Sleeping In

I was thinking about sleeping (as I often do) and about the amount of time spent awake or asleep. And I thought about how we’re not really conscious of the time spent sleeping. For example, during a long road trip or flight, a person might fall asleep and wake up at their destination, and feel as if no time passed in between. I thought about how the hours spent awake, or conscious, would add up for a person who slept a lot versus a person who slept very little.

Me: I wonder
Me: about how some people sleep a lot during the school year
Me: and others don’t
Me: So I guess some people kind of…take longer to finish the school year
Me: like in terms of the time spent conscious
Me: Isn’t that weird?
Somebody: ?
Somebody: not really
Somebody: hahah
Somebody: it’s still the same amount of school hours
Me: DUDE
Me: I did the math though
Me: Like
Me: If somebody woke up at 6 and went to school, and went to sleep at 4 everyday
Me: During school days, they would only be conscious, or awake 1800 hours a school year
Me: and if somebody woke up at 6 and stayed up until 1, they would be awake 3420 hours a school year
Me: 1.9 times as much time being awake!
Me: So it would feel like the school year is twice as long!
Me: So maybe if I sleep more, this year will seem over sooner
Somebody: O.O”
Somebody: SOMEONE HAS TOO MUCH TIME
Somebody: LOL WTF

So I did some math to find out the number of hours a person would be conscious if they slept a little or a lot. If a person wakes up at 6AM and goes to school, and was somehow able to sleep at 4PM, they would spend only 10 hours awake each day. Since Washington state requires 180 school days per year, the person would spend a total of 1800 hours conscious during school days over the school year.

Now if a person wakes up at 6AM and goes to school, but slept at 1PM each night, they would spent 19 hours awake each day. And multiplied by the 180 school days, the person would spent a total of 3420 hours conscious during school days over the school year.

Obviously going to sleep at 4PM is pretty extreme, but just for comparison, the person who slept at 1PM every school night would spent 1.9 times more hours conscious. The person who slept at 1PM would spend 67.5 more days of time (24 hour periods) awake. So depending on your point of view (kind of like half-full versus half-empty) the person who slept at 1AM would gain 67.5 more days of time to do stuff, or the person who sleeps at 4PM would lose 67.5 days of time to do stuff. I guess this just kind of confirms that the person who sleeps at 4PM everyday wouldn’t have a life.

So going back to the idea of falling asleep during a road trip or flight, to a person who sleeps at 4PM everyday the year would seemingly go by twice as fast! And to the person who sleeps at 1AM, the year would seem to take twice as long. I guess this isn’t really a breakthrough, but I thought it was interesting how in the long run, over peoples’ lifetimes, different people might live to the same age, but one person might spend much more time conscious to do things.

And just for fun because I feel like it, I’ll put some numbers up about the time spent “conscious” for different hours of sleep. Again, this is based on a 180-day school year and only totals the hours per school day.

• 10 hours of sleep = 2520 hours awake = 105 days awake (24 hour periods)
• 9 hours of sleep = 2700 hours awake = 112.5 days awake (24 hour periods)
• 8 hours of sleep = 2880 hours awake = 120 days awake (24 hour periods)
• 7 hours of sleep = 3060 hours awake = 127.5 days awake (24 hour periods)
• 6 hours of sleep = 3240 hours awake = 135 days awake (24 hour periods)
• 5 hours of sleep = 3420 hours awake = 142.5 days awake (24 hour periods)
• 4 hours of sleep = 3600 hours awake = 150 days awake (24 hour periods)
• 3 hours of sleep = you are going to die early

Yup. So there’s my first post in a while. I kind of decided to not write about things that are already written about for awhile, like Apple and the election. I wonder if anybody’s ever really thought of sleep this way, and I’m sure people have, but I guess I was one of the few that was interested (or bored) enough to find the numbers. Anyways, I hope it made sense.

Oh, and I saw on the news that a teacher at the middle school I went to FREAKING KILLED A MAN. Except it was a hunting accident, not a deliberate murder. But still, pretty crazy.