Insomniacs?

[Essjay]

I've noticed recently a great number of posts are being added during times when I am away "in the land of Nod". These posts are appearing at any time between midnight and 6.00am.

I find this intriguing! Is it just that the aeromodelling fraternity contains an inordinate amount of insomniacs, or if they are of a 'certain age' such as myself, find themselves visiting the smallest room in the house several times during the night, and, failing to return to the arms of Morpheus, are turning to the forum for solace?

Steve (wide awake at 9.00am on a Sunday morning) 

Edited By Essjay on 28/02/2016 09:19:29

[ken anderson.]

hello steve...night shift lads...or people in a different time zone.......as far as i can see the RCME site is a world wide affair.....

 

ken anderson....ne.....1... time zone dept.

Edited By ken anderson. on 28/02/2016 09:39:50

[Former Member]

[This posting has been removed]

[Bob Cotsford]

If I get called out once I've sorted out the work issue I'll quite often wind down by checking the site and can be posting anywhere from midnight through to 4:30 or so.

[MattyB]

It's not by choice I'm up late, but I quite often read and post in forums at 2am whilst comforting the baby on my shoulder!

Edited By MattyB on 28/02/2016 11:20:32

[John Privett]

I'm often on here after midnight, not usually later than 1am though. On the other hand, you won't usually see anything from me before I'm home from work during the week, or before about 10am at the weekend.

[Geoff S]

I'm rarely in bed twice the same day now I'm retired Rarely in bed before 1am. In fact it was 2.30 on Wednesday

When I was working I was up just after 6am and on my bike by 6.30 for my 13 mile cycle commute. So I CAN get up early if I really have to (and I actually enjoyed my ride, even in bad weather ... usually) but now I don't have to, I don't. As someone once said "To be abed after midnight is to be up early".

Geoff

[John F]

Sadly I am awake by 6am almost every day.

I do try to stay off the pooter that early in the morning as I generally go and feed the chickens and potter in the shed or garage until it is safe to wake up SWMBO with a cup of tea.

[Rosco]

G'day from Oz at 1356 , 0321 forum time! from Australia, Shift work (two jobs, both shift work) and Kids are my reasons!

Edited By Rosco on 29/02/2016 03:25:09

[Jim Purcha]

Different time zone. Central Time - Winnipeg Canada. You are 6 hours a head of me.

Jim

[Tim A]

It's a cunning scheme to confuse those living on the Greenwich Meridian by those of us who are 12 hours ahead!

[Tony Richardson]

Same as Jim only I am on the west coast and you are 8 hours ahead us.

[cymaz]

And it should still be GMT not UTC. For all those who decided to change it the meridian still goes through GREENWICH 

Edited By cymaz on 29/02/2016 06:38:28

[Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator]

Posted by cymaz on 29/02/2016 06:37:16:

And it should still be GMT not UTC. For all those who decided to change it the meridian still goes through GREENWICH

Edited By cymaz on 29/02/2016 06:38:28

Weeellllll,... strickly speaking its doesn't anymore and hasn't for some time now. Yes, it does go through the district of Grennwich but it doesn't go through the spot where all the touristists stand "with one foot in each hemisphere" to have their photos taken!

The reasons for this are very technical, but it is all to do with what geometric model you approximate the shape of the earth with. When the original Greenwich Prime Meridian was set up a (by modern standards) quite simple geometric model - known as the geoid - was used as the basis for calculation. Over the years errors have been found in this model and new models developed - of which there have been many.

Not the most recent, but certainly the most commonly used, is WGS84 (so called because it was agreed by an international treaty in 1984). This incorporates all sorts of very complex second and third order effects on the geooid for gravitation, tidal forces, ground density etc etc. There have been later geoids that are even more accurate, but it is possible they may never be adopted, instead correction factors calcaulted using them will probably always be applied retrospectively to WGS84. Why? Simple - the GPS system is based on WGS84 and the there is a huge amount of investment in that and systems that use it (a bit of which we have!) And so cmpatability means we might be stuck with it.

