Sleep is one of the best parts of life, why cut it short?
What It’s Like to Need Hardly Any Sleep
41–50 of 125 posts
Re: What It’s Like to Need Hardly Any Sleep
#42I've always been fascinated by discussions surrounding the varying amount of sleep necessary for different individuals. I feel like "unlocking" the secrets of these folks who can get by on such little sleep would do wonders for humanity, though I'm unsure if that is even within our abilities. As for a personal anecdote, I've experienced both ends of the sleep spectrum: in the past couple years I've had two 4-month lo…
That sounds like bipolar disorder to me: Long cycles of happiness (euphoria), energy and hyperactivity (lots of exercise), and a decreased need for sleep, followed by depression, lack of energy, lethargy (no physical activity, less exercise), and increased need for sleep. That's the textbook definition of bipolar disorder, I think.
Wait, does it change how much sleep you feel like getting, or does it actually change the amount of sleep you need? If it's the latter I'm surprised I haven't heard about study into it.
Re: What It’s Like to Need Hardly Any Sleep
#43I've been having a real hard time getting any kind of prolonged sleep (4 hours or more) the past few months.
I'd sleep and always wake up after 3 hours. Then I can't go back to sleep. This been going on for the past 4 months. It is very frustrating.
Is there anyone else that experience this?
Re: What It’s Like to Need Hardly Any Sleep
#44Unless I’m sick, I need about 5 hours a night—typically a few hours after midnight, and another couple after dawn. Like the woman in the article, I also don’t get hangovers beyond a mild headache and tiredness. It doesn’t make me significantly more productive, but it does give me more time to enjoy life, which is not nothing. I like having people over for parties, because I can get up before everyone else and make br…
Hmm, as far as hangovers she says
"Does drinking impact your sleep? I don’t get hangovers. If I overdo it and I get a headache, that’s saying a lot. Most people in their 40s are sick for a day and a half. If I drink too much, then I may go to bed at two and get up at six — maybe I get an extra hour’s sleep!"
Severe alcoholics often don't get a full night of sleep because they wake up when the depressant effect of the alcohol wears off, the same reason people shake in the mornings - in the absence of alcohol, the chemicals the body releases to compensate for constant alcohol cause overstimulation.
My experience with drinking a fair bit last year is I would get 4-6 hours of sleep a night, and wake up wide awake with no hangover, too. On nights when I hadn't drank, I'd sleep 7-9 hours which is normal for me.
I'd say it's all a matter of neutransmitter balance, which varies even in normal people. Bipolar folks often only need 2-4 hours of sleep in manic phases, and feel great, but may sleep for 8-12 hours in depressive states. Someone who is hypomanic could be expected to sleep just 4 hours a night and have difficulty sleeping longer.
Re: What It’s Like to Need Hardly Any Sleep
#45> * “Cells don't sleep,” he said in his most quoted anti-sleep rant. “Fish swim in the water all night. Even a horse doesn't sleep. A man doesn't need any sleep.”* > Yes. Even when my kids sleep crazy amounts of hours I get annoyed. Teenagers can sleep probably for 12 hours straight, and I get so annoyed because I think they are wasting their lives. Why are you wasting your life sleeping? There are so many things tha…
Where did that first quote come from? Horses sleep (though they can standing up). So do fish, though it's not clear if they use the unihemisphere sleep trick that marine mammals use (so they can keep swimming).
Given the great benefits of being conscious (alertness from predation, etc), there's clearly some biological reason that animals and humans sleep.
Re: What It’s Like to Need Hardly Any Sleep
#46I've been having a real hard time getting any kind of prolonged sleep (4 hours or more) the past few months. I'd sleep and always wake up after 3 hours. Then I can't go back to sleep. This been going on for the past 4 months. It is very frustrating. Is there anyone else that experience this?
When you're overtired, it can actually be harder to sleep. I found this out when we had a baby -- longer, better quality naps during the day lead to better, longer sleep at night.
The root problem could be delayed sleep-phase syndrome. [1]
1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delayed_sleep_phase_disorder
Re: What It’s Like to Need Hardly Any Sleep
#47I've been having a real hard time getting any kind of prolonged sleep (4 hours or more) the past few months. I'd sleep and always wake up after 3 hours. Then I can't go back to sleep. This been going on for the past 4 months. It is very frustrating. Is there anyone else that experience this?
Re: What It’s Like to Need Hardly Any Sleep
#48I've been having a real hard time getting any kind of prolonged sleep (4 hours or more) the past few months. I'd sleep and always wake up after 3 hours. Then I can't go back to sleep. This been going on for the past 4 months. It is very frustrating. Is there anyone else that experience this?
Personally I don't have any problems with sleep, but I worked on an iPhone and Android app that would solve that problem for some of the people who used it. The app teaches an observation exercise similar to meditation. You can listen (without having to download anything) here: http://antidoteforall.com
Re: What It’s Like to Need Hardly Any Sleep
#49The chemicals modafinil and armodafinil subjectively let me get away with a bit less sleep without the various consequences of caffeine. Used with enough sleep, they enter the realm of transhuman cognitive enhancer.
I've been trying to source modafinil in Canada. I hope to try an experiment once I acquire some.
Re: What It’s Like to Need Hardly Any Sleep
#50I cannot relate, I need 7+, but I can imagine how much more you could get done if you had 20 hours a day to do it in. My grandmother was a short sleeper, she usually slept from midnight to 4am her whole life.
Was your grandma a caffeine addicted? My mom is sleeping, since when I remember, just 4-5 hours each night but she also takes 3 strong coffees during all the day and if she forget even one she instantly feels much more tired than usual. A shame I can't try because I am intolerant to caffeine that basically causes my stomach to hurt for hours... I would really like to halve my sleep need.
Caffeine definitely cannot reduce your need for sleep long-term. Your body habituates to it, like any stimulant; after a while, the caffeine isn't making you more alert than normal, but it's required just to get up to normal. If your mother gets by on 4-5 hours a night long-term, it's because she's a natural short sleeper, not because of the caffeine.