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Ask HN: How many hours do hackers sleep?

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Re: Ask HN: How many hours do hackers sleep?

#22

Post by polskibus »

What is the purpose of this question (i really am curious)? Everyone has their own sleep needs ,they depend on so many factors (age, stress, health, exercise, etc.),that a base stat will not tell you much. There was once a story on bbc about a research that claimed that in the middle ages people slept 2x4h having 1-3hrs of activity in between, and the popular 8hr sleep is a fairly recent habit, forced by ungrounded theories 2-3 centuries back.

Re: Ask HN: How many hours do hackers sleep?

#24

Post by pooriaazimi »

8-10 hours. I used to sleep 4-6 hours in weekdays (for the past 3 years) and sleep 10-15 hours in weekends, but have changed my schedule for the past 5 months and can't believe how much better everything has become. Much less stress, getting much more done, learning faster and better :)

Re: Ask HN: How many hours do hackers sleep?

#25

Post by pooriaazimi »

polskibus wrote: post #22

What is the purpose of this question (i really am curious)? Everyone has their own sleep needs ,they depend on so many factors (age, stress, health, exercise, etc.),that a base stat will not tell you much. There was once a story on bbc about a research that claimed that in the middle ages people slept 2x4h having 1-3hrs of activity in between, and the popular 8hr sleep is a fairly recent habit, forced by ungrounded t…

I don't know about OP's intentions, but I upvoted it because I think it might be useful to others. So many people (including me, until a few months ago) think that it's good to "pull all-nighters", stay awake for 20-30 hours straight if you can and finish the code (some people literally cannot stay awake for more than 20 hours. I can - I routinely stayed awake for something like 40 hours in the weekdays and then would drop dead for 15 hours).

5 or 6 months ago, I recovered my senses and changed my sleeping habits and now sleep a good 8-10 hours every day and feel I'm so much more "productive" that sometimes I feel sad about the "lost time".

So, this topic might bring others who were deluded (like me) back to sanity (or I hope so)!

Re: Ask HN: How many hours do hackers sleep?

#26

Post by srik »

I can't find my paper in time, but I did some study on this and apparently many (long) studies have shown that the ideal sleep time is 6-6:30 hours a day. Any variation either way of that duration affected 3+years longevity if I remember correctly.

(This is not a scientific study ,so take it with a grain of salt - http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1812420,00.ht... )

Re: Ask HN: How many hours do hackers sleep?

#27

Post by abhijat »

staunch wrote: post #11
maratd wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We seem to be cut from the same cloth. I would add that my sleep requirements vary based on my work load. If my work requires me to really think things through, definitely 9 hours to get back to normal. If its routine stuff, I can get away with 7 hours.

I'm with you guys. Do we all not exercise? :-) I ask because during times when I get regular strenuous exercise this number comes down to about 7.5-8 hours.

This is interesting. I sleep close to or less than six hours a day and I work out everyday (lifting heavy weights and running 5 Mi alternate days).

I do get really deep sleep though. I would really prefer if I could sleep longer but my job shifts prevent that.

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