So what's all this got to do with Greenwich and the Prime Meridian? Well this,...under WGS84 the actual prime meridian runs about 200yards to east (if I remember correctly) of where the origanal Prime Meridian was! If you ever go to Greenwich you can prove this to yourself. Put your GPS on Lat/Long display, stand on the so-called Prime Meridian and it will tell you that you are a few seconds west! Of course everyone assumes that it is an error in their GPS - it isn't!

BEB

[bouncebounce crunch]

It is only us stalkers Essjay.

[Don Fry]

BEB, thank you for the educational talk. A new understanding gained, funny thing I can navigate, using marine charts, a sextant if necessary, pilotage, and of course a satellite navigator. I am aware of the WGS84 meridian, you have to be careful using a satellite navigator on non WGS84 charts, and there are a lot of them, as hitting a cliff is not good. Your claim the cliff has been moved does not wash.

But I never knew where the meridian came from.

[Steven S]

I'm also in winnipeg, so GMT-6 for me too.

[Essjay]

Well I think that's answered my query, we really are a multi-national forum

..........albeit with the odd insomniac

Steve

[Chris Barlow]

I'm an odd insomniac!

If my brain starts thinking about anything it won't shut up and can go on all night sometimes. Sort of like being in a noisy room. Oddly enough it's not just getting to sleep that causes me problems. I can be asleep for a couple of hours and just keep waking up, then try to get to sleep again. Sometimes I give up and just go on the internet or out to the shed for an hour or so.

Very rarely feel tired though. A few years ago I would sometimes be awake all Friday and Saturday night finally getting some sleep on Sunday afternoon/evenings but thankfully that hasn't happened for a while!

[Tony Richardson]

Know what you mean Chris, I keep searching for the "sleep switch" to, not really insomnia more like interrupted sleep or sometimes interrupted dreaming I know how you feel.

Edited By Tony Richardson on 29/02/2016 17:54:25

[Don Fry]

Those wot know, psychologist?, tend to say that it's best, if sleep eludes you, to stay in bed and try to sleep. Getting up is counterproductive to the decipline of getting regular sleep. They will also point out that the insomniac can report a disturbed night, but the camera on them says they had a pretty normal night.

When you wake without pain, it is a clue you died in the night.

[Keith Evans 3]

There are a few approaches I take to get back to sleep if I wake early say 2 or 3 in the a.m.

First of all go to the toilet ! ! .

If there is something niggling me about life in general , and my mind is like a fire works display , then I think about an aeromodelling issue I have at hand ,or start to design a model from scratch to get my mind off the irritating problem and shut down the fireworks. (It's called active distraction ).

I then have to shut down my brain from the modelling issue ! !

For this I repeat the last lines of a "Mantra " "O Mane Pad me Umm " and breath slowly and deeply .

This may take an hour or so ,and when I start to continually yawn I'm not far off from dropping off .

This works say six times out often .Providing your partner is providing no distractions .What ever that may be .

If all else fails I take my old boss in "Hoover's" advice which was if you're exhausted enough you will eventually fall asleep sometime in the next week or so ! ! but preferably not on the job .! !

The last thing is not to worry about it .

The only,problem I have with this is that the wonderful solutions I come up with sometimes don't work out in reality ! ! .

If you do get to sleep then give yourself a reward in the morning like a good cooked breakfast instead of Weetabix ! ! (The reward) .

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

I find my mind works best once the house is quiet - I often think that I'll have an early night but get involved with something late on...sometimes on thePC and sometimes in my workshop. No problem sleeping though and since taking early retirement, that pesky alarm clock has been relegated to a museum piece!

[cymaz]

The trouble with me is as soon as I wake up, the mind starts to get going. I start thinking of stuff...The only thing that sends me off is putting on radio4 ( the world service is usually on when I wake). Then I lie still listen to it and gently fal .......zzzzzzzzz

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

I wish you lads would keep noise down...I'm trying to sleep

Johnzzzzzzz