Sleep - How much do you really need?
(Credit: Spongebob 1)
I am sure everyone have heard about the book "The Four-Hour Work Week" by Timothy Ferriss. I have not read the book, but I am sure there are a lot of information on self-improvement and time management. I am not sure how he did it, but with both online and offline work, I am effectively living on a "Four-Hour Sleep Day".
How much Sleep do we really need?
Well, the official school of thought is that every adult needs to sleep eight hours a night to be refreshed. I doubt more than 50% of the adult human race sleep 8 hours a night (lucky bastards). There are also those that thought having two split four hour sleep every 24 hours is the most effective sleep pattern.
Another extreme school of thought is the Polyphasic sleep pattern. It advocate a 20-40 min nap every 4 hour, so that you can get by with 4-6 hours of sleep a day. It is not recommended for normal lifestyle, but a good practice if you know you have to get by with less sleep on a busy schedule.
How much sleep do you have?
I find that I am able to get by with only a straight 4 hour sleep at night. But every 3-4 days, the sleep debt will hit a threshold and I automatically sleep a 8 hour sleep. So it averages to about 5 hour a night.
So I ask you : How much sleep do you get a night on average? Any 8 hour sleepers here?
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December 31st, 2007 at 6:13 pm
Since about the age of 15 all I need is about 6hrs a night. Sometimes, once-twice a mth, I’ll work thru the night but then sleep 8hrs the next nite. If I ever sleep over 8hrs I am useless for the day, feel like I’ve got an almighty hangover.
January 1st, 2008 at 6:36 am
My sleeping cycle is so off, it really depends. Some nights I’ll only get three hours or so in a row, and then the lack will really take a toll on me and I’ll need ten hours another day. I really should work on getting into a steady six to eight hour sleep a night, but I always have trouble falling asleep and it’s incredibly hard to do.
January 2nd, 2008 at 12:26 am
@Colin - Wow, 6 hrs a night…seems like a luxury to me.
@Tay - I think you have the same cycle as me, short hours sleep for a few days, then hibernate.
February 19th, 2008 at 6:31 pm
I get about 7 hours each night. While I can go for limited time on less, it does mess me around so I endeavour to get my 7 hours as often as possible.
March 14th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
oh, trust me, after 8 hours of sleep I don’t want to wake up!
March 25th, 2008 at 7:56 am
[...] is required for them to get better sleep, through trial and error. Once they have decided on the best recipe for good sleep, people seldom waiver from their [...]
April 25th, 2008 at 10:42 am
Wow, I get at least 8 hours of sleep every night or I am pretty much dead to the world when I wake up. When my daughter was born I was maybe getting 4 hours due to middle of the night feedings and so on, and I was just exhausted all of the time. I don’t know how you do it.