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Comment by anonu | Hacker News Reader

I find my focus and attention has the same rhythm you describe. I thought I was the only one!

I make sure I get a solid amount (7+ hours) of sleep every night and try to maintain consistency with sleep times - but I feel like I don't really "wake up" until after lunch. Even though I'm fully awake all morning - I feel like my mind doesn't focus or get into the groove, as you put it, until well after 4pm - and then its time go home.

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7+ hours may not be solid enough sleep for you. 8-9 for many people is a bit more par for the course, though a lot of neuro research is coming out supporting the fact that regardless of quantity the "when" of sleep matters more. So, sleeping from 1 am to 10 am is much worse than 10pm-6am. Anecdotally, I had a friend who lost fine motor control of his trombone playing muscles in his mouth due to his sleep schedule and had to have a 10pm-5am sleep schedule for about 6 months before he could play trombone again. Its a special case but illustrates a similar point.

Can you include links to some of this research? That is fascinating.

I have a friend who is an extreme night owl who has long said then when he sleeps matters far more than how much—but in a negative sense. Even if he gets as much as 10 hours of sleep, if he has to go to sleep early in order to wake up early (6-7am), he’ll be miserable. If he goes to sleep at 3am and wakes up at 9:30am, he’ll feel great despite having gotten much less sleep.

So as someone who works 3rd shift, I'm just screwed? Kind of disappointing, but not unsurprising.

How did they determine that it was his sleep schedule that was responsible for the motor control issue?

Same experience here. All the work of any importance that I've ever done in my entire career of 18 years so far was achieved in the 4-9pm time frame.

I find that for me mornings are better for input (i.e. education/research/meetings/review) while afternoons are better for output ("productivity")

Luckily, my current role requires me to spend time staying up to date, so I can spend my mornings learning and my afternoons using that knowledge.

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