k r i s a n d r o

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Ever had a wild idea or an imagination or something that you have always wanted to do but never had the means to do it?

How many times have you pushed that idea or dream far back in the deep recesses of your mind and told yourself that it is too far fetched and beyond your means of fulfilling?

What if someone came up to you, listened to your dream, your idea; and said, “Anything you can imagine, you can make real. And here is $100,000 to help you realize your dream.”

This is what Sony is going to do for you with their new global brand message “make.believe” (make-dot-believe).

• make.believe: [make-dot-believe] stands for the power of Sony’s creativity, ability to turn ideas into reality and the belief that anything you can imagine, you can make real.
• make.believe unites: designers and engineers, hardware and software, electronics and entertainment, and Sony and consumers.
• The dot in make.believe symbolizes the place where great things begin. It is where inspiration meets creativity, where creativity meets reality.
• make = action, do, build and design
• believe = spirit, think, imagine and dream

If you are a Singapore resident or a PR, aged 18 years and above, Sony wants to hear from you. Take part in their “Dot Your Dream With Sony Contest” and submit your dream that relates to any of the 4 categories of gaming, movies, music or technology. Sony will be offering up to $100,000 worth of sponsorship to help one winner realize his or her dream.

Sony is also holding a photo contest that will bring 8 lucky winners to the 2010 FIFA World Cup in Africa as fan photographers where you will be able to be right next to the action!

Individuals may enter both contests, so please do not miss these great opportunities. Visit the link below to find out more.

Sony make.believe

I’ve always loved playing the guitar and If I was eligible for the “Dot Your Dream With Sony Contest”, I would ask Sony to sponsor me an electric guitar, an acoustic electric guitar and a classical guitar (all top of the line and basically very expensive. hehehee…) and fly me to various countries to learn the various styles of guitar playing and immerse myself in the cultures and music while I’m there.

What is your big dream?

Share with me your dream by commenting below or better yet, share them here AND submit them in the make.believe contest.

Everyone probably has some dream job(s) that they wanted from a young age. It could stem from parental or peer influence. It could have been from a hobby that you have or even from a show that you watched from TV. Some yearn to be the conventional ones like engineers, teachers, doctors and lawyers. Some hope to be the unconventional ones such as dancers, pro-gamers and erm.. pornstars.

NOT THAT I WANTED TO BE ONE OKAY? I am just listing down some examples.

*cough cough*

Anyway, some of the jobs that wanted when I was young are as follows.

 

I wanted to be a… Football Player!

My love for football started when I was 13 years of age. It all started with 4 – 5 guys kicking a plastic ball at a void deck and the gang soon grew to almost 20 people who played almost everyday at the basketball courts and the fields on weekends. I thought I was pretty good back then and went for a football trial for some semi-pro league team. It was then I realized that there were about 1,653,618,273,635 players on that day that were better than me. I hardly made any impact at all on the field and did some tricks that were more entertaining than practically useful. It was of no surprise that I went home with nothing but a bruised ego.

 

I wanted to be a… Model!

Well. This is an awkward one. WAHAHHAHAAHAHAA! During a certain period in my teens, I keep getting compliments from people I meet about my looks and I thought that modeling sounds like a pretty easy job. Let’s just say that reality hit pretty hard and fast for this dream of mine.

 

I wanted to be a… Teacher!

I want to teach classes with lots of hot students. All the sweet young things will all be clamoring over me while I brush them away while maintaining my suaveness. The sexy fellow teachers will also be yearning for my attention as I parade in the office. My Principal will have to be a MILF as well.

I wanted to teach children to better the world!

=D

 

So! What did you want to be when you were young?

Ask anyone on the streets on how much sleep they need per day and how much they actually get, you won’t be surprised if many people reply that they need at least 7-8 hrs of sleep and get only 4-6 on average. Of course the figures vary with age as studies have shown that people tend to sleep lesser as one age.

Why do most think that they need 7-8 hours of sleep in the first place? Most health experts advocate on sleeping 7-8 hours a day and some studies like the ‘Wehr Study’ had his subjects sleep for 12 hours each day but his subjects soon reverted back to an average of 8 and 1/4 hrs per night after a few days. Studies like these reveal that the natural sleep cycle dictates that we are best rested at 8 hrs of sleep on average depending on age.

A sizable group of people do not get 7-8 hrs of sleep per day and wake up feeling lethargic and cranky. Those who manage to drag themselves off the bed, end up calculating how much time and got to sleep and feeling lousy because they lost out on X hours sleep. The thing is, are these people really lethargic or is it because the mentality of needing 7-8 hours of sleep makes the brain feel so?

