did it again

[juldea]

So, explain this.
On Sunday night I put myself in bed at midnight and wake up at 9am Monday morning. I stay up all Monday night chatting and eventually go to bed at 9am Tuesday, waking up at 12 noon Tuesday (3 hours). It is not 6am Wednesday and I'm still awake. I'm not wide awake by any means, and I'm heading to bed soon, but why wasn't I sleepy before this??

Comments

[azadam.livejournal.com]

Circadian rhythms are a fascinating thing. I did some reading and research years ago into the various biological systems that regulate all of that... it's amazing how much of it is environmental. There was a study done where they put a guy in a room devoid of all external time cues- no sunrise/sunset, no "daily" routines, and he settled into a daily rhythm that was consistent and at least a couple of hours longer than a standard day. Interesting stuff.

[juldea.livejournal.com]

oooh I need to tell you about Dark Parties... :)

[azadam.livejournal.com]

Do I have to ride the short bus to get to these Dark Parties?

(tee hee)

[juldea.livejournal.com]

Haha, no. Although according to rumor, some short-bus-riding has occurred at dark parties in the past.

[azadam.livejournal.com]

That sounds fascinating, in a Studio 54 kind of way.....

tell me more!

[juldea.livejournal.com]

Dark parties:

A group of college friends of mine shared a house. There were generally 4 people living there, but it was constantly in flux. However, generally 2 or 3 of the residents (if not all 4) were members of the band Gaea Spore, which I also played in for a short while (but I never lived there). On New Year's Eve, Gaea Spore would play a show that included a cover of "It's the End of the World As We Know It" by REM and a original song called "10 More Minutes", which lasted exactly 10 minutes and was started at 11:50. Then we'd all celebrate at midnight.

After the celebration was over, the party preparations began. All windows were covered with layers of cardboard and aluminum foil. All items that created light (lamps, clocks, computers, anything with any type of glowy bits) were removed, unplugged, turned off, etc. Phones were also unplugged. Once the house was fairly lightproofed, all light bulbs were removed. Oh, furniture was also moved to the walls and mattresses were hauled in and placed all over the floor. In the kitchen a long table was covered with various non-perishables - several loaves of bread, bagels, peanut butter, and most importantly, boxes and boxes of Cheez-its. At least 10 boxes.

Once everything was done, it was generally morning, so we'd all go outside for a few last moments of fresh air and daylight. Then we'd go inside, close the doors, light-proof them, and... sit in the dark for a week. :)

Or at least a week was the goal, I don't think we ever did more than 5 days.

Generally there were light leaks the first day as we got more and more accustomed to the dark, but we'd fix them with spare cardboard and aluminum foil.

So yeah, it was time deprivation. No way of knowing what time it was outside. Outside communication was a no-no. It was also sensory deprivation, at least in regards to sight. Total pitch blackness. So neat.

And it was a lot of fun :) There were instruments to play blindly, people to talk with, lots of lounging around... lots of nudity. People who closed the door when they went to the bathroom were mocked. Heehee. There was also, every year, a pizza made from scratch. We'd find the correct ingredients by touch and taste, measure by feel (we'd have measuring cups), spread the dough out on a pizza plate, find the jar of sauce and spill it on, hoping to do so evenly (generally spreading it around with fingers), open the package of shredded cheese and try to put it on evenly, have the oven on what we hoped was the right temperature (those who lived there generally knew where the dial should go), put the pizza inside, and guess on the timing... It was very perilous. ;) I think every year we got the dough too thick so it wouldn't cook all the way through, so it was a bit chewy, but still good. For dark pizza, it was delicious :)

Another common way to pass the time was circular stories. People would sit in a circle and one person would start telling a story, but when they said a certain agreed-on-beforehand word (like "and") the next person had to continue the story. Got some amusing stuff that way.

Oh, generally there were 5-10 people at any given time.

So yes, those were dark parties. I went to three of them. They were great fun :)

[azadam.livejournal.com]

See, that's what I'm talking about. I totally missed out on that kind of college experience!!

[juldea.livejournal.com]

Well, not all of the people involved were students... so you just have the wrong kinds of friends! *grin*

[sammid.livejournal.com]

ermmm i'm not one to talk,but since you did say this occured in 'college' days,didn't you people have jobs or at least classes?how could you do this for 5 days straight??

[juldea.livejournal.com]

Like I said it happened on New Year's Day and for the following week. Generally classes were still in winter break and didn't start back up again until the 10th of January or so. Those of us who had jobs just asked for those days off. Often people would leave early, after only a day or two, if they had work to go back to.