Since years I tried to wake up earlier and reduce my sleep time. But it is a daily struggle for me. By reducing sleeping hours I hope to be able to do more everyday. I know that some people need only 4h sleep and they are full of energy. I wish I could do so but I usually need 8.5 hours. I would like to know how many hours you guys sleep and if you have some tips to reduce sleep time. Do you think we are "born" with a needed amount of sleep or can we change it? I am also interested to know at what time do you wake up every morning.
It doesn't work. You can't change the amount of sleep you need by any significant amount. If you consistently shortchange yourself by a small amount each night, you may be able to <i>convince</i> yourself that you're getting more done ... but you'll actually be less sharp, less productive, less healthy, and much less happy (seriously -- it has big effects on your mood).<p>Read a book like Maas's <i>Power Sleep</i> :<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Power-Sleep-Revolutionary-Prepares-Performance/dp/0060977604/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1202917354&sr=8-1" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/Power-Sleep-Revolutionary-Prepares-Per...</a><p>I'd recommend a better book but I don't know of one yet. I spend my time sleeping rather than hacking sleep.<p>You can tinker with <i>when</i> you sleep (using naps, etc.) to try and improve the quality of your sleep and adjust the times of day when you are most awake for maximum productivity. Just realize that you're basically rearranging your sleep and not magically reducing it.<p>If you can't find time to sleep the 8.5 hours that you need, you need to fix something else. Find a partner. Hire an assistant. Outsource. Prioritize. Postpone unimportant features. Get a better paying job with fewer hours. Play less World of Warcraft. Kill your television. Read David Allen or Tim Ferriss. Set noprocrast to numbers like "1024".
7-8 hours. Never used an alarm clock in my life. Wake up with the sun.<p>Here's a dirty little secret than runs counter to most of the advice in this thread.<p>(% of diet that's fresh fruit & vegetable) is inversely related to (hours of sleep needed)<p>There's some logic to this, too. Fresh fruit requires much less energy to digest --> less sleep needed. Try it for yourself. Eat no processed or cooked food for 3 weeks and see if your sleep requirements change. It usually works for me, until I drive by "Five Guys" and then I can't resist - back to 8 hours.
Studies have shown you need at least 8 hours of continuous sleep if you are on a traditional monophasic sleep schedule. Anything less and you start to accumulate "sleep debt" and performance decreases, among other things.<p>If you are very very serious about reducing total sleep time, you can attempt polyphasic sleep: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyphasic_sleep" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyphasic_sleep</a><p>I recommend trying to find <i>Why We Nap</i> by Dr. Stampi. Its the only detailed research on the subject. Basically, dont trust much of the info about polyphasic sleep around the net as much of it is false.
It doesn't seem to matter to me how much I sleep, I just feel like crap when I have to wake up early, and for me that's unfortunately any point before 8 in the morning. Sometimes I sleep 9 hours, sometimes 6... the only way to not feel crappy is to wake up at 9 in the morning.<p>Same goes for waking up after, say, 9:30 because then I feel guilty about wasting so much time.<p>I have a job and since I need to be there at 9, I have to wake up at 7:30, which means setting the alarm to 6:30 and snoozing for an hour.
9 hours. It seems to correlate with the intellectual demands of whatever I'm working on at the time. If I'm learning a new technology or working on a thorny design issue, it can be as much as 11 hours a night. If I'm cranking out code for something I know how to do in my sleep (no pun intended), as little as 8.<p>I also noticed a big correlation when I was doing math competitions in high school. 9 hours or more of sleep and I could usually get a perfect score without too much trouble. 6 hours or less tended to cut my score in half.<p>For that reason, I try to avoid shortchanging sleep. I figure something important's going on upstairs, and I don't know exactly what it is but if it's missing, it costs more in productivity than it gains in time.<p>I've read that the amount of sleep people require varies a lot from person-to-person...I know some people can get by 3-4 hours a night, but I always feel like shit if I try that. Can't concentrate, wake up with an upset stomach, can't sit down to work. If I have 4 hours of sleep the next day is essentially wasted for me, I might as well have just pulled an all-nighter and gone to bed early the next day.
