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I have said that I can sleep when I'm dead but that doesn't usually last long. People who tell you they have worked 16 or 18 hour days for weeks on end are mostly liars. Humans can't endure that for long. My own record is about 72 hours with cat naps and a fatigue that makes you feel like rubber and your heart pound. I have slept for nearly 24 hours straight to recover from such a marathon. I know that regular hours are best but I have kept some of the most irregular hours possible over the years and could write volumes on the variations but mostly they are simply sleep deprived. Here goes anyway.

My first and intermediate stages: Between morning reports starting at 0600 and normal problem calls starting at 0500 then the workday followed by evening calls to chat about upcoming night events, the lonely hearts calls about news time at 2200, the nothing good happens between midnight and 0500 you sleep when you can that you are not really supposed to be working. Then there are the really bad problems you have to go out on that really are 24 and sleep if you can for days on end only to go back to the previous.

Second stage was the big shitty and waking to hit the road at 0500 for as little as 1.5 or as many as 3 or more hours in traffic if you missed the golden window by minutes only to leave the office at near quitting time to do it all again dashing out the door to try to beat the evening traffic as if your hair is on fire. If you miss those magic minutes you may as well stay until 2000 hrs and drive home late. If there are deadlines and compressed time schedules the wife brings you a change of clothes the next morning and you clean-up to begin anew.

Third stage, the traveling man consisting of the second stage or world traveler jet lagged by 6 to 9 hours to the east and 16 or more to the west or very few to the south or north but you never knew which direction you were going but you had to hit the office downtown again as soon as you were able to face what piled up while you were gone. Going to work in Brazil was the very best of long trips, the Middle East was the very worst. Going west was easier than going east.

Fourth stage, offshore for weeks at a time back on the 24 sleep when you are able cycle or somewhere around the globe for 28 and a blessed 24 or so days at home to catch up on being a sort of normal human being again. The 28 on and 28 off or traveling was the very best way to work. Anyone who can get on that gravy train for a full career and manage a marriage and kids should do it.

Fifth stage, a combination of all the above plus running a company in your spare time.

Sixth stage, blessed retirement. One bucket for money and one bucket for crap; when one bucket gets full, you retire or quit or just go home. I did all three. After 42 years I'd done enough. Now I do what comes naturally but try to make a show at some kind of self-discipline, I stay up until 0300 reading, drawing, planning or writing if I get caught up in it then get up at 0900. If I don't, I hardly ever hit the pillow before midnight and am up by 0700 because Shorty the cat tells me to or goes back to sleep for a bit then leaps off me. In between I push to get my goals accomplished and that is satisfying.

Most nights I fight sleep with something or other hurting relentlessly so full restful nights come by seldom but I can recommend sharp cheddar cheese for vivid dreams in those instances of REM sleep. They are blessed. If it has been a sleepless night I take a nap. Morning naps after coffee are the very best.

I try to never let things become urgent that are simply important and am careful not to make things that are important or urgent.