The amount of sleep also depends on age, obviously.
Well, kids need more, obviously.
But old people do not really less than young adults, according to "Why we sleep".
Do we really need eight hours of uninterrupted sleep a night?
21–30 of 73 posts
Re: Do we really need eight hours of uninterrupted sleep a night?
#22I'm halfway through Matthew Walker's Why We Sleep. And it's terrifying. The medical implications of insufficient sleep are rather worrisome. https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/295665/why-we-sleep/97801419...
I read it, I liked it, I felt like it was not written very objectively. There did not seem to be nearly enough self-doubt or testing alternate situations. And it shouldn't be terrifying. You no longer have to worry about animals trying to eat you, finding enough food to eat yourself, dying of infection, or physically defending yourself on a day to day basis. If the worst thing that's wrong with you is sub-optimal sle…
Walker does bring quite some evidence to bear, though. I think the triad of well-being (good exercise, good nutrition, good sleep) is well established, and we're well advised to make sure we get enough sleep.
Re: Do we really need eight hours of uninterrupted sleep a night?
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
I read it, I liked it, I felt like it was not written very objectively. There did not seem to be nearly enough self-doubt or testing alternate situations. And it shouldn't be terrifying. You no longer have to worry about animals trying to eat you, finding enough food to eat yourself, dying of infection, or physically defending yourself on a day to day basis. If the worst thing that's wrong with you is sub-optimal sle…
Sub-optimal sleep can absolutely ruin you, in the long run. E.g. it's been suggested that a significant portion (a third, IIRC, have to find that article) of chronic fatigue incidents are due to non-restorative sleep. Definitely a problem worth solving if you have it. If you lie in bed awake once per week or so, you surely don't need to fret about it. It just must not become part of your lifestyle - if it does, get a…
Calm down. We all die in the long run... Want better sleep? Stop worrying and work with your hands a bit.
Re: Do we really need eight hours of uninterrupted sleep a night?
#24I've tried multiple different sleep approaches in order to maximize "awake" time, but defaulted back to exactly 8h/day - my body simply takes 8 uninterrupted hours and wakes me up precisely without any alarm clock. While experimenting, I saw energy/cognitive decline (tested) after a while, correcting when going back to 8h, so multi-phase sleep is definitely not for me.
Same here. I got some energy from a mid-day/afternoon sleep, but after it also takes an hour to wake up completely. Going below the 8 hour sleep in a row and loosing focus. Even the weekends get messed up with less sleep.
Re: Do we really need eight hours of uninterrupted sleep a night?
#25It is important that people realize sleep cycles do exist, but this seems a bit strawman-ish. If someone says "you need about 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep" I would rather take that as meaning things like "don't get up after just 5 hours" and "don't get up and check ebay auctions in the middle of the night even if it just takes 10 minutes", not "don't panic if you naturally wake up at 4am". ----- Btw, on > Historica…
Good point. The article is a bit disingenuous in calling it the "eight-hour solid sleep myth".
Matthew Walker in his book on sleep (that's referenced also in the comment you link to) points out, for example, that a lot of learning tends to happen in the latest stages of sleep. So, 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep might well be better than 6 hours + 2 hours siesta.
Re: Do we really need eight hours of uninterrupted sleep a night?
#26I'm totally fine with splitting sleep in two, but it's incompatible with most jobs and even social stuff.
It's hard to find a fixed 2,5h slot that can be blocked every day. I could only do it during my high-school times.
Re: Do we really need eight hours of uninterrupted sleep a night?
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sub-optimal sleep can absolutely ruin you, in the long run. E.g. it's been suggested that a significant portion (a third, IIRC, have to find that article) of chronic fatigue incidents are due to non-restorative sleep. Definitely a problem worth solving if you have it. If you lie in bed awake once per week or so, you surely don't need to fret about it. It just must not become part of your lifestyle - if it does, get a…
Calm down. We all die in the long run... Want better sleep? Stop worrying and work with your hands a bit.
Unfortunately that doesn't always work. Sometimes due to pure amounts of work I have done over the day I just can't sleep when I get to bed. (Chef, so definitely working with my hands haha)
Re: Do we really need eight hours of uninterrupted sleep a night?
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
I close the door. Fortunately I have my own office. They don't need to know. I live in a country where this is accepted behaviour, even though it is not common anymore in this context.
Has to be France
Nobody sleeps at the office in France, and his colleagues would find it very weird (weird but appealing, probably). Few people nap after lunch even at home, even in the south it's not a common practice anymore. It's a also quite uncommon these days to have your own office.
Seems to me like it's more likely to be Spain.
Re: Do we really need eight hours of uninterrupted sleep a night?
#29On the subject of Why We Sleep: I'm not sure how well it corresponds to the book, but Matthew Walker also has a Google Talks talk on the same subject that I recommend watching if you're not a book person:
Re: Do we really need eight hours of uninterrupted sleep a night?
#30Meh. I don't really buy into this biphasic hype. If I go to sleep in the afternoon, my body still wants several hours sleep and I'll wake up groggy, disoriented and more tired than before.
I can live on 6, and feel bad. 8 is good. 9 is better. 10 is common for me at weekends when I have no particular plans.