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Lord knows I’ve been stuck in this vortex many a time.

Related reading:

Sleeping and Trading –Daily Speculations

Briefly Speaking, from Victor Niederhoffer –Daily Speculations

There are many speculators who have an inclination to trade during night hours. Such behavior exposes one to the possibility of premature death, according to a study of Penev et al "chronic circadian desynchronization…".

Seth Roberts’ fascinating self-experiments –Boing Boing links to Aether

…for a long time Roberts had a problem with his sleep. He woke too early, could not go back to sleep, and then was tired in the morning. He tried different ways to cure this problem until, through a combination of coincidence, experiment and analysis of the data, he discovered an expected correlation: his problem disappeared when he skipped breakfast. He cured his early awakening by not eating until 11 a.m.

The idea that skipping breakfast may reduce early awakening was, wrote Roberts, "a new idea in sleep research." Strangely, Roberts was not hungry in the wee hours when he was troubled by early awakening, which lead him to suspect that it was not discomfort that roused him, but rather some glitch in his sleep cycle caused by anticipation of food.

Mentally Ill, or Just Tired? –Utne Reader

Missing a night’s sleep can cause people’s brains to act like they have a psychiatric illness, according to the New Scientist. The lack of sleep can disrupt the parts of the brain that control people’s emotions and fear. It’s similar to the type of brain disruption associated with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

It’s Not Sleep, But It’ll Do –Utne Reader

The toughest time to fall asleep is often when you really need to. Not getting enough sleep can lead to short-term memory loss, impairing skills needed in high-stress situations. The problem is that high-stress situations can make it very difficult to get to sleep. Scientists at Columbia University and the New York State Psychiatric Institute think they’ve found a way to help.

When Clocks Go Bad: Neurobehavioural Consequences of Disrupted Circadian Timing –PLoS Genetics

The correct functioning of the endogenous circadian clock enables organisms to anticipate daily environmental changes and temporally modify behavioral and physiological functions appropriately. All organisms maintain a large number of physiological variables (sleep-wake cycle, locomotor activity, temperature regulation, water/food intake, and levels of circulating hormones) under control of the circadian clock. There are well-known consequences of disrupted circadian function outside of the brain; metabolism, reproduction, and even longevity can be adversely affected when the means of determining time of day are altered at a molecular level.