Amazing, xkcd just wrote about something I’ve intended to do for some time: the longer than 24-hour day. (For those unaware, xkcd is by far the greatest webcomic ever devised.) In fact, I first wrote about it more than a year ago.
My intention has been a 26-hour day rather than 28, but the idea is basically the same. I have a terrible time falling asleep at night and waking up in the morning; my body always wants to remain awake longer than it should and remain asleep longer than it should. I presume there must be a limit to this, however. Even without any external pressure, I will eventually become tired when awake or wake up when asleep. If I could reschedule my days and nights to correspond to this schedule, I might actually feel rested. My intention for some time has been to, when I have few temporal commitments (can you tell I’m writing this during a lunch break at ICAPS?) and my wife is away for an extended period of time, try this out. I would start with simply falling asleep and waking up both when I feel like it, but I suspected that within a few weeks it would reach an equilibrium of about 17 hours awake followed by 9 hours asleep. If I ever get the chance to test this hypothesis, I will be sure to report on it.