Genuine Curiosity

Author Dwayne Melancon is always on the lookout for new things to learn. An ecclectic collection of postings on personal productivity, travel, good books, gadgets, leadership & management, and many other things.

 

Can tech move us from “sleepless” to “sleep less”?

According to an article just out from Discover Magazine, research is being done to figure out ways to use electromagnetic energy to somehow "tweak" your brain so you can get by with 4 hours of sleep per night.

While I like the concept, I don't want to be an early adopter of this technology. Consider this, from the article:

"The technique, transcranial magnetic stimulation, involves an electromagnetic coil that emits pulses of skull-penetrating, neuron-activating magnetic energy. Depending on where the wand is and how fast it pulses, TMS can play all kinds of tricks. It can make a thumb twitch, create the illusion of a flash of light, or even treat depression. Neuroscientist Giulio Tononi of the University of Wisconsin set out to see if TMS could switch on certain sleep phases."

I want to find out more about the long-term effects of this, and certainly don't want to get involved while it's still in the "tweaking and tuning" phase of development. The article mentions that the device is still quite large, so I don't think there's any danger of a forced sleep mode on your iPod any time soon.

The technology looks like it could have beneficial uses, once perfected (follow some of the links in the article for more). Of course, I can also envision not-so-beneficial uses of a technology that can make your body move uncontrollably - think "Taser without the wires" - I'm not ready for that!

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pzizz field report #1

Recently, I wrote about pzizz, a great tool to help you with "power napping." During a very demanding business trip the other day, I tried a pzzizz experiment. I was taking a short, mid-day shuttle flight from San Francisco back to Portland, and I was dragging due to lack of sleep the couple of days before.

I was getting that "nodding off" feeling anyway, so I took out my iPod and loaded up a 20 minute pzizz "Energizer Nap" soundtrack. pzizz guided me through the relaxation process, I fell asleep, and it woke me up at the end of 20 minutes.

Afterward, I felt much better, and was good for the rest of the day. This is pretty cool. I'm still looking forward to testing out the jet lag angle of this on my next trip to Europe.

Some tips if you try this:

  • Good headphones that block out ambient sound help a lot (see my review of my earbuds)
  • Keep your knees out of the aisle when the cart comes through - I had to do a restart on my nap from that one!

Related items:

  • pzizz: State of the art power napping (7/15/2007)
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pzizz: State of the art power napping

I recently discovered a fascinating tool called "pzizz" and am really enjoying it. Developed by Brainwave Enterprises Ltd., pzizz is software (Windows or Mac) that generates "soundtracks" to help you sleep or take a power nap to re-energize yourself in the middle of the day. pzizz applies techniques learned from scientific sleep research, and creates special sounds that enable you to relax while stimulating your brain at a subconscious level, stimulating your brain waves in a way that energizes you.

Rev up or calm down - it's your choice

The pzizz software enables you to generate customized nap soundtracks of a length you specify. There are two "modules" available for pzizz:

  • Energizer Nap - generates a nap soundtrack designed to help you take the ultimate power nap (you can program it for as long as you want - they recommend you take 20-40 minute power naps for greatest effect. Each Energizer map ends with an "alarm" sound to wake you up so you can continue your day.
  • Sleep Nap - generates a nap soundtrack designed to help you get to sleep and achieve a restful, deep sleep. Sleep naps fade out at the end so you stay asleep.

The software can play the nap files directly on your computer, or you can play them using iTunes or on your mp3 player. If you're playing them on your computer, you can tell the software to automatically shut down your computer or put it to sleep (or do nothing, if you prefer). Each time you generate a nap, it creates a new soundtrack so you don't get bored.

What an experience!

Using a pzizz nap soundtrack is a very interesting experience, and I initially did it just to see what would happen (you can download sample mp3's of the "energizer" and "sleep" modules from the pzizz site). I tried it with one of the "Energizer" naps and found it to be very relaxing and every bit as energizing as they say.

The soundtracks are calming combinations of soothing sounds and music. Additionally, you can turn on an option that tells pzizz to add in some encouraging messages using Neuro Linguistic Programming (also known as NLP, or the power of suggestion) to further improve your state of mind. This isn't the subliminal, "secret message" sort of thing that conspiracy theorists worry about - it's just a quiet voice saying words of encouragement designed to leave a lasting, positive effect.

On the pzizz site, there are some interesting statistics and explanations of some of the science behind this along with scientific data on the value of power naps.

