Calculate When You Are Most Awake

cjellibebi writes "Scientists have devised a formula that works out what times of the day you are most tired. Using their website, you can work out your alertness profile for any given day. It is also discussed on this BBC News article."

Guess what they recommend

[jbellis]

for on-the-job sleepiness when you finish the questions?

"A nap combined with 2 Pro Plus tablets will temporarily alleviate tiredness."

I don't trust a "scientific method" that ends with a sales pitch. :-|

Re:Guess what they recommend

[aurispector]

This is basically a sales pitch. The funny thing is that I don't see anywhere to actually ORDER the pro plus tablets!

Knuckleheads.

Re:Guess what they recommend

[bananaape]

You'll probably get an email about it later.

Re:Guess what they recommend

[julesh]

In the UK, I believe it would be illegal to offer them by mail order. You would have to go to a pharmacist's shop to get them.

Re:Guess what they recommend

[d474]

"KnuckleFactor"

Re:Guess what they recommend

[Caseylite]

From http://www.mypharmacy.co.uk/alternative_medicines/ medicines/p/pro_plus/pro_plus.htm [mypharmacy.co.uk]:

Each tablet contains the active ingredient: 50mg caffeine anhydrous Ph. Eur.<br>
Also contains: sorbitol and magnesium stearate.

So a nap and caffeine will alleviate tiredness? I'll stick to coffee.

Re:Guess what they recommend

[Tandoori Haggis]

Packets of sugar feee mints containing Sorbitol carry a warning about potential laxative effect.

Just as you said...I'll stick with coffee!

Re:Guess what they recommend

[Tandoori Haggis]

That was supposed to read "sugar free mints" by the way, before somebody points it out ;-|

Re:Guess what they recommend

[txviking]

... Calculating while most awake ..... is certainly better than calculating while fast asleep ....

Re:Guess what they recommend

[Poeir]

Wow, sleeping allieves tiredness? The hell you say! How about eating food, will that help this hunger problem?

(Nothing against the parent, just against the company's obvious advice.)

Re:Guess what they recommend

[Breakfast Cereal]

Maybe they can do another site predicting that the sun will rise tomorrow and set later in the day?

Does your planet orbit one or more stars whose electromagnetic output includes light that is visible to your species?
1. Yes
2. No

Does your planet's star (or one of them, in case your planet orbits multiple stars) produce significantly more visible light than any other object in your planet's sky from the point of view of an observer on your planet's surface?
1. Yes
2. No

Is your planet's rotation tidally

Quite accurate...

[acxr is wasted]

Seems to be pretty accurate in predicting my 3 p.m. nap after my 4-6 a.m. sleep schedule. Too bad it can't tell me what time this afternoon I'll wake up after I go to bed now.

Re:Quite accurate...

[txviking]

... but what happens if I move timezones like from the USA to Europe ????

I already know

[Phidoux]

when I'm most tired. As soon as I arrive at work... Zzzzzzz

Re:I already know

[proudlyindian]

Also the site software combined with apache logs showed that people were most sleepy when the REFERER was slashdot.org

Striving to be common... [blogspot.com]

Not Accurate At All

[Anonymous Coward]

but there was no way to put in my real sleep schedule.

I work 3rd shift (1 am - 9 am), so most days, I end up sleeping from 2 pm - 10 pm.

Re:Not Accurate At All

[JayAndSilentBob]

I do the same thing.... just switch am & pm :)

We Are Slashdot. Resistance is futile.

[Anonymous Coward]

"Using their website, you can work out your alertness profile for any given day."

Not for much longer, you can't. It's already getting slower...

Not only that...

[mrbarkeeper]

...but you can also calculate, when their webserver will be asleep!

glitch

[Anonymous Coward]

There's a glitch of some sort. It said that I would be noticeably tired at 16:30 and most tired at 16:30, but the graph clearly showed otherwise. The tips for tiredness also has a problem as the words aren't showing up properly.

Looks like....

[wpiman]

their website took a little snooze.....