I usually sleep about 7.5 hours. I don't know any hacks for sleeping less.<p>The best hack I know for getting more done in the same amount of time is to exercise intensely for 45 minutes to an hour every other day. It's best for me when my muscles reach exhaustion during the workout. I need about 30 minutes to an hour to recover, but my mind feels sharper and my enthusiasm is much greater for the rest of the day and the following day. I try to go first thing in the morning.<p>There's obvious health benefits, but I think the biggest benefit for me is psychological/emotional.<p>Thanks for the question! I think it may have inspired me to increase my waning dedication to exercise.
someone needs more sleep:-). The question you are asking is how do you get more done, how do you be more productive?<p>Take care of the usual suspects -- diet, exercise, sleep. Everyone needs different hours of sleep, so don't use that as a metric. The hours you are awake, make sure you are highly focused.<p>The other things that helps me is eating a light dinner (sometimes mostly soup) taken 3-5 hours before I hit the bed.<p>In addition, here are some excellent articles that should get you started.<p>1. Be an early riser: Steve Pavlina -- <a href="http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/05/how-to-become-an-early-riser/" rel="nofollow">http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/05/how-to-become-an-ea...</a><p>2. Take care of your health (diet & exercise), here's Gerry Weinberg's* notes on health: --
<a href="http://www.developerdotstar.com/printable/mag/articles/weinberg_healthybody.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.developerdotstar.com/printable/mag/articles/weinb...</a><p>3. The Programmers’ Stone talks about meditation, diet and sleep -- <a href="http://the-programmers-stone.com/about/what-to-do-per-individual/" rel="nofollow">http://the-programmers-stone.com/about/what-to-do-per-indivi...</a><p>* -- as a side note I highly recommend Gerry's book on technical leadership & secrets of consulting<p>good luck!
About 8.5 is my ideal amount.<p>On the average day I sleep about 7.5. I can sleep unlimited amounts without any of the negative effects people mention, but if I sleep less than 7 it is really noticeable. I also can stay up several days pretty easily, but then I require a bunch of sleep to catch up, so it is pointless.<p>The sleeping unlimited amounts is really quite great for long flights or bus rides - I can just sleep for 20 straight hours.
6-7 hours.<p>i find the trick is to sleep, whenever you are tired, take naps, and don't try to fight it. don't use alarm clocks, and don't lie in bed. you should either be asleep or awake, but don't lie in bed trying to decide. i also found that having a bedroom face east, does wonders for your biological clock and keeping it really regular.
I need about 9 hours, more if I've skimped lately and less if I haven't. I have an alarm set for 8AM but that's only because my work time is not entirely flexible. I'd probably wake up between 9 and 10 if I could set my own schedule. I could probably cut this down a little bit by improving my sleep quality (I often wake up at 4AM and can't get back to sleep), but I haven't really investigated that fully.<p>But to step back a level, there are probably other time sucks you could cut back on other than sleep. For me those things are surfing pr0n and the sort of unfocused yak shaving that could be avoided by just getting enough sleep.<p>Cutting back on sleep seems like denying yourself something pleasurable that your body needs anyway. It's like trying to not masturbate.
I need about 7 hours, my girlfriend needs 8-10, so we tend to compromise somewhere in the middle, with me continuing to read for a while after she's fallen asleep. I must not sleep much longer than 8 hours though, or I end up lethargic and unproductive and also unable to fall asleep the next night.<p>For me, the main sleep-related productivity boosters are making sure I <i>can</i> and <i>do</i> actually sleep, which took me years, (lying awake until 4am+ sucks big time) and making sure I'm ready to work at about 8-8:30 in the morning. 8:30 to 11:30 easily is my most productive time of day, probably 2-3 times as productive as other times.<p>I wouldn't bother trying to reduce sleep time. Optimise your awake time for happiness and productivity.
In college, I experimented on myself to see how much I needed. I found that <5 hours over time led to bad things for me (hallucinating, shaking), and surprisingly that >7 made me groggier than anything in between 5 and 7.<p>So that's what I shoot for.
I usually sleep 6.5 hours each night. I don't have a set "bedtime," but I'm awake every morning at 07h30.<p>One of the most important things that you can do is just get up, once your alarms rings don't hit snooze, just get up! It's easier once it becomes a habbit.<p>I usually drag myself out of bed with my blanket, turn on the kettle and do some stretching on the lounge floor. I drink tea, eat cereal and then I shower.
I used to brag about how little sleep I've gotten, but lately I've seen that as much more of a short-coming. I've been able to measure my productivity on weeks where I've had good nights' sleep and weeks where I haven't, and even though I maybe work more with less sleep, I accomplish much less.
6 hours on average. Lately, I've been staying up to 2-3 am and waking up between 8-9 am. I'd like to shift that an hour earlier, but it's been hard to break the habit. I never napped before, and generally don't like to, but I'm finding now that it helps if I take a short 30 minute nap at some point of the day.<p>And I work from home, which makes this schedule possible. I tend to take about an hour after waking up to get started working and then stop work from around 6:00 pm to 10:30 pm to be with my wife and daughter. Then back to work when everyone goes to sleep. So that's 8-9 hours during the day and another 4 hours or so at night.<p>Before I got married I would sometimes go on really long working binges of like 16 - 20 hours or longer and then take a day or so off. Honestly, I prefer working in spurts like that.
