Fei

obvious caveat that this routine will seem insane to some of you. and that is kind of the point. it's MY routine.

my hope with this is that you will see that IF you are capable of this (e.g. you're a student or self employed or remote work), you can be a bit more insane and free from the protestant in your brain!!! it's not real! do whatever the fuck you want!!! I am writing this on company time!!!!!!!!!!

presenting...

THE SECOND SLEEP

but first let's look at the Problem Work Day. the Normal Work Day.

if I have a 'normal' 9-5 schedule:

if I start work at 9am like a normal human, I'm in my brain and find it difficult to concentrate. I struggle to concentrate, struggle to get myself moving, and by the time I start work it's usually 10am.

I then hate everything. I rush through my morning routine because I just need to start work. I don't take time to exercise or do any longer hygiene routines than bare minimum

I do a few good hours of work until about 1 or 2pm. then I am exhausted from fighting the audhd in my head and also the caffeine high has worn off. I crash

I spend 2-5pm in a morass of miserable sludge staring aimlessly at spreadsheets and grammars, thinking NO thoughts

after 5pm I am so exhausted from this that I have to sleep. usually for 2-3 hours. this is the sensory recovery sleep and it does not matter how much I sleep the night before. if I am exhausted sensorily, I need this sleep. so now I'm sleeping for 12+ hours a day. which is not healthy.

I wake up. it's 7 or 8pm. I can do nothing as I have no energy. I have to get food

it's 9pm

I stay in my bed watching mindless nonsense until I fall asleep

rinse and repeat

so now let's look at my weird routine that just WORKS for me. it won't for you. again, my point is to make you reconsider what you 'have' to do IF you have that flexibility. (if you don't, I'm sorry. you should.)

SLEEPY MONK SECOND SLEEP

6:30am: wake up and immediately start working in bed. don'ttttttt shoot me don't shoot me I love sleep and I hate mornings actually. but. I find that when my brain is fully online I get in my own way. I get distracted, interested, obsessive, whatever. so I deliberately wake up blearily, open my laptop, lie in bed in the dark, and work until about 10. these are my most productive hours of the day for distraction-free work, but NOT deep slow creative work. I am still half-asleep but these hours are GREAT for emails, spreadsheets, replying to comments, churning out some writing if I already have a plan. etc

10-11ish: get up From Bed. meander slowly thawing out. become presentable

11-12ish: go to cafe. work for several hours. zoom zoom nice caffeine and nice atmosphere. yes if you are curious it took me almost a year to get my sensory tolerance up to the point where this was a daily option. if you are curious about this, please ask! it was a long and fraught process and I happy to talk

2-3ish: come home, an exhausted and broken shell of my former self. at this point the lack of sleep is really catching up.

3ish: THE SECOND SLEEP. two to three hours!! I CLONK out. instant KO. it's BEAUTIFUL.

5-6pm: wake up! feel AMAZING. feel REGENERATED. get another hour or two of work done if I have to. if not, it's a brand new day! my sensory overload is massively recovered from the morning! I want to socialise! I'm happy!

6pm+ : normal fun evening with way more energy than I've EVER had after work before!

11pm: go to bed for normalcore sleep time

THE SECOND SLEEEP GUYS THE SECOND FUCKING SLEEP

this is the CRUX. what am I talking about? is it a nap??? idk man, is 2 or 3 hours a nap? is it a sleep??? some factors here why this is accommodating my body:

I need more than 8 hours sleep regularly.

