I'm halfway through Matthew Walker's Why We Sleep. And it's terrifying. The medical implications of insufficient sleep are rather worrisome.<p><a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/295665/why-we-sleep/9780141983769.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/295665/why-we-sleep/97801419...</a>
I work in Academia. I sleep after lunch every day. I have lunch in 30 minutes and then I sleep 20 minutes. I have an sleeping mat and a pillow in my office and I sleep on the floor. It really boosts my afternoon productivity, specially now that I have a baby and wake up several times during the night. During the weekends I sleep a little longer. I've been doing this for many years and I struggle a little bit when in meetings and conferences, where I can't sleep. But I'm learning to nap anywhere. ;-)
It is important that people realize sleep cycles do exist, but this seems a bit strawman-ish. If someone says "you need about 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep" I would rather take that as meaning things like "don't get up after just 5 hours" and "don't get up and check ebay auctions in the middle of the night even if it just takes 10 minutes", not "don't panic if you naturally wake up at 4am".<p>-----<p>Btw, on<p>> Historical records also suggest that a segmented or bi-phasic sleep pattern was the norm before the industrial revolution.<p>there's an interesting comment at <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18051041" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18051041</a>
Having become a dad for the first time 14 months ago had quite the impact on the amount of uninterrupted sleep I have been getting since. I consider 4 hours in one stretch a good night. Averages