Poll: How much sleep do you get per night?

> Even when my dog wakes me up to be let out after she does her business

Wait, you let your dog out AFTER she's done her business? You're doing it wrong.

4-6 hours on weekdays with a 1 hour nap in the afternoon. On the weekends, maybe 10-13 hours.

I was chronically sleep-deprived for about 5-6 years but didn't know it, once I started watching the stock market closely. I would go to sleep at 12-1am and wake up at 6am to watch the stock market open. Then at 930am I would leave for work and come back at 730pm. I would have dinner, do some additional work and then repeat the cycle. I loved it, but I would regularly get between 4-6 hrs per night even on weekends. I was pretty functional, and my life was fine. I thought I was pretty tough.

And then all of a sudden about 4 months ago, I started forgetting simple things, like how to spell words like "somebody" (I tried spelling it "somebuddy"). Then I got a terrible headache for about 3 weeks straight and it was so intense I couldn't think properly and was getting confused, like an Alzheimer's patient.

I got checked for a brain tumor, and luckily I was normal. However, I decided to start sleeping regularly, stock market be damned. The first night I slept 17 hrs. My headaches went away and my memory increased, and since then I've been trying to get into bed by 10pm so that I can get 7-8 hrs sleep every night and still wake up at 630am. Some nights I'm more successful than others, last night I got 5 hrs sleep because I was working until 130am and woke up at 630am.

I used to have to work late and so I ended up sleeping from 2am to 12pm but now that I started my business... Well I still have a messed up sleep schedule.

I recently bought Lark and I have to say its really great and really disappointing all at once. The 7 day sleep study told me that I'm an "Ascetic-Erradic" sleeper. It told me that 10% of people get less sleep than me which means I get less sleep than 90% of people. Im really ashamed of that. Not sleeping doesn't mean I'm super productive and a super hero. It means I'm a fucking zombie that's moving at a snail's pace all day. I'd much rather get 20 hours of sleep and be fresh enough to get a whole days worth of work done in an hour than sleep less than 90% of the population.

I've always had problems waking up and Lark has helped me to wake up on time but it doesn't stop me from ignoring the alarm as much as I want. I will say I ignore it far less but good enough is never good enough.

I'm no polyphasic, I think that's pseudoscientific fantasy. I'm in bed between 10pm and 3am and awaken between 6am and 11am. Ideally I'd be in bed between 10-11pm and awakened between 5am and 6am. I'll get there. I'm a get-things-done kind of guy so I'll get it done.

If I get If I get 6-6.5 hrs of sleep, I am decent most of the day.

If I get 7+ hrs of sleep, I am good.

If I get 9 hrs of sleep, I be at my sharpest that day.

Usually I get between 6 and 7 hrs of sleep a day (in bed by 00:00-00:40, wake up at 07:00) I also can get between 15-30 minutes of sleep on the bus and potentially another 15-30 on the way back.

Things that affect my sleep, or ability to stay awake:

1) Coffee/Sugar. I avoid it. Any large quantity of it will put me into insane sleepy mode after about 15-30 minutes of consumption.

2) Something interesting: If I am doing something mentally engaging near the end of the day, I am very likely to miss my bed time and could take 10-20 minutes to fall asleep. If it is extremely interesting I may wind up having a lack of deep sleep.

3) Physical exercise helps me sleep better. I started having 2 or so hrs a day (1 in morning 7am, 1 in evening 8pm) walks with my dog, which are sometimes walks, sometimes jogs, sometimes full-speed running. The more I get in a day the better my sleep is and the more rested I am the next day given I have a minimum of 7 hrs of sleep.

I find it's easiest to have a schedule, and stick to even even on days off, especially on days off actually.