We show that a proper coloring of the diagram of an interval order I may require 1 + ⌈log2 height(I)⌉ colors and that 2 + ⌈log2 height(I)⌉ colors always suffice. For the proof of the upper bound we use the following fact: A sequence C1, …, Ch of sets (of colors) with the property can be used to color the diagram of an interval order with the colors of the Ci. We construct α-sequences of length 2n − 2 + ⌊(n − 1)/2)⌋ using n colors. The length of α-sequences is bounded by 2n − 1 + ⌊(n − 1)/2)⌋ and sequences of this length have some nice properties. Finally we use α-sequences for the construction of long cycles between two consecutive levels of the Boolean lattice. The best construction known until now could guarantee cycles of length where N is the number of vertices and c ≈ 0.85. We exhibit cycles of length .