Doesn't account for important factors

[Anonymous Coward]

Hangover, drugs imbibed that day, energy expended dancing naked to the Transformers theme song in the morning, etc.

Re:Doesn't account for important factors

[Galvatron]

Actually, if you RTFA, you'll see that it DOES ask you how much you drank the previous night.

saturday morning

[JawzX]

seems to me that saturday morning is the perfect time to post this news...anyone who's awake now (like me) obviously has a problem or a sucky job.

Re:saturday morning

[Vlad_the_Inhaler]

or is not in the US, you unimaginative clod.

Re:saturday morning

[JawzX]

wouldn't be the first time I've been called a clod...though unimaginataive? I'm really more of an *INSENSITIVE* clod. All appologies to the slashdot polls.

Lunch time.

[FrostedWheat]

I'm most awake during lunch time. Before and after I'm like one of the apes wondering what that big black box thingy is.

"Is that program finished yet?"
"URGH!"

Well, according to that

[dupper]

I'm supposed to be wide awake, right now. So I guess that's why I had to read each question a dozen times before I gave up on ever being able processing a complete sentance again, and clicked on the first number I could recognize (after vainly trying to remember how a drop box works).

Interesting results

[Karamchand]

They told me I feel most awake while I am asleep. Cute.

I don't know about you, but I know quite well myself when I am feeling sleepy and when not. What about you?

Re:Interesting results

[Sardak]

My results said I'd be most tired while I am already asleep. It also said I should go to bed at 4:30pm, but I'm still at work then.

Its an Advert for caffiene pills YHBAT

[Anonymous Coward]

you have been astro-turfed

next on slashdot, scientists devise a new compound said to give men a huge wang

Re:Its an Advert for caffiene pills YHBAT

[the eric conspiracy]

you have been astro-turfed

More like infomercialled.

Re:Its an Advert for caffiene pills YHBAT

[surprise_audit]

next on slashdot, scientists devise a new compound said to give men a huge wang

Isn't that what the recent "male enhancement" ads on TV are all about? If so, it *must* be true - after all, it's on TV!! :)

Re:Its an Advert for caffiene pills YHBAT

[quantaman]

Yeah,
but you realize that we're all way to cheap to buy his junk, just wait till he gets the bandwidth bil from tens(hundreds?) of thousands curious /.ers happy clicking away!

My results

[krygny]

Took the test and it said I ... zzzzZZZZZ ZZZZZZZ ZZZZZZZZ ZZZZZZZZZ (snore ... whistle ... snore ... whistle ...)

(... hey, is that coffee I smell?)

Tired at work

[skraps]

Being tired at work is *good*. Give the man your worst hours. Keep the good hours for yourself.

Re:Tired at work

[sydb]

This also applies to hangovers; I learnt to reserve blowouts for during the week from an old hand. Keep your Saturday morning head clear!

Re:Tired at work

[JediTrainer]

I learnt to reserve blowouts for during the week from an old hand.

Err... umm... too easy.

Re:Tired at work

[SilentChris]

"Being tired at work is *good*. Give the man your worst hours. Keep the good hours for yourself."

So, how's being a janitor working out?

Re:Tired at work

[skraps]

So, how's being a janitor working out?

I hate to show off my arrogance in public, but: my worst work is better than most of my co-worker's best work. No need to worry.

unrealistic form options (for me at least)

[mardoen]

Their form to enter the time I wake up in the "mornings" is flawed. No option after noon (I usually rise at 1-3 pm, go to sleep at 4-5 am).

Guess they didn't think about students. Or unemployed programmers...

Re:unrealistic form options (for me at least)

[Jardine]

Their form to enter the time I wake up in the "mornings" is flawed. No option after noon (I usually rise at 1-3 pm, go to sleep at 4-5 am).

Site is slashdotted now but if I'm remembering correctly from an earlier visit (Discovery Channel Canada mentioned the site a week or two ago), it also doesn't allow you to specify going to sleep from 4:46am until sometime in the afternoon.

Naps?

