dynamic elf

Sleep Cycle is an alarm clock from Lexware Labs that analyzes your movements during sleep and tries to wake you in the 30 minutes preceding your alarm time when you are most awake. The FUN part, though, is not the alarm -- it's the sleep graphs!



It's been interesting to see how I do feel *better* the mornings after I have regular-looking graphs with plenty of deep sleep.

Here's a sobering thing, though -- it tells you what your average sleep time is per night. Mine? Currently hovering around 5h45m. That's not sustainable. No wonder I feel crummy.

Anyway, the entertainment of poking at the sleep graphs is WELL worth the $1 the app costs, so if you have the ability, I absolutely recommend this app. And with that, I'm off to schedule in a nap.

Today my officemate sent me home because I looked like I'd been zapped by a crap ray. I got home at 10 and slept through until nearly 4 PM -- and now I'm STILL TIRED! Body demands sleep, apparently, and body will go to great lengths to get it.

I never used to be so screwed up about getting enough sleep. I never used to have trouble falling asleep. Now? Less good. Which leads me to this week's thrilling project: Eight hours of sleep every night for seven days in a row.

Three down. So far, it's good, but it's also underlining how much MORE sleep I want. Picky body!

Oolong the waffle-balancing rabbit died! Sniff.

Last night, I came home and thought I'd just lie down for a moment and go lift weights after a small 15-minute rest. Two hours later, David walked back in the room and woke me up. It was one of those stupidly-sound time-travel naps where no time passes... you're just instantly transported two hours into the future, feeling strangely rested. I suppose I needed it.

Someone asked me for this shamelessly self-promoting link.

In other news, we went to see Le Bossu last night. Lots of swashbuckling Daniel Auteuil. Totally charming. It's playing at the Brattle through tonight, so if you're free this evening, I highly recommend it. I need to go see more foreign-language movies, since I really do think it's a great lazy language tool. :) It also makes me want to get a DVD player, so that I can turn subtitles off! Yay!

If this entry is scattered, you can blame leafblowers. I mean, if you like.

Yesterday, my Nascar-watchin' pickup-drivin' beer-drinkin' nature-worshippin' pagan redneck coworker JD took me mountain bike shopping. JD is crazy - jumping bikes off six-foot drops crazy. I've never been mountain biking in my life, but I had complete faith that JD would know where to go. We ended up at a bike shop in Burlington over lunch break, chatting with his friends, and I had a blast jumping the test bikes over curbs and hopping around. Wow! I must have one. I put a bike on hold to see if I still REALLY want it this weekend -- also, so that I can drag David out there and get him one, too. I see this as one of the advantages of having a car -- we now have the ability to drive to a trailhead. woo!

Between yesterday's bouncy bike shopping, Tuesday's oil spill, and my dream the other night that my car blew up and I had to walk ten miles to get home, I was determined to bike in this morning. Screw it! It's warm! I'll wear my falling-apart shoes! I don't need new fancy shit!

I still managed to sleep through my alarm, leaving myself almost no time to get up and get dressed if I wanted to make it to work on time. My sleep-heavy brain always assumes that I can make it to work EVERY day at my record pace, even though I have only done that maybe three times in my life. But I got out the door, figuring that the three or four minutes I might be late would be forgiven. The ride was beautiful. It was a brisk, lively morning; sun up, air in my face, birds happily gurgling under bridges, the works. I had really forgotten how much better it feels to bite the bullet and bike the 12 miles than it does to stuff myself into a car and shove it into traffic. I do love driving... but biking makes me grin in a way that cars never will.

The riding was physically good, too. One guy did pass me, slowly. I suppose that it makes sense, since I haven't biked in two months, but I still like it better when that doesn't happen. Anyway, he looked strong and fast, so I wasn't too hurt. It gives me something to aim for.