Any way to get by with sleeping less?

[Syringer]

So I sleep quite a bit compared to a lot of people I know..I usually sleep around 8 hours a night, and sometimes when I go home I might nap for another half hour to an hour...and even then I sometimes feel tired in class.

People around me tend to get by with just 6-7 hours a night, and they seem fine with that.

So are there any methods for me to start REMing (which I think is the right term) quicker?

 

[FoBoT]

yes, get old

i noticed that i can get by with less sleep the older i get

i haven't slept more than 9-10 hours in a row in many years

i normally sleep 5-7 hours a night during the work week and 7-8 friday night to "catch up"

 

[amdskip]

Sometimes short little power naps work for me.

 

[Zebo]

Age my friend. I'm 32 and only sleep 4 hours a night but i used to sleep 10 in college.

 

[MacBaine]

You just need to learn how to shut half of your brain off at a time... like dolphins!

 

[N8Magic]

I sleep 9+ hours each and every day.

 

[pinoy]

Originally posted by: Carbonyl
Age my friend. I'm 32 and only sleep 4 hours a night but i used to sleep 10 in college.

DITTO! But i'm afraid this thing will prolly catch up with me in the future.

 

[Shockwave]

Holy crap. You guys are lucky.
My average night of sleep is around 4, 4.5 hours. Anything over 5 is a good nights sleep for me. A bad night is under 4.

As for how, just do it. Your body will adapt to getting less sleep, but getting it there is a pain. So, only sleep 5 hours a night, and maybe have a 1 hour nap during the day. You'll come around after a while and be fine. Also, exercise some. Dont just sit around posting on ATOT all day.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Eat healthy and exercise to crank up your metabolism. At first you might be even more tired but eventually you'll need less sleep and be in better shape. Win-win.

 

[everman]

There has been a lot of study devoted to sleep and what it is for and how much is needed. From what I remember, it is more about resting your brain than the rest of your body (at least for those of us who say, go to school and don't do anything very physical). I believe it is deep sleep which is best and the most "restfull". Personally I like to sleep around 7-8 hrs.

 

[KokomoGST]

I was talking with VERY smart guy recently, and he mentioned that there is a way he manages to get by with 4hrs of sleep everyday. He's spastically energetic, sharp as a razor's edge every single time I meet him, amazing. And he was once studying for two PhDs at once (he's down to one now).

Anywho, he read a book about how many world leaders don't really sleep that much... read up more on the subject and found out that the majority of time you sleep isn't "deep" sleep but rather an attempt to get there. And because after a few years and careful monitoring of his health and response to gradual cutdown on sleep, he's gotten down to 4hours because he's managed to significantly shorten the time to get into deep sleep.

Personally, I think I can live with around 7-8hrs at the very least since my sleep isn't just for the mind, it's a good part of muscular recovery... so if you workout, prolly not a good idea to go low on sleep. Whenever I do, I can feel my body complaining.

 

[Swag1138]

I used to be able to get by on 4 hours. Now I sleep 10 to 12 hours, cause I have nothing to do.

Being unemployed sux0rz

 

[xuanman]

are you in college? sleeping for 8 hours starting at 11pm is a lot different than sleeping for 8 hours starting at 4 am.
i read somewhere that margaret thatcher while she was pm of england slept only 3-4 hours a night...she must have been a machine

 

[Mallow]

lots of napping.

 

[Bullhonkie]

Wish I knew. I need 9 to 10 (and sometimes more) hours of sleep to be fully awake and alert throughout the day. Any less and I'm just totally out of it. I'm often afraid to sleep on days when I can sleep in the next day, because I've been known to sleep 12-14 hours straight when given the opportunity.

 

[Babbles]

I have always thought if I had one super ability type thing would be to live without the need of sleep.
There is just way too much I could get done if I didn't have to sleep. The ironic part is I love sleeping, however I just see it as a huge waste of time.

 

[Mrfrog840]

5-6 during week. i have 0 hour pretty early. on weekends, go to bed around 3am wake up around 10am

 

[aphex]

im runnin about 5-6 or so lately, 7-8 if im lucky.

 

[KingNothing]

On a related note, the physiological effects of not going to bed at all are interesting, at least for me. I normally get 7 hours a night or so, but one night I didn't go to bed. Around 6:30 in the morning I got really tired but I forced myself to stay up, and then I got progressively more awake. By 10 am I felt like I was hopped up on caffeine and a little giddy. Wasn't tired at all the rest of the day and I went to bed at normal time that night.

 

[Supermercado]

I wish I knew. I usually get between 5 and 6. In bed around 3 and up around 9 during the week. On the weekends, in bed around 3-4 or sometimes a little later and not usually up before 1 on the weekends.

 

[slydecix]

i get anywhere from 4-11 hrs a night in any given week...

...this one time i slept for 16 hours straight cuz i pulled an all-nighter to study the day before... not good

 

[GiLtY]

I sleep on average 7~8 hours a day, on a bad day less than 6. On weekends it's sleep-in time!

There is a certain amount of sleep that you need, I read a news article that says 7~8 hours of sleep is about enough for an average person (young adult), anything significantly above/below that is not healthy for you. So just develop a good sleep habit, try to sleep in a designated time, and don't try to pull an all nighter too often...

 

[wnied]

In a pinch I use brainwave sounds I downloaded off of WinMX. My cousin showed me these tracks of sounds, and your supposed to go through them and see which are the most soothing to you. Once you find one you place it on a repetitive low volume loop that will lull you into a deeper sleep. Relaxing your subconcious into a Deep REM sleep faster, so even a lower amount of time slept is still refreshing. I have also found that "White Noise" helps too.

~wnied~

 

[Chaotic42]

Man, I sleep a lot.

I sleep like 10-14 hours a day. I'm just bored a lot, and the only thing to do is sleep. In the summer, I can go outside, but not now!

 

[OS]

Originally posted by: Elitebull
i get anywhere from 4-11 hrs a night in any given week...

...this one time i slept for 16 hours straight cuz i pulled an all-nighter to study the day before... not good

heh, once when I was still at berkeley, I went almost 3 days without sleep cause of finals and papers due. Slept 18 hours after that.