[skraps]

Their system doesn't account for naps. I generally sleep from 3am-9am, and 6pm-8pm. Work for the man during the day. Take a nap to refresh yourself. Work for yourself at night. I've used this system on and off for a few years, and it works well.

Re:Naps?

[WuphonsReach]

Their system doesn't account for naps. I generally sleep from 3am-9am, and 6pm-8pm. Work for the man during the day. Take a nap to refresh yourself. Work for yourself at night. I've used this system on and off for a few years, and it works well.

Ugh... that's the exact sleep schedule that I'm trying to break!

I much prefer to fall asleep around 10pm and rise at 6am. I've always found it to be rather relaxing to have 2 hours in the morning to dop around prior to walking downstairs and logging in.

Don't Think This is Going to Work for Me

[value_added]

Set the beddy-bye time to 11:00pm and your wakeup time options are between 11:00pm and 12:00pm? I woke up at 3:00 in the afternoon fercyrinoutlound!

For anyone who may be confused by the term knackered:

Main Entry: knackered
Pronunciation: 'na-k&rd
Function: adjective
Etymology: English slang knacker to kill, tire, perhaps from knacker, n.
British : TIRED, EXHAUSTED

Maybe someone who's really English (i.e., not the fake Canadian type like myself) can expound on the etymology. IIRC it has something to do with killing old horses.

On an more related note, I have noticed that I read Slashdot when I start to tire of whatever it is I'm working on (or not working on). I believe it has something to do with the rhythm of 20-minutes of focused attention followed by a few minutes of wandering thoughts we all have.

At least that's my theory.

Re:Don't Think This is Going to Work for Me

[Gilesx]

The "knackers yard" was a place they took tired old horses to be killed and have their bones made into glue....

Re:Don't Think This is Going to Work for Me

[surprise_audit]

I believe the meat was turned into dog-food. That may not be true in France - I believe I remember being told by a friend that she had seen horse-steak on a French menu. I suppose it *could* have just been a mis-translation, though

Re:Don't Think This is Going to Work for Me

[nightles]

I suppose it *could* have just been a mis-translation, though
nope, horse-meat is eaten in france.

they eat frog legs, for goodness sake... how could you doubt horse-meat?

Re:Don't Think This is Going to Work for Me

[surprise_audit]

Snails too. I guess I thought horse-meat was a touch too normal...

Obligatory "O Brother" reference

[Drachemorder]

I believe I remember being told by a friend that she had seen horse-steak on a French menu.

"I slaughtered this horse last Tuesday. I'm 'fraid she's startin' to turn..."

Re:Don't Think This is Going to Work for Me

[utexaspunk]

...perhaps it's similar to schnockered?

AHA !

[foobsr]

"It's really quite simple," he told BBC News Online. "If people are tired during the day then they are not getting enough sleep."

May I please be funded in order to come up with s.th. astounding like that ?

CC.

Re:AHA !

[3141]

Problem is, it's not necessarily even true.

They might suffer from some sort of post-viral illness, they might be in shock, they might be depressed, or one of many other reasons.

I find the advice about taking pep pills to be particularly poor, when one considers these other reasons for fatigue.

Real World Application ...

[DaneelGiskard]

... even without doing the test, I predict that their webserver isn't most awake right now ;-)

Re:Real World Application ...

[andyh]

It is in fact, knackered.

Site is knackered

[skinfitz]

Looks like it's been /.'ed

Or, you know...

[Cappy Red]

Or, you know, you could always just pay attention to yourself.

*honk*

Worthless!

[Alsee]

What a worthless calculator! It only works for bed-times between 6pm and 6am.

-

Re:Worthless!

[Quazi]

Exactly. I work nights, and therefore I sleep from around 11:am to 7:pm. This just proves that this is either another goofy-ass, slapped-together website, or just a marketing gimmick. Nothing to see here.

Re:Worthless!

[thunderbird46]

I haven't looked at the site, but I wonder if you couldn't just put in that you're sleeping from 11pm to 7am (about my sleep hours actually) and replace AM's with PM's for the most-tired times? :)

Re:Worthless!

