Good call; we'd figured that we would just notice if our cognitive performance declined, since we perform lots of cognitive tasks daily, but maybe we should be suspect of our ability to judge our performance.
Does anyone have any suggestions for test we could use? Would, for example, my mean Tetris score (or distribution of Tetris scores, since I could get better or worse with each passing game as my brain got more used to Tetris or as it got more tired) per waking period (not that I plan to play Tetris every waking period), be a good reference?
EDIT: Tetris sounds like a really stupid way to measure cognitive skills, now that I re-read this. I guess it was just the first thing I thought of that I could easily keep quantitative track of.
EDIT 2: I play a lot of Tetris (~1 hour a day, but not usually for more than ~20 minutes at a time), and it is the only video game I play.
Reaction times can do amazing things when you get clever.
Relatively simple reaction times are reported to correlate g somewhere around 0.3 to 0.5 depending on details, with faster times associated with higher IQ. Brutally simple procedure: hold a ruler up vertically and have it dropped by an unpredictable process while holding fingers in a position to pinch it and stop the fall after you detect that it has begun to fall. Record how many centimeters it falls in a spreadsheet. If the number gets big, something is probably going wrong with your brain.
My friend and I are starting the Uberman sleep schedule (six 20-minute naps spread evenly throughout each day) tonight. Have other lesswrongians experimented with alternate sleep schedules? Are any of you qualified medical experts who can give input or advice? Success stories and failure stories would both be appreciated, and I'll keep you guys posted on our progress.