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Are the Americans Awake?

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Re: Are the Americans Awake?

#41

Post by one_level_deep »

pluijzer wrote: post #10

This site takes into account that Americans get there 8 hours of sleep though some quick googling revealed that the average American only gets 7 hours and 13 minutes of sleep. Just want to preach to those not getting there 8 hours, getting enough sleep really gives an enormous boost to mood, creativity, productivity and health. Give it a try :-)

Could you share your source please? I am getting conflicting results. The recently released American Time Use Survey 2022 [0] has it closer to 9 hours. Those 9 hours also include "naps and spells of sleeplessness."

[0] https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/atus.pdf

Re: Are the Americans Awake?

#42

Post by bayindirh »

Workaccount2 wrote: post #28
pluijzer wrote: post #10

This site takes into account that Americans get there 8 hours of sleep though some quick googling revealed that the average American only gets 7 hours and 13 minutes of sleep. Just want to preach to those not getting there 8 hours, getting enough sleep really gives an enormous boost to mood, creativity, productivity and health. Give it a try :-)

Sleeping 7 hours instead of 8 gives you ~30 extra waking hours a month. I always get caught up on that, for better or worse.

However, not being able to do anything productive at that extra awake hours except being groggy and battling with concentration problems while grinding down your health has no benefits.

So be awake less, do more with less effort, have a longer life.

Re: Are the Americans Awake?

#43

Post by delecti »

I'm perplexed at the implication that we "decided" to have the number of time zones that we do, rather than just acknowledging the reality that the US is a fairly big country. It's cheating a bit with Alaska in the picture, but the US spans about twice the degrees of longitude as Europe, and it would still be solidly "wider" even if you limit to the lower 48 states.

Re: Are the Americans Awake?

#44

Post by kkielhofner »

pluijzer wrote: post #10

This site takes into account that Americans get there 8 hours of sleep though some quick googling revealed that the average American only gets 7 hours and 13 minutes of sleep. Just want to preach to those not getting there 8 hours, getting enough sleep really gives an enormous boost to mood, creativity, productivity and health. Give it a try :-)

Like all things human this is general guidance - people should really find a lifestyle and routine that works best for them.

For example, I have “type 2” “bipolar disorder”. I put those in quotes because the DSM diagnostic criteria doesn’t really match me and that’s the closest diagnosis anyone has come up with.

Anyway, I’ve been able to determine my optimal sleep is six hours of QUALITY sleep. I do roughly one hour of fairly intense exercise daily and when it’s time to sleep I fall asleep nearly instantly - I’m exhausted.

I’ve noticed if I sleep less than six hours consecutive nights I tend to tip towards my version of hypomania. If I sleep more than six hours I tend to tip towards my version of (extreme) depression. This isn’t specific to me with my illness, it’s fairly well known that sleep regulation is one of the best things you can do for these kinds of conditions.

Re: Are the Americans Awake?

#45

Post by pc86 »

JulesRosser wrote: post #24

Legitimately useful. As someone working remotely I'm always wary of waking US colleagues up with my unimportant notifications. I'd definitely use a '% of team members online' Slackbot

If you have notifications configured in a way that wakes you up, that's your fault.

Re: Are the Americans Awake?

#47

Post by tiborsaas »

bayindirh wrote: post #35
tiborsaas wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've found that no matter how much I sleep it doesn't affect what people usually report. Last night I was lucky if I had 5 and with 8h+ I feel the same, I do the same.

8+ might be too much for you. My sweet spot is around ~7 hours. Less than 6.5 and more than 8 makes me feel the same, but if I manage to sleep around 7, it's completely a different story.

I drink 3-4 cups of coffee daily, maybe that smooths things out :)

Re: Are the Americans Awake?

#48

Post by gexla »

pluijzer wrote: post #10

This site takes into account that Americans get there 8 hours of sleep though some quick googling revealed that the average American only gets 7 hours and 13 minutes of sleep. Just want to preach to those not getting there 8 hours, getting enough sleep really gives an enormous boost to mood, creativity, productivity and health. Give it a try :-)

My best routine was when I went to sleep when it was dark and woke up when it was dark. I went to sleep at the same time every night. What was amazing was that I would wake up at the time every morning, within like 10 minutes. Then at the time to sleep, I would be too tired to keep my eyes open. I wish I would have documented this better, but I believe it was close to 8 hours (a little more or a little less.

My thinking was that waking up when there was light, would mess with my sleep. The light might wake me up earlier than I would otherwise, acting as sort of an alarm clock.

It's just hard because it meant that I was sleeping at like 8PM.

Re: Are the Americans Awake?

#50

Post by zokier »

birdman3131 wrote: post #5

I feel that most are awake earlier than 8am. I sure don't want to be but jobs tend to force you up before then.

Maybe most of people having regular office hours. But between retirees, unemployed, shift-work, small kids, stay-at-home parents, and other irregular hour lives its probably difficult to say when most people are awake
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