[jonbryce]

Probably not, because daylight does affect your tiredness levels.

I caught it in Mid/.

[bruce RedHead]

I think I was on the last question. It was so exciting seeing a website just listed that hadn't crashed!

I did all the questions and t h e n.....

Now I won't know when to be tired.
OH THE HUMANITY!!!

Prediction

[Nimloth]

Haven't tried it yet, but I'm fairly sure it'll tell me to go back to sleep right now...

God I'm tired...

I think it's broke

[Liquidrage]

It alternates between telling me I'm most alert at either 4:04 or 5:00 exactly. Not even sure if they are talking about AM or PM.
And what's really odd is it's not even asking me any questions before giving me my results.

I guess they figured out a way to determine when you are most alert based on your IP or something.

Parents don't need to guess this...

[pedantic bore]

The time that you're most awake and alert? Right before you become a parent.

About 72 hours after the arrival of my first child, I was more tired than I'd ever been in my life. Just when things were starting to improve, a few years later, along came the second.

At this point, I'm not even making the interest payments on my sleep debt, and the Sandman keeps threatening to send his goons around to beat the rest of it out of me.

Re:Parents don't need to guess this...

[vonFinkelstien]

You said it, brother!

When my wife wanted to have a second child, part of was thinking, "But things are getting better now. I can write and be creative again." But then another part of my body took over. "Make another baby? Sure! Or I'll die trying."

Sigh.

Re:Parents don't need to guess this...

[gmaestro]

About 72 hours after the arrival of my first child, I was more tired than I'd ever been in my life.

as a parent, too, I can sympathize (my 6 year old was up at 5am this morning singing in the shower) but...

Just when things were starting to improve, a few years later, along came the second.

since you're posting on slashdot, perhaps you don't know what causes this?

Science? Try advert

[ansak]

I don't know how scientific the whole thing is, but it's all a protracted (but low-key) advert for some kind of "pep" pills. And as if that weren't enough, the layout doesn't work for Firefox (non-portable HTML), and it's very easy to confuse its text generator.

Just walk on, folks...ank

Re:Science? Try advert

[jc42]

it's all a protracted (but low-key) advert for some kind of "pep" pills

whose sole active ingredient is caffeine.

... doesn't work for Firefox ...

Doesn't work with any of the 8 browsers on my PowerBook, not even IE.

A quick check shows that it's a frameset, and the URL in the main frame gets a "refused" reply.

Obligatory Simpsons

[Epistax]

Lisa: This is madness. He's just peddling a bunch of easy answers.
Carl: And how!

I find it easier to calculate my alertness profile

[Anonymous Coward]

...after a big pot of coffee.

I know when I'm most awake

[kasperd]

I'm most awake just after going to bed. In fact I'm so awake that I might just spend the first half of the night awake. Guess I don't need to tell when I'm most tired.

hm

[arabagast]

the question is, does it have an option to specify coding into the late night, drinking lots of coffee and not falling asleep before the next day at school ? (I could not test this since their server seems to be taking a nap right now.)

-If master Yoda so strong in the force be, why then proper english he cannot speak ?

zz

[bioglaze]

I fell asleep waiting the page to load due to the slashdot effect.

Gender characteristics

[Knights who say 'INT]

The poll also found that men and women experience tiredness differently. Some 64% of women said they become irritable when tired. Men said they make more mistakes.

But, um, isn't that just the usual gender stereotype (it might have some truth to it, I'm not judging)? Women being more aware of their emotions while men are more performance driven?

Next thing you know, they notice alcohol affects men and women differently: men can't change tires, while women can't find their eyeliner in their purse.

Re:Gender characteristics

[sirshannon]

those are responses to a poll, not actual findings. So they would say that alcohol affects men by making them stronger and smarter and women by making them funnier and sexier.

Gotcha!

[DaneelGiskard]

Not Found

The requested URL / was not found on this server.