What is it with all these ASK YC lifestyle questions? Are we trying to define success in terms of things like sleep/watches tv?<p>Ah most hackers get 6 hours of sleep! I should too then my startup will succeed.<p>Sorry, but seriously... A few are kind of interesting, but how many more of these questions are to come?
Different people do need different amounts of sleep, but also, the same people will need different amounts of sleep at different points in their life. Young children don't need as much. Teenagers need quite a bit because their body is growing rapidly. College level people through their 30s can usually get by with little sleep, then you need more as you get older.<p>I try and shoot for around 8 hours of sleep each night. You could argue that I could get more work done if I only got 5 or 6 hours, but the quality of the work would not be the same. I also find that going to bed at 11 and waking up at 7 is not the same for me as going to bed at 2 and waking up at 10.<p>Einstein and Donald Trump supposedly needed very little sleep which is why they could work so hard.
<i>"... By reducing sleeping hours I hope to be able to do more everyday. I know that some people need only 4h sleep and they are full of energy. I wish I could do so but I usually need 8.5 hours. I would like to know how many hours you guys sleep and if you have some tips to reduce sleep time. Do you think we are "born" with a needed amount of sleep or can we change it? ..."</i><p>Sleeping 4 hours a day and feeling refreshed! Fatigued more like it. I certainly don't believe it. I've had stretches of months with only 4 hours sleep per day. I functioned but only at a base level. I didn't feel refreshed staying up 76hrs at a time. [0] For me and (we are all individuals) I need a good 8Hrs. If I don't, I'm one sorry mess to work with. Communication is by grunt.<p><pre><code> With rest, bit of exercise, food I work far better and do tasks far better
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You need sleep. If you don't get enough sleep there is enough studies [1] to suggest performance at a lot of levels is severely reduced. Sleep deprivation is also form of mental torture. I don't know why anyone would want to have less sleep and as a result do things worse than they can.<p><pre><code> Trying to avoid sleep is a symptom
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What is the real problem? Are you trying to do more with the time you have? Is it a time management issue? Is it an issue of living far from your work and travelling? Do you have poor sleep hygiene? Do you work in a job that <i>"demands"</i> so much it requires you to miss something so basic as sleep?<p><pre><code> Is your boss torturing you?
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Re-define the problem. Is it sleep you need to miss out on or is it something else?<p>[0] 3 days doesn't sound like much bit it is. An interesting experiment was to find ways to keep me awake. Funny but some Yoga & breathing worked a charm. Another thing is I learnt how cat-nap. Fall asleep, deep sleep at a moments notice. Day or night.<p>[1] BetterHealth, Victorian Gov, "Sleep deprivation" ~
<a href="http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/BHCV2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Sleep_deprivation?OpenDocument" rel="nofollow">http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/BHCV2/bhcarticles.nsf/pag...</a>
Varies by how long I've been awake. 5 - 6 hours on weeknights. 8 - 9 on weekends (but the entire 'day' - from time I woke up on Friday to time I wake up on Saturday, for instance - will be longer than 24hrs total). I can get by on 4 or 9, but usually less than 5 for 2 days in a row or more than 9 under any conditions and I feel like hell all day. When I have extended periods (more than 5 or 6 days) where I have no particular reason to get up at a certain time, I fall into a sleeping pattern essentially the same as the '28 hour day / 6 day week'. My sleeping habits have been about the same since puberty, and my mom's are about the same as mine (my dad sleeps about 9hrs a night).
2-5 hours a night, but I've only been doing that for the past 4 years.<p>My family members have seen sleep specialists, and according to them, the "people need 8 hours a night" argument is not true for everyone. Different people need different amounts. And if you actually read the research papers (it's been a couple years, so I'm not sure of links), scientists don't even know with 100% certainty what the purpose of sleep is.<p>However, that being said, there was a study done recently showing a correlation between getting less than 5 hours a night and heart problems later on in life. This has prompted me to start averaging closer to 5 hours than 2 hours lately.
Let your body regulate your sleep, it's his job, just trust him and let it go and you'll be surprised at how much good he is at it. No expert can beat your body in this field.<p>Thinking about how much time and how you should sleep just brings an unnecessary cloud to your consciousness, wich is a limited and precious ressource. Keep the sky clear, focus on your objectives, be passionate about them and your body will just follow and gives you what you need. In return just listen to him and sleep when you feel tired. The quality of your sleep will be astounding.