I am also very stupid in the evenings and hate working then on 'work' stuff, want to be creative and social.

but I am also dumb in the afternoons? god made me to snuggle girls in the afternoons and watch david attenborough. that's my energy pattern.

the second sleep plan enables me to go to bed at a normal time (11pm) enabling me to have a social life;

but also do the requisite amount of work in the hours I work best (early morning);

AND recover from sensory overload with the 2-3 hours I need for that after work

it's amazing. it's wonderful. it's a god-send.

but I resisted it for years. I had clues for a while that I liked this weird pattern: in university I would deliberately wake up very early to work for a few hours from 5-8ish, and then go back to sleep and get up at a normal time. when doing various monastic stays I loved the clarity of the early morning.

but the given wisdom was that once you're up...you're up. if you love the clarity of the early morning etc etc, that is equated to...being disciplined? adding extra hours on TOP OF what you are already doing?

no thanks. I love sleep and I do not love work. why would I want to do more of it??

and everybody else that got up early was equally as functional at 4pm. I am a gooey affectionate blob at 4pm. so...maybe I needed more sleep in the night? but if I got up at 9am, I was anxious and stressed? so...?

then of course I needed the sensory recovery time, which nobody else I knew did. great.

the one other great thing about this routine is that it shows you just how deeply people relate energy levels to morality. I get up at 5am and I'm seen as 'disciplined' and a 'go-getter'. after I spend a day outside, I get home at 5pm and I sleep for three hours and I'm seen as 'lazy' and 'pitiable' and 'weak'.

okay???

so here's what I want you to do. in honour of my beloved second sleep. some homework from meichenxi: how does your body like to work? do you know? if not, what tiny changes can you make to experiment? what's one weird thing that works for you?

you can do whatever you want, whenever you want. yes, this has consequences often, and you will have to work around those (the reason I resisted this routine for so long is because of my long term ex. nobody loves being woken at 5am!).

Experiences of discrimination, exclusion and financial precarity are not isolated phenomena but interconnected, reinforcing one another across different areas of life. Workplace hostility, limited openness, barriers in education and exposure to housing insecurity all contribute to cumulative disadvantage, particularly for those who also belong to other marginalised groups.

A key insight emerging from the data is that avoiding openness about one's LGBTIQ identity is not a protective strategy, but rather an indicator of unsafe or exclusionary environments. Individuals who conceal their identity are not less exposed to harm; on the contrary, they often face higher risks of negative experiences, including discrimination and social isolation. This highlights how stigma operates structurally, shaping behaviour while simultaneously reproducing vulnerability. Environments perceived as hostile (whether schools or workplaces) drive concealment, which in turn is associated with poorer socio-economic and well-being outcomes.

When it comes to employment status, gay men (59%) were the most likely to be in full-time paid work, and trans men the least likely (30%). Trans, non-binary and intersex respondents face a number of structural barriers, such as hiring discrimination, workplace stigma, and interruptions in their career paths (e.g. due to transition-related processes, or healthcare). Cis men are also less exposed to gender-based discrimination. All EU countries consider sexual orientation as protected grounds in employment, but only 15 include gender identity, and only nine include sex characteristics

I made a new flyer for my research project 📋

LINK TO THE SURVEY

The survey will be open until at least the end of 2026 if not beyond. Only these 14 measurements are required, all the others are optional:

If you have been on HRT for at least 3 years, have half an hour and a measuring tape, consider taking the survey!

If you don't qualify or don't feel up to participating feel free to share it :)

*doom music starts to play* I actually kindof like scheduling these kinds of appointments now...

but seriously Fellas, don't forget to schedule a pap smear every couple of years just in case. If you still have a cervix you can still get cervical cancer. ilu

it'd be a shame if this...

Uber is a fucking shell game of a company designed to leech investor capital and output bootleg cabs.

Nvidia posted a profit in 2023 of $4.37 billion. This is like someone stealing less than a penny from me.

And they lock this kid in a prison hospital for LIFE?

Anyways! HERE'S YOUR HANDY GUIDE TO WHAT CAN COUNT AS EYESTRAIN! I'm pulling this straight from the Artfight rules page about what needs to be labeled and filtered as eyestrain because it's VERY helpful and VERY accurate! I also know not everybody has an AF account and might not always have access to this handy guide, and this is an important resource; That's why I'm sharing it here! (under the cut)

PLEASE TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY!!! THIS IS ABOUT THE HEALTH AND SAFETY OF OTHERS!!!