It's .... gone to sleep, Jim.

Science, baby!

[DaneelGiskard]

"It's really quite simple," he told BBC News Online. "If people are tired during the day then they are not getting enough sleep."

And next on BBC:

"If you are thirsty, drink!", scientist claims.

Re:Science, baby!

[StrawberryFrog]

And next on BBC: "If you are thirsty, drink!", scientist claims.

The British really don't need to be told to drink more. But apparently they do need to be told to sleep more.

Panic attack!

[BigglesZX]

Looks like they just removed all files in their wwwroot dir in an effort to wake up the server. All I get is a directory listing.

Problem pinpointed

[Anonymous Coward]

So many complaints about being tired. You guys should really decrease on your daily dose of sex.

Oh wait.

Am I misreading the title?

[jtheory]

"Calculate When You Are Most Awake"?

That's blindingly obvious, isn't it? I mean, I do most of my calculating at about 4:30am (when the birds start singing and the sleepiness clears).

What, are most people foolishly doing their important calculations at 9am or some other such gibbering horror of an hour?

Odd results

[andyh1978]

Apparently they're using some sort of new-fangled time system where hours have more than 60 minutes. The results came out as:

"You will start to feel noticeably tired at 15:60 and you will feel most tired at 17:60"

15:60? 17:60?

Re:Odd results

[theonetruekeebler]

I got 13:60 and 15:60. Maybe you were getting data based on cached values.

Odd

[ItMustBeEsoteric]

For me, it basically says that I am never alert. I did a 4am-9am sleep pattern, which is actually being on the generous side for me: I normally sleep more like 4 hours. I had bad insomnia for years, and just "got used to" sleeping little I suppose. Somewhere after 4-5 hours I will wake up without an alarm, and I won't be "exhausted" all day...In fact, sometimes I'm not tired by 4am, but get myself off to bed anyway.

Apaarently, this means that I am in fact never alert. I have to agree with other /.-ers who have cried "marketing scheme."

I think I can do this...

[julesh]

... it predicts when you're going to be the most tired. And it asks:

"At what time of day do you feel at your best?"

OK, if you know when you feel your best, don't you think its likely you already know when you're worst?

Because it's there

[bw5353]

The "study" is not interesting as such, as it only says that it is better to sleep enough than not to. However, it is interesting that 85 slashdotters so far have bothered to reply to it, and it is interesting that BBC bothered reporting it.

My conspiracy theory is that behind all the feedback is our lurking bad conscience that most of us actually do not sleep enough and hence do not do as well as we could when we're awake.

On the other hand it is more interesting to sit up all night chatting with friends o

Real Book Recommendations

[ChuckDivine]

I will, perhaps foolishly, jump in with two real book recommendations.

The shorter of the two is Stanley Coren's "Sleep Thieves." It goes quite heavily into the various consequences of sleep deprivation. It's quite scary.

The longer of the two -- and probably more informative on the biology of sleep -- is William Dement's "The Promise of Sleep." Dement is viewed by many as the leading sleep researcher in the United States.

It will take you much longer to read this books than take the linked for test, but you'll be much better informed. You might even be able to marshall substantial arguments against a PHB's death march.

Both books also have tests to take to find out how sleep deprived you are. There are also recommendations for treating this condition.

Both are available from your favorite book seller.

Re:Real Book Recommendations

[xenephon]

Two others: Why we Sleep, by James Horne, and Why we Nap (edited) by Claudio Stampi. The first is a good overview of sleep research in general, and specifically addresses some of the claims that are made about the purposes of sleep. Horne looks at several arguments (he agrees with some, and disagrees with others) but more importantly gives pointers to the research which supports or refutes each claim.

The second is a book dealing with polyphasic sleep and chronobiology. Some of the findings presented t

I don't need no fancy formula to calculate that

[rutgher]

Easy enough:
Before morning coffee: tired as hell
after first morning coffee: I'm alive!
after second morning coffee: ahh it is a fine day indeed.

during the rest of the day the second morning coffee feeling is sustained by regular dosis of cafeine.

easy does it :)

It's an advert, people.

