time for some ZZZzzz’s

by james | May 31, 2014 | aoj blog

Hey everyone…

Hope all is well and your enjoying a great week…. Someone asked me the other day about about how I fit time to paint in my busy schedule.. it got me thinking about how I manage and what others might be doing as well and how they balanced the art/professional life.

Sleeping habits are very variable throughout our population – for some people, it is a simple balance and straightforward schedule, for others, strange hours and odd sleeping rituals are perfect. Though doctors have generally agreed that it is a healthy habit to get eight hours of sleep each night, many physicians and sleep experts emphasize that each and every body has different needs based on physical composition, diet, healthy or unhealthy habits, daily workload, and emotional or stressful triggers. Some people thrive on extra hours of sleep, claiming that it gives them more energy, while others note that it makes them sluggish and often increases the symptoms of being tired. There are many famous people of our past and present who have relied on their odd sleeping patterns for success – Imagine having absolutely no sleeping schedule – only resting when your body completely shut down against your own will, and resisting long periods of sleep in order to work around the clock. Most of us would agree that this would make us go insane – but for some of our greatest inventors of the past, it only contributed to their insane amounts of creativity.  Thomas Edison, the light bulb inventor, was infamous for falling asleep with his eyes still open. While in his office during the midnight hours, he would end up sleeping on his worktable instead of going home to get proper rest, and would awake as soon as possible in order to continue working. Elias Howe, the inventor of the modern sewing machine, claimed to have invented the proper needle-threading machinery through his intensive dreams during his odd sleeping schedule. Perhaps the oddest inventor sleep cycle was that of Leonardo da Vinci – who would sleep only 20 minutes at a time, napping just ever three hours in order to stay refreshed throughout the whole day and night.

Ernest Hemingway took a very strange approach to sleep – like many of his artistic and creative contemporaries, he would stay awake for days without sleeping, finally resting for an entire twenty-four hours of sleep or more before beginning the cycle again.  Edgar Allen Poe and Sigmund Freud were also known to follow these patterns, stimulated in particular by drugs like cocaine and opium and strong drinks like absinthe that made their waking hours far more psychedelic than a typical night of dreaming.  Salvador Dali, the famous surrealist painter, tried to wake himself up just as he began to dream in order to remember those fantasies and incorporate them into his work.   According to legend, he claimed to be fully refreshed by a very odd, brief kind of nap. The story goes that he would put a metal pan on the floor, and doze off in his chair, holding a metal spoon above the pan. When he fell asleep, he would drop the spoon, and then wake up an instant later, when the spoon hit the pan with a clatter.  A modern-day example, consider the amazing singer Mariah Carey, who has had a very strange sleeping pattern throughout her life that was dictated in part by her industry.  For years, she operated nocturnally, sleeping during the daylight hours and waking up in the evening to record all night. Now with her children, her sleep patterns have become more normalized to their schedules, but she prefers recording in the night hours.

In contrast with many of the celebrities mentioned above, many famous people have struggled to get as much sleep as possible to help their success. Rene Descartes stayed in bed as long as possible each day in order to write his philosophical texts – often eating a breakfast in bed at midday and staying in pajamas for the rest of his waking hours, writing from the comfort of his cot.  Albert Einstein loved his sleep: he claimed to need at least ten hours of sleep each night in order to function properly during the day, and he reported that he couldn’t think properly without sleep.

Benjamin Franklin, a true American patriot and Renaissance man, had trouble sleeping through the night. He, like many who face insomnia, could only sleep for a few hours before waking up in the middle of the night. He tried to cure this odd habit with a ritual: he would sleep for one half of the night with his head at the top of the bed, and then after he woke up a few hours later, he would turn his body so that his head was at the base of his mattress. Perhaps the changed position gave his body extra support and comforted his back and neck, or perhaps it was just a ritual that helped to calm his anxieties about sleeping.  Imagine if Benjamin Franklin had been able to search for a proper mattress online to comfort him when he woke up from his slumber.
Throwing myself in the mix,  I usually work in spurts which can last for a month at a time… During these creative episodes I usually sleep from 6 pm to about 10 pm.. then I grab some dinner and hit the studio until about 4 am … followed by a quick hour nap and then off to my other life…

Throughout history, we’ve certainly noticed many strange sleeping habits of individuals – and the fascination with sleep and dreams lives on. The moral of the story seems to be that we should find what works best for us – and make sure we find the right mattress and bed that support our bodies during our restful moments. Perhaps it is strange that these celebrities rested in abnormal ways throughout their lives and still managed to be successful – others believe that these odd sleeping patterns are in fact what have pushed these people towards fame and fortune.

Well if its a unusual sleep pattern that determines success… I am well on my way….lol…. have a great week everyone… take care

peace….

…………..james

I found a  graph of what normal sleep cycle should be… love to get there someday…lol.. talk to you soon