My personal bio rhythms, sleep patterns and fragmented sleep time

My peers are inside MBA routine. And most of us need to split our time (that is not extendable – Oh God – only 24 hours per day) into studies, sleep and partying networking. And according to previous intakes usually a student can do only two out of these three.

I tried several ways of sleeping less and tried several ways to adapt my sleeping patterns to my MBA rhythm.  For instance, going to sleep earlier yesterday so that to wake up at 3 am today. Pros: higher concentration, same 5-6 hours of night sleep, more balanced sleep time between sundown and sunrise, none calling or whatsapping you, you start your sleep yesterday and not today.

Of course this is just one case out of other considerations on how to sleep less or how to sleep more optimally. I needed to go further to explore some assisting techniques and devices.

My strategy 1

Back in Russia I used a light alarm-clock that gradually ignites a powerful lamp next to your bad and launches some sounds of nature. In Russia, where winter nights are long and where I drive to work and back home in the dark, this works well. But here in Spain this does not really contribute to my perfect sleep as I have enough natural sun.

My strategy 2

I also tried so-called positive way of thinking (my peers may remember how I referenced to Napoleon Hill). Apart from Hill, there are books of Luiza Hey if I correctly recall the author’s name. The whole concept is concentrated on positive thinking, doing morning exercises and similar activities. In total this complex can save you around 2 hours of sleep per day (due to the fact that you use sleep to refresh and not to cure the stress you gained during the last day. By the way, I do not recommend to rush following Hill blindly – first read the abovementioned authors – they are rather inspiring [probably not like me here]. But their recommendations really work for me and a bunch of my friends . Maybe not 2 hours, but still an hour is ok. 2 hrs*365 days=730 hrs. 730hrs/24hrs per day = 30,41 days won per year!!!

My strategy 3

 Approximately a year ago I found that there is an alarm-clock that measures your phases of the sleep and wakes you when you are in a non-deep sleep. This should work for me, but I’m still greedy enough to spend around 300 EUR for the gadget.

The name is aXbo. http://www.axbo.com/axbo/CMS/leichter_aufwachen.aspx?ClientID=wf3c1a6d40-95ff-4730-85d0-ea60088b1792&SiteID=0&GroupID=8&Language=E

How does it work?

A sensor distinguishes the sleep phases through your body’s movements. Within 30 minutes of the set waking time aXbo wakes us with pleasant waking sounds from an almostawake-moment.

The unique wake-up-algorithm of aXbo chooses the optimal wake up time through differentiating the various sleeping phases by tracking the body movements. It  thus determines the optimal wake up time. Your movements are detected and gathered with a comfortable towelling wristband and submitted to the sleep phase alarm clock.

You set your new aXbo as usual to your wake up time e.g. 7.00 a.m. The best wake up window is 30 minutes; e.g. you might be woken up at 6.47 a.m.-your optimal wake up time. Thus aXbo even gives you a little extra time.

Seems to me that business schools could have a wholesale contract with the company producing aXbo and make a present to the students in the opening ceremony day like we had in Segovia.