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What It’s Like to Need Hardly Any Sleep

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Re: What It’s Like to Need Hardly Any Sleep

#61

Post by jdstafford »

nemo wrote: post #56
JimboOmega wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It was from Thomas Edison, so from long ago and far from an authority on animal sleeping habits. There are a vast number and variety in species of fish, some appear to do the unisphere thing, some actually go dormant and rest without swimming like zebra danios, while some don't show any signs of resting like mackerel. You can't really generalize too much about the whole lot of them. Also, horses sleep.

Also, wasn't Edison a huge proponent of cocaine use?

Re: What It’s Like to Need Hardly Any Sleep

#62

Post by jedberg »

NathanKP wrote: post #13

I really wish I had that trait, but instead I have the exact opposite. I often need about twelve hours to feel fully rested, and even then usually require a coffee or two to feel productive. Some people suggested recently that maybe I have sleep apnea, so I'm planning to try a sleep study sometime soon.

I have mild apnea (not enough to need help, yet) and my Dad had a much more sever form. In fact he was one of the first people in the world to have a sleep study done on him.

Anyway, signs you might have apnea: Never feel fully rested, wake up to your own snoring, your sheets seem like someone pushed them all off.

If you have a partner that sleeps with you, ask them if it seems like you're choking in the middle of the night and/or your legs twitch at night. Mine is mostly the leg one, so my sheets never stay on the bed and when I was a kid I would wake myself kicking the rail off my bed.

Re: What It’s Like to Need Hardly Any Sleep

#63

Post by icelancer »

Sevzi wrote: post #12

The 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'm in the non-responder camp with those drugs. Unfortunately.

Re: What It’s Like to Need Hardly Any Sleep

#64

Post by ashark »

kybernetyk wrote: post #60
ashark wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've got a friend who can get by on ~5 hours/night pretty much indefinitely, without feeling the kind of awful brain-numbing fatigue and dangerous (for e.g. driving) levels of tiredness that I do with more than one night in a row of less than ~7 hours of sleep. A full 8-hour night is sleeping in to him. The key to understanding why this is so great is to compare the extra time not to the total waking time that others…

>That new TV show that's supposed to be really good? He's seen it. All those Criterion movies you've been meaning to watch? He's seen them all. Twice. This year's Oscar nominees? Yes. Even the documentaries and shorts. Video games? All of them that matter and most of the ones that don't. That one comic book series you heard good things about? He's read it. Thanks. After reading that I don't feel too bad for not being…

Yeah, but he manages that and productive stuff. I can't even fit in one or the other as well as he does with both. Besides, he's not entirely without standards for his media (that'd be another of my friends, without the low-sleep thing) so a fair bit of it ends up being enriching anyway, aside from being enjoyable, which isn't without merit.

Re: What It’s Like to Need Hardly Any Sleep

#65

Post by nsajko »

ashark wrote: post #31
NathanKP wrote: post #13

I really wish I had that trait, but instead I have the exact opposite. I often need about twelve hours to feel fully rested, and even then usually require a coffee or two to feel productive. Some people suggested recently that maybe I have sleep apnea, so I'm planning to try a sleep study sometime soon.

I rarely sleep well if I know I have to get up at a certain time (say, if there's an alarm set). The slightest disturbance is magnified—a moment of wakefulness can turn in to half an hour, followed by another hour of half-sleep half-waking before I'm finally back under (maybe, if I'm lucky). Going to bed early just increases the chances that this will happen at 2AM and I'll be unable to go back to sleep at all, which…

Maybe you should try an anxiolytic?

Re: What It’s Like to Need Hardly Any Sleep

#66

Post by dreamdu5t »

mamcx wrote: post #51
grecy wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you get much exercise? For me, the more I sleep and the more coffee I drink the more tired I feel. As soon as I throw in a bunch of exercise, I find I'm asleep within 30 seconds of hitting the pillow, and I'm awake ~5 minutes before my alarm after 8 hours, and I feel good. The more exercise I get, the less coffee I drink too, until I drink none, which is when I feel the best and least tired.

