Would love to do this, but I'm a college professor and classes are in session. So no vacation time is allowed. Technically SUNY college professors don't even earn paid vacation time: We're expected to take our vacations during the periods when classes are not in session. And if you've ever looked at a college calendar, that's really a very reasonable restriction. I don't want to take personal/sick leave (which I am entitled to) because of the need to find someone to cover my classes for a week. We do have a two-day break at Columbus Day, and I always go to bed when sleepy and wake up whenever (without the alarm) when classes are not in session. We'll also have two days off at Thanksgiving, but we'll be traveling to my mother-in-law's then and I can't be a slug-a-bug and stay in bed till noon every day. First extended scheduled time off is at Christmas and I'll definitely do the slug-a-bug for all Christmas break if need be. But my current (hopefully short-term) problem is this: Althouth I wait until I'm sleepy to go to bed, once I'm in bed, I can't get comfortable enough to fall asleep in my usual 30-40 minute time frame.Sleeping from 2AM to 6:30AM isn't all that much sleep, especially for someone just getting started. What works best for me is that I simply go to bed when I am tired, and I get up when I wake up. Even if you cannot do this long term (which would be hard with a family), perhaps you could take a week of vacation (or even medical leave) and just lounge around the house and sleep off your sleep debt.
And back when I was young (heck even well into my late thirties), getting 4 1/2 or 5 hours of sleep per night was all I really needed: I'd wake up feeling pretty refreshed and ready to go except for ragweed season. Of course, that was before I developed the apnea---my husband started noticing my snoring and appearing to stop breathing at night only two or three years ago and that's when he also started nagging me to get the sleep study done.