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While I was researching on the subject of sleeping (Sleeping hours, not sleeping around), I came across interesting sleep schedules called the “Uberman” and the “Everyman” which is an adaptation of “polynapping” or “polyphasic sleep”. The “Uberman” and the “Everyman” sleep schedules were coined by Puredoxyk and basically it involves a person sleeping as little as 1.5 hrs to 2 hrs every 24 hours for the “Uberman Sleep Schedule” and 3 to 4 hrs of sleep for the “Everyman Sleep Schedule”. Both concepts work on the fact that the human body falls into a stage of Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep about 20% of our daily sleeping time which translates to about 1.5 to 2 hrs of REM sleep every 24 hrs. What happens during the REM sleep stage is that the eye darts around rapidly (duh) and we fall into deep sleep and it is usually the time when dreams are remembered most vividly. As this REM stage is believed to be the time when we get quality rest, the normal 7-8 hr cycle that we try to follow is inefficient as the REM happens sporadically about 4-5 times during the 7-8 hr period to only achieve 1.5-2 hrs worth of it.

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“Uberman Sleep Schedule”

This schedule will have a person take 15-20 min naps every 4 hrs which totals to about 1.5 to 2 hrs of sleep every 24 hrs. A long list of people have tried it and it generally takes about 1 to 2 weeks to be accustomed to it. The schedule must be followed strictly as one must not oversleep during those nap times and must not skip a nap or else the cycle can be disrupted and it takes a few days to recover. What happens is that the body learns to fall into quality REM sleep each time you take those naps and the total amount of REM sleep every 24 hrs is equivalent to what one will get if they sleep 7-8 hrs a day. What it translates to is having 22 hrs a day AWAKE AND RESTED which leaves you more time to do more things within the same 24 hrs a day that everyone has.

The main advantages of the schedule from people who succeeded in the program are: 22 hrs of time per day to do your tasks and high amounts of energy between the naps. The main disadvantages are: difficulty to maintain the strict schedule if work or lifestyle doesn’t allow the frequent naps, affected social life as the rest of the world is still sleeping at the regular hours.

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I will not go much into the “Everyman” schedule as it is basically a modification of the “Uberman” schedule that consists of a 3 hr ‘core nap’ + 3 naps or a 1.5 hr core + 4-5 naps that Puredoxyk herself was using. This modification was concieved because the “Uberman” schedule requires a more strict schedule and the ‘core nap’ of the “Everyman” provides some flexibility to suit to a person schedule and bring it closer to the sleep cycles of normal people.

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How does both the methods translate to you people? Both methods are tried and tested by many and extreme cases of failures and successions were found. Those who fail are usually those who do not have the discipline to limit their naps and take them periodically. Those who succeed with the program for months enjoy the benefits of enormous time on their hands and energy in their waking hours. As these methods have only been adopted around 1990, there is no clear evidence to the long term effects to health. For those that adopted the methods for months reported no ill health at all except for the tough initial adaptation period where one will feel sleep deprived.

It is also clear that if you hold a full time job, there is no way that you can adopt either of the methods as both of them require you to take naps within 4 to 5 hr intervals. I wish I can try out the method for myself but I can’t. So if you work from home like a pro-blogger or a writer, why not experiment on the project and tell us of your findings? I will love to hear from a local guy/girl who has tried out the sleep schedules for an extended period of time.

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Some related reads

Official Uberman Sleep Schedule

Official Everyman Sleep Schedule

Steve Pavlina – His experiences on the Polyphasic sleep schedule for 90 days

List of Bloggers who have tried or are on the schedule

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For the rest who cannot suit the schedule to our lifestyles like me, note that the conventional studies have shown that the optimal amount of hours of sleep for a person is 7. A person who sleeps 8 or more hours a day face a higher mortality rate than those who sleep for 4 to 6 hours. Those who sleep lesser than 4 hrs a day will of course face adverse health effects. Do note that the above are not conclusive and do not blame me if you fall ill with 7 hrs of sleep a day.

=P

KuKuNehNeh (KKNN) has this amazing ability to remember most of her dreams in vivid detail. I am always amazed whenever she recounts the events from her dreams in such details I do have other friends who has this ability and they are all female.

Coincidence?

For me, I hardly remember most of my dreams except for some that occurred when I was younger which are either too troublesome to type or too R21 to publish. Most of the time I would wake up with some memory of the dream and forget it as soon as I proceed with my daily activities.

Anyway, KKNN told me of this dream she had recently and it is so weird that I have to share it to the best of my memory.

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KKNN was out on the beach with a bunch of her friends (I asked her if I was there and she wasn’t sure. WAHAHAHAHAA). She looked out into the sea and noticed a friend was in the waters. The friend was waving back and there was a shark which was very close to her. KKNN frantically waved back to her and warned her of the shark while making all sorts of hand gestures. KKNN and her friends noticed that the tide was rising rapidly and they hurried further inshore to stay away from the water and the shark.

They came to a hole in the ground with a spiral staircase leading downwards. Ignoring the plea from her friend that it might be dangerous, KKNN made her way down the stairs and found a place that looked like a factory (Although it sounded illogical to be hiding under the ground when there is a potential flood, KKNN claimed that the place is sealed from the water).

After waiting for awhile, she knew that the danger was over and she went to the same staircase that lead upwards. A friend of hers was at the staircase and said,

“Don’t go up.”

“Why?” KKNN asked.

“A lot of people died.”

“Who?”

“16 Bloggers.”

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WAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAA!!! Don’t ask me why she dreams of such stuff.