I exercise from 3-5 times week (doing P90x), and my energy is low and the sleep is a failure (I also can sleep 12+ and still need to take naps). I have a healthy lifestyle, and try several supplements, but still not find a way to be better... Edit: 12+ hours not all the week. Most certainly a crash 1 time/w. The sleep/insommia vary each day. I have used sleep pills (make me sleep, but get grovvy all the day) and mela…

12+ hours and still tired with exercise? Something is wrong. Have you tested for Lyme?

Re: What It’s Like to Need Hardly Any Sleep

#67

Post by nsajko »

mamcx wrote: post #51
grecy wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you get much exercise? For me, the more I sleep and the more coffee I drink the more tired I feel. As soon as I throw in a bunch of exercise, I find I'm asleep within 30 seconds of hitting the pillow, and I'm awake ~5 minutes before my alarm after 8 hours, and I feel good. The more exercise I get, the less coffee I drink too, until I drink none, which is when I feel the best and least tired.

I exercise from 3-5 times week (doing P90x), and my energy is low and the sleep is a failure (I also can sleep 12+ and still need to take naps). I have a healthy lifestyle, and try several supplements, but still not find a way to be better... Edit: 12+ hours not all the week. Most certainly a crash 1 time/w. The sleep/insommia vary each day. I have used sleep pills (make me sleep, but get grovvy all the day) and mela…

Maybe you're lacking certain nutrients in your diet, eg. iron, protein.

Re: What It’s Like to Need Hardly Any Sleep

#68

Post by mamcx »

dreamdu5t wrote: post #66
mamcx wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I exercise from 3-5 times week (doing P90x), and my energy is low and the sleep is a failure (I also can sleep 12+ and still need to take naps). I have a healthy lifestyle, and try several supplements, but still not find a way to be better... Edit: 12+ hours not all the week. Most certainly a crash 1 time/w. The sleep/insommia vary each day. I have used sleep pills (make me sleep, but get grovvy all the day) and mela…

12+ hours and still tired with exercise? Something is wrong. Have you tested for Lyme?

"Lyme borreliosis"? Not likely. This is for years now...

Re: What It’s Like to Need Hardly Any Sleep

#69

Post by chillacy »

nicholasdrake wrote: post #40

i used to need 8-10 hours but after reading tim ferriss' 4 hour body i nap 20 minutes 2/3x a day at my desk and only need to sleep 4/5 a night which is saving me 4/5 hours a day of sleep time.. i don't feel fabulous when i wake up lol, but i feel the same as if i had slept more.. http://www.4hourlife.com/2012/04/29/become-uberman-sleep-lik... only problem is culturally workplaces aren't very accepting of polyphasic s…

From what I understand, polyphasic sleep has fallen out of popularity lately due to lack of evidence that it actually works better than a "normal" schedule. Even this author you linked to only does a light 20 min siesta.. barely even biphasic (if you're not hitting REM sleep in your nap).

Counterpoint: http://greenminimalism.com/2013/06/15/is-polyphasic-sleep-he...

Re: What It’s Like to Need Hardly Any Sleep

#70

Post by technotony »

mamcx wrote: post #51
grecy wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you get much exercise? For me, the more I sleep and the more coffee I drink the more tired I feel. As soon as I throw in a bunch of exercise, I find I'm asleep within 30 seconds of hitting the pillow, and I'm awake ~5 minutes before my alarm after 8 hours, and I feel good. The more exercise I get, the less coffee I drink too, until I drink none, which is when I feel the best and least tired.

I exercise from 3-5 times week (doing P90x), and my energy is low and the sleep is a failure (I also can sleep 12+ and still need to take naps). I have a healthy lifestyle, and try several supplements, but still not find a way to be better... Edit: 12+ hours not all the week. Most certainly a crash 1 time/w. The sleep/insommia vary each day. I have used sleep pills (make me sleep, but get grovvy all the day) and mela…

Overtraining is well known to be linked to Insomnia. P90X is pretty hardcore, so maybe you are overtraining?
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