Mid-day power naps

I've been trying these at home and liked it so much, I purchased the software (it's about 30 bucks per module, or you can get both for $50).

Now, I'm going to expand my use of pzizz and try out the Energizer Nap at lunch during the day to see if it helps with my focus, energy level, and - ultimately - my productivity. I'm also going to test these modules next time I'm trying to deal with jet lag to see if it helps.

I'll let you know what I find in my experimentation. Meanwhile, go download one of the samples and have a nap - on me!

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What's Your Bottleneck?

Last night, I sat down to skim the latest book I received, "The Flip Side," by Flip Flippen. Normally, I flip through a new book (no pun intended), put the book at the end of my "To Read" stack and read it when it's that book's turn. Not with this one - I ended up reading the whole thing then, and there."The Flip Side," could very well change your life.

In case you haven't heard of Flip Flippen (you'll learn his real first name in the book, by the way - and you'll understand why he goes by Flip), he is actually a highly regarded success coach for some notable athletes and high profile executives. He uses this book to share what he's learned through years of helping others become more successful.

What's holding you back?

The subtitle of the book is "Break Free of the Behaviors That Hold You Back," and it very well could help you with that. One of the first things that really sucked me in was the book's focus on trying to help you identify and remove "Personal Constraints" that prevent you from achieving maximum success. Flippen actually refers to Goldratt's Theory of Constraints (TOC), which I've written about in the past (see "Related links" at the end of this post for links).

In Goldratt's TOC, there is always one, primary constraint that limits the effectiveness of the entire system, and you must find a way to optimize or alleviate the constraint if you ever want to maximize the results you can achieve. Flippen embraces this with the premise that you may have many strengths and many weaknesses, but there is typically one, primary Personal Constraint that is limiting your success.

In the book, you'll learn about the"Five Laws of Personal Constraints, and discover the "Ten Killer Constraints" he's isolated through years of coaching. There is one chapter on each of the ten constraints and, in each chapter, you'll have the opportunity to do a quick assessment of whether the constraint is a big issue for you personally. You answer a few questions and use your scores to guide you to your top Personal Constraints. I say "guide" because your top-scoring constraint may not actually be your biggest inhibitor (for me, I believe my #2 is actually my biggest Achilles' heel). You can even check out an excerpt to get a feel for the book.

Be sure to read up on all the constraints - there is also a section in each chapter on how to deal with others in your organization who display these constraints, even if you don't have them yourself.

There is only one constraint

Another concept Flip embraces in the book is one that is central to TOC: at any point in time, there is only one constraint, and you must focus on fixing that constraint or you'll fail. Flippen uses a golf story to illustrate this:

When he took up golf, Flippen signed on with a golf instructor. During the first session, the guy spouted a laundry list of problems with Flip's golf swing, posture, stance, etc. It was overwhelming and he never went back.

Flip then signed up with a different golf instructor. During the first session, the second guy told him exactly one thing to work on, and said, "That's all you need for now. Work on that, and we'll talk when you get that down." Flip understood, could focus, and developed that one skill. After that, the instructor focused him on another (single) new thing. And so on...

This hit home with me, just as it did for Flip. I am often frustrated because I try to attack too many problems at once (or develop too many habits, or sign up for too many things....) when, in fact, I would probably be much more successful (and happier) if I just picked on thing to improve and worked on it until I got it down. Very powerful stuff - and it's ultimately up to you.

Plan to succeed

Awareness is only the first step - now you need to do something about it. After you identify your top Personal Constraint, The Flip Side helps you develop a personal action plan (called a TrAction plan - complete with a downloadable template on the book's companion site) to help you conquer your constraint. I'm just starting on this process now, and the guidance in the book is spot on.

Still not convinced? Then you must read Chapter 16 -that's Flip's personal story, and it really drives the whole book home in a way I can't even describe. "The Flip Side," could very well change your life.

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Create the soundtrack of your life

Hey - why not create an online radio station that fits you perfectly? If you haven't heard about it, Pandora does just that. You create any number of stations that match your musical taste.

It's pretty simple and it's free. You simply create a new station, enter the name of an artist, and Pandora plays one of their songs to confirm they've got the right artist. Pandora then uses the power of the Human Genome Project to find other artists with similar qualities and creates a streaming radio station for you.

As songs play, you can click on Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down icons to help them learn more about what you like or don't like.

You can check it out without even registering, then if you like it just create an account (your song doesn't even stop playing).

If you don't want to be chained to your computer to listen, there is also a fee option. That is $36 per year and allows you to stream to your home or to certain mobile phones.

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