8 hours of sleep

Take an afternoon nap. About 1 hour.

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Added on June 21, 2009, 10:55 amBut if you nap in the afternoon, you'll need daily exercise in the evening to be able to sleep at night.

This post has been edited by kotmj: Jun 21 2009, 10:55 AM

No, no, no. I grappled with this problem too when I was doing the Cambridge A-levels with Further Mathematics, Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry. And then my undergraduate studies in mech. eng. and then my masters.

Our bodies have a hard-wired circadian rhythm with low-points at around 3 a.m. and 3 p.m. It's natural to take an afternoon nap. It's just that our industrial society is organized for productivity, and have thus denied us our afternoon naps.

I'm no angel in this. I consumed profuse amounts of coffee during my studies. But that's because there is work to be done, and there are no excuses, so circadian rhythm be damned.

If you're going to drink coffee anyway, you may as well drink GOOD coffee. Buy them at Starbucks, have them grind them for you, and feed it into a Bialetti Brikka. Or if you have more money than me, buy Illy.