot for such a radical change, but for me I just don’t want to go to bed before I am ready. I should be feeling pretty tired after 19 hours awake!
And so I begin
It’s currently Sunday. I’m going to start this from now and keep a daily journal of how I get on. I am not sure what to expect. The xkcd cartoon suggests that this schedule will eventually drive one stark raving mad. I am not even sure if I can last 2 weeks on this. I will certainly try my best for at least a week but if I am starting to go a bit bonkers then I will end it there. The important thing is that I gave it a go!