As the father of three young children who <i>finally</i> are all <i>usually</i> sleeping through the night, I am all too familiar with the difference between four, six, and seven hours of sleep.<p>I haven't tried anything fancy like polyphasic sleep, but I can say that simply "reducing sleeping hours" is not going to make you "able to do more everyday". It's going to make you spend more time staring at your monitor going "uuuhhhh".
6 hours usually - 7 if I'm lucky. Can't usually get to sleep before 1am - usually the kids are up by 7, I can sometimes stay in bed until 8. I wish I slept more actually - I really sometimes do feel like I am brain damaging myself. But I try and take a nap around 7pm usually - a half hour or hour while the kids go to bed - then I get up - watch TV and hang out with the missus, and get to work.
Averaging 5.5 hours right now (with the help of 3 cups of Earl Grey and 2 hard-core commute bike rides each day up beyond category climbs). But this little sleep is not recommended except during a definite deadline after which one can recover. My average without pressure is 6.5 to 7 hours, Studies seem to show that 7 hours is a good healthy amount of sleep.
I find it depends on whats on my mind. Many times I will wake up earlier then I wanted and cannot get back to sleep because I start thinking of things I need/want to get done.
Currently I probably get around 6 - 7, 8 would be a good sleep and 4 - 5 hours on a bad night...
I wouldn't worry about it too much, even sleeping 9 hours leaves 15 hours for the day.
6hrs - 7A<p>Something that got engrained in me, is that you tell yourself what time you are going to wake up, and then you make it standard, 7 days a week. Your body will adjust quickly and you will be tired when you need to be tired. Also sleep in 90 minute cycles, so I go to bed around 1A every night. if you still feel really tired during the day, take a nap < 20mins.
4-6 hours. every week or two i get a night of 7 or 8 to catch up. can't say its the healthiest thing but i'm still productive. the more annoying part is that my hours are slowly shifting around i've been going to sleep at 10am sleeping till 2pm these days and its my second time all the way around 24 hour clock in the last 3 months :(
9 hours. But I can easily sleep up to 10 hours!<p>Anyway, I don't care about my time of sleep if I can be very focused in my work for several hours. And this does happen often (when I'm not reading News.YC, heh).<p>I believe there are enough hours to work each day if you are really focused in what you do and if you're really feeling rested with your sleep time.
5-6 hours a night, I use up until 12 or to work and then wind down for an hour or two playing games or watching a movie with my wife<p>I should be getting more, but there is just too much to do and not enough time to do it all in.<p>8:30-9 commute, 9-5 work, 5-6 commute, dinner, then work again on my startup, then some games for the icing on the days cake.
I was able to manage 3-4 hours sleep to be able to continue learning outside of my 9-5! My first week of doing this resulted in a onversation with my manager telling me to shape up or ship out. I was okay afterwards. The human body is a wonderful thing , it seems to adjust to whatever you throw at it!
I think it also varies by events. An exciting project that's nearing crunch time can get me running on just a few hours, the eyes snap open at 6:15 and life is fun (or...) til 2am. But don't try to keep running at that pace more than a few weeks if that long.
If I wake up by eastern light: 6-7 hours.
If I try to sleep through: 9-10 hours; sometimes more.<p>Sometimes I feel like I have very 'important' dreams that never resolve themselves. This keeps me in my bed for a <i>long time</i>.
About 8-9 hours. I strive to sleep enough, and have noticed that trying to cut on sleeping does not work for me. I can sleep even longer, especially if I don't have any interesting/urgent tasks to accomplish.
I usually sleep 6-7 hrs, but I need 7.5 to be at my best. I wake up at 6:45 normally, 6:30 this morning to shovel snow.<p>If you are at your best after 8.5 hrs, listen to your body and don't try to reduce sleep time.
I typically get 6-7 a night. If I'm going to be tired it's usually during the day; inevitably, even without much sleep (or coffee), I really wake up around 11pm
5-6 on weeknights, 7-8 on weekends. Wake-up time is all across the board, which is not a good thing, but I spend a lot of time in different time zones.
i slept 12 hours out of 85 this week.. but then caught up just now so it's 25 out of 100 - or averaging 6 hours a night. i can't fit my sleep within a standard 24 hour period - in particular i find it hard sleeping twice within 18 hours. but on average i find i need to catch up to something fairly standard.
There is no general rule here:<p>I know persons who need at least 8 hours of sleep, and I know others who are more fortunate and only need about 4-5 hours.<p>It depends mostly on how sane you are in general (last not least: how your infancy has been: very, very important!).