Six and a Half Hours
So it’s been two weeks of my sleep-deprivation experiment. It’s springtime, and verdant energy is busting out all over. I decided to try something new:
* I’m only sleeping six and a half hours every night.
* Those six and a half hours are as regular as possible — bed at midnight.
* When the alarm clock goes off, I’m up and out of bed. No snooze.
* Replacing sleep with some exercise (running and rollerblading thrice weekly to start).
* Keeping the same schedule (as much as possible) during the weekend.
So scientists say eight hours a night? Bollocks! “Scientists” will say anything to get you into bed. I say, forget it — I need proof. Maybe I need less than eight hours. Instead of cutting back slowly, however, I decided on this tactic; see what happens on six and a half hours and augment if necessary.
I sleep very well. I very have insomnia, I very rarely wake up at night, and sleep paralysis is even rarer. I could be a model sleeper. In bed, head hits pillow and bang: Deepest Dreamland. Getting up has always been a pain, but that might be an issue of will.
The results are:
* I’m tired at 6h30 in the morning. Getting out of bed on the first ring of the alarm, however, is amazingly refreshing in the long run. The morning goes much smoother.
* I’m tired at 23h00 in the evening. Given that I would normally already be asleep at this hour, this is probably natural. I wouldn’t schedule anything that requires heavy concentration for this last hour of the day, but it’s fine for light reading, surfing the Intarwebs, listening to music or watching TV.
* The rest of the day seems equivalent. I haven’t noticed any decrease in concentration or efficiency at work. I have noticed that I’m more motivated, but that could be unrelated.
* Yesterday was the first bad day in the past two weeks. I was yawning all day. Last night, however, I stayed up until 00h30 and I feel fine today.
I’m going to try out the rest of the month, and then maybe increase to seven hours.
GKarlsen
Holy Smokes!!!
I bet that I actually average around 7 hours a day of sleep – even if I spend more than that in bed. Most days I have plenty of energy and would probably have more if I wasn’t such a convert to the fat, lazy bastard school of thought.
Best of luck with your Madame Curie-like studies of sleep.
I can’t function on less than 8 hours of sleep each night. If I only get 6-7 hrs during the week nights, I sleep 10-12 hours on Saturday.
Have you found that your producitivity has increased? what are you doing with the extra hours?
If you are simply pushing out the sleep time and filling the time with light reading – get some sleep I say! More is better. Less is worse.
But I’ve heard of those crazy people who only need 5 hours. Their sentences don’t make much sense and they’re a little skittery.
Why do you want to get less sleep again? I don’t think I get enough sleep. Infact, I didn’t go to bed at all last night. I’d had a very bad headache throughout the day and dosed myself with codeine with caffeine in it and was up all night.
The staff thought I was drunk.
I know that I need to be getting 8 hours. I just can’t seem to get everything done in a day and then I’m awake stressing about all the things I didn’t get done. Damn work. It really gets in the way of life.
but do you dream? i’d hate to give up the dreams.
I dream. In fact, I have to confess that I have occasional mid-day naps (on the bus going home), which adds the occasional twenty minutes to my six and a half.
I dream vividly on the bus.
Six and a half hours leaves me unchanged for the most part of the day. The extra hour and a half isn’t the most useful time, but there’s plenty of half intelligent things I can do.
We should remember that the optimal amount of sleep definitely depends on the person. One person might be fine with 6.5 hours while another might not.
Personally – I think you should aim for at least 7 hours. That seems more sensible.
As much as I enjoy a conversation about sleeping (if not for the public mocking and the fact I would never see Glenn, I would go to bed at 9pm every night), my real point here is that I am offering my services as an iPod courier. I enjoy Paris in the spring. All it will cost you is the price of the iPod, one economy ticket, and my annoying company for a few days.
Miss you! Kisses.