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Ask HN: How much do you sleep?

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Re: Ask HN: How much do you sleep?

#51

Post by Sharlin »

omalleyt wrote: post #43
hedonistbot wrote: post #16

My biggest problem with sleep is the fixed working schedule I have to follow. The 9-to-5 is killing me. It's not that there isn't enough time to sleep, it's that I cannot convince my body to go to sleep if it doesn't feel like it. Just last night I stood awake till 5 a.m. unable to fall asleep despite all efforts. The problem is that my natural clock seems to be working on a 26-7 hours per day cycle and I cannot fit…

I had this problem all my life. Now I take 500 micrograms of melatonin every night an hour before bed. I'm out like a light. It might not be for everyone, but it's changed the way I feel about sleeping. And it's non-habituating

Yeah. Melatonin works unreasonably well for me too, and it's as "natural" and side-effect-free as a drug can be. Definitely worth trying.

Re: Ask HN: How much do you sleep?

#52

Post by wallace_f »

hacker_9 wrote: post #29

7-9 hours. I require less sleep when I look after my body and eat healthily. For those who struggle to sleep, you may want to look into meditation when you are in bed. Effectively you focus on a single point and slowly your mind clears, kinda feels like it's shutting down regions. Then sleep comes naturally after, takes me about 20 mins with this technique. Concentrate on your heartbeat or breathing, and know that th…

This my sound strange, but has anyone tried this and had that sensation that if you stop thinking about your heart or breathing, they will stop?

Jesus, I must be filled with anxiety.

Re: Ask HN: How much do you sleep?

#53

Post by Sholmesy »

I sleep for 7 hours, my partner sleeps for ~ 8.5.

Things I've noted:

- My sleep "schedule" doesn't have enough hours in the day. Monday I'm asleep at 10, Tuesday 11, Wednesday 12... etc

- Lying in bed when not tired destroys any chance of a good nights sleep.

- Lack of sleep = angry/bad mood. Bad mood = flustered/annoyed at things (noise/distraction/annoying problem) = No productivity.

Re: Ask HN: How much do you sleep?

#54

Post by NietTim »

omalleyt wrote: post #43
hedonistbot wrote: post #16

My biggest problem with sleep is the fixed working schedule I have to follow. The 9-to-5 is killing me. It's not that there isn't enough time to sleep, it's that I cannot convince my body to go to sleep if it doesn't feel like it. Just last night I stood awake till 5 a.m. unable to fall asleep despite all efforts. The problem is that my natural clock seems to be working on a 26-7 hours per day cycle and I cannot fit…

I had this problem all my life. Now I take 500 micrograms of melatonin every night an hour before bed. I'm out like a light. It might not be for everyone, but it's changed the way I feel about sleeping. And it's non-habituating

How has it affected your quality of sleep? Do the same hours as before make you feel equally rested?

Re: Ask HN: How much do you sleep?

#55

Post by Sholmesy »

hedonistbot wrote: post #16

My biggest problem with sleep is the fixed working schedule I have to follow. The 9-to-5 is killing me. It's not that there isn't enough time to sleep, it's that I cannot convince my body to go to sleep if it doesn't feel like it. Just last night I stood awake till 5 a.m. unable to fall asleep despite all efforts. The problem is that my natural clock seems to be working on a 26-7 hours per day cycle and I cannot fit…

I have this exact same problem. There aren't enough hours in the day...

Re: Ask HN: How much do you sleep?

#56

Post by celerrimus »

Quite good question. I used to sleep 8~9 hours, less (and more as someone already pointed) meant i was not very productive, made more mistakes, and i was irritated whole next day.

But for more then a year I'm a father, so now much changed. Now I sleep 5-7 hours, often with breaks during night. For example, tonight we had some problem and o lot of crying due to daughter's ear infection. I sleep 5,5hrs with 2 breaks.

How do I feel now? Unexpectedly well. I need little longer sturt-up in the morning - plus good coffee. I know that my productivity, creativity, and susceptibility to errors are little down, but I can tell that my body switched to new scheme and it's not such a bad think as i thought.

Also, all my troubles with falling asleep, etc, all are gone now. I know that you can handle much more then you think :)

Re: Ask HN: How much do you sleep?

#57

Post by Yetanfou »

Well, I go to bed between 01:00 and 02:00, my alarm clock first goes off at 06:00 to get my daughter out of bed and up and running to go to school (and sometimes bring her to the station in case the weather is horrid), 06:30 to wake my wife, 07:30 to wake my other daughter to bring her to school. I guess I get around 4 to 4½ hours of sleep a night. I never slept much, not as a child either. I used to listen to the radio while reading, the programming generally turned boring around 24:00 with something for truckers, something for 'cultured people' and something which I never understood who it was for. I still remember the signature tunes for those programs and the haste with which I used to turn off the radio when they came on...

[edit: I just looked up one of those programs, the trucker show ('Krieken med Adje' [1]). Turns out it was scheduled between 04:00 and 07:00, this was when I used to get up at 07:00 to go to school. No, I did not sleep much as a child either... ]

[1] http://www.jingleweb.nl/index.php/category/ad-roland/

Re: Ask HN: How much do you sleep?

#58

Post by bryanlarsen »

hedonistbot wrote: post #16

My biggest problem with sleep is the fixed working schedule I have to follow. The 9-to-5 is killing me. It's not that there isn't enough time to sleep, it's that I cannot convince my body to go to sleep if it doesn't feel like it. Just last night I stood awake till 5 a.m. unable to fall asleep despite all efforts. The problem is that my natural clock seems to be working on a 26-7 hours per day cycle and I cannot fit…

I had the same problem. In fact, for a couple of semesters in college I followed the 28 hour day schedule:

https://xkcd.com/320/

These days my biggest problem is waking up too early, not too late.

What worked for me:

1. eliminating caffeine from my diet, saving it for medicinal purposes. Ibuprofen + caffeine is an order of magnitude more effective for me than ibuprofen by itself; but that's because I'm no longer caffeine tolerant. (See #4)

2. No screens after 8PM.

3. Better reasons for going to bed and waking up early. AKA a wife to share the bed and kids to get to school.

4. Getting older. Biologically, 7 year olds & 50 year olds share a propensity for waking up early, with teenagers the highest propensity for sleeping in. You don't have to wait until you're 50, it gets better in your thirties, in my experience.

Re: Ask HN: How much do you sleep?

#59

Post by wiremine »

I try to get to be around 10:00 or 10:30, and typically wake up 6:00 or 6:15. I find the older I get the better I operate on 7.5 to 8 hours of sleep. I also seem to get sick less often, and be an all around nicer guy to to family, friends and coworkers.

Re: Ask HN: How much do you sleep?

#60

Post by Sharma »

Based on my experience:

Apart from number of hours, it is also important that you sleep sound. 7 hrs of sleep for a person with no sleep disorder and person with sleep apnea has different impact on productivity.

For me this is what I have found age Every now and then we see studies come out and researchers tell us the importance of sleep and its impact on our brains. I found it to be true in my case.

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