[Tim C]

ProPlus is the main (only?) brand of caffeinated pep-pills here in the UK; their tag-line is "for relief of temporary tiredness" or somesuch.

Sure enough, in the results they show that I never even make it as awake as "little sleepy", let alone "alert". If that were true, I'd have been out of a job (or dead from lack of attention when crossing the road) a long, long time ago. Funny then that I spend most of my Saturdays dancing from around midnight til 7:30am, and all without any chemical assistance...

Genius *Sarcasm*

[d474]

Scientists have devised a formula that works out what times of the day you are most tired.

Funny, when you go to the website, you tell them when you sleep, when you are tired, when you feel awake, and then they graph your answers out. Ummmmm....that is truly amaaaaazing.

Amazing!

[quantaman]

At the end of the test,
You will start to feel noticeably tired at 15:00 and you will feel most tired at 15:00

But if I'm just starting to feel noticeably tired at 15:00 shouldn't I be most tired sometime after 15:00?!

The sad thing is that I was giving it honest info!

Welcome to the Neoliberal "Sweatshop Economy"

[Cryofan]

Where neoliberal propaganda urges us to push ourselves ever harder, even to the point where we are supposed to be concerned about how alert we are at every waking moment.

the results weren't far off

[Cruciform]

The site is obviously an ad, but they did a fairly good job at predicting my low points in the day.

At 2:30 in the afternoon, I'm usually completely wiped out, and occasionally I'll end up face down on the keyboard.

I used to sleep so much better when I was physically active. Now, it's get up, commute, sit like lump at desk all day, become unmotivated due to typical work day, get home, sit around the home or at the computer all evening because I've got no energy.

Life was better when I went rollerblading every day, before my knees went to hell.

I bet exercise a few times a week would be a hell of a lot more effective than that little caffeine pill.

And someone should do a study on what professions tend to get better sleep. I bet a construction worker will have insomnia 10 times less than a desk jockey.

I know this already

[VanillaCoke420]

The time when I'm most awake is not early mornings, despite what my boss thinks it should be.

Patient, heal thyself.

[DeVilla]

I like this site. What time do you go to bed and wake up? Are you a morning person or a night owl? When do you feel most alert? How easily do you wake up in the morning? How well do you sleep? etc.

Sort of like asking what card you are holding before before magically guessing what card you picked.

After asking all that, they draw a line graph that matches your answers. I didn't go on to the recommendation page, so I didn't get to see how many no-doze I need to take a day to be 'normal'.

Using your sleepy time of day for diagnostics

[Tiburana]

One the things that those who practice ancient Chinese medicine believe is that certain types of energy run through meridians in the body, and are tied to individual organs or groups of organs. Supposedly, each energy has a peak time and a nadir time. For instance, the lung energy has its peak from 3-5 am and then the large intestine energy peaks from 5-7 am.

Practitioners use this diagnostically by associating when people have a major dip in their energy level to show them which energy needs to be strengthened, which may indicate a pathology in that associated organ.

The individual energies correlate to five elements that are each expressed by particular flavors, seasons, colors etc. and they will recommend a person increase their exposure to the things associated with the element where their energy is weakest.

It would be interesting to see if the times of people's energetic nadir as predicted by this system or observed empirically did correlate to physical or emotional issues as predicted by this ancient system.

I have to tell you I have been pretty skeptical learning about it all but there are a lot things that correlate with accepted western medical theory and some intuitive things that are just dead on, whether I believe in it or not.

Problems right off the bat

[Xtifr]

I had problems with the very first question: "What time do you go to sleep at night?" "Choose one." ONE!?!?! How about a range, bubba! Or, where's "when I feel tired?" Where's "depends on whether I had to get up early for a meeting or something that day?" Where's "depends on how much caffeine I consumed that day?" :)

10-2-4

[stry_cat]

I just stick with a Dr. Pepper [drpeppermuseum.org] at 10 2 and 4.