Sleep Patterns

Today's weather:  High = 38 Low = 28

Sunny

 

There hasn't been a lot of jet lag coming back to Shanghai this time round which is unusual, but great at the same time.  What's interesting is that I'm settling into a dual sleep pattern, which is similar to what I had last year during the school term – and it can be rather productive.

 

The idea is that I get about 6 hours of sleep from 11pm to 5am, and wake up as the sun rises.  Then I take a 2-hour nap in the afternoon from around 4pm to 6pm.  This could work out well for school as it's always an early start, I could beat the rush hour traffic, and most of the work takes place in the morning.  The school day ends around 2pm, then I hit the gym, go home and take a nap – and do lesson prep in the evenings.

 

The need for an afternoon nap may be a lingering effect from the Vancouver time zone, as those hours correspond to the dead of night over there.  At any rate, I find it a lot more productive to take advantage of the morning hours instead of sleeping in. 

 

The 6 hours or night sleep may not be the full 8 hours that the experts suggest you should be getting, but I've found the 6 hours are uninterrupted sleep.  If I attempt to get a full 8 hours continuously, it is a rare thing and the sleep is often interrupted.  So I wonder if the sleep experts would approve this plan, or what they have to say about it.  After all, I'm still getting my 8 hours over the course of a 24 hour period, and it feels more refreshing to do it this way.  

 

On a related note, the sunrise and sunset do not vary much throughout the year at this latitude.  It gets light anywhere from 4:30 to 6:30am, and it gets dark from 5pm to 7pm depending on the year.   The concept of long summer evenings does not apply in Shanghai as the sun goes down quickly after dinner, and there is no lingering twilight, regardless of the season.

 

In Shanghai, we rely on neon lights for the evenings.  The hot weather means that zillions of people are out when the sun goes down and it is more crowded and lively on the streets than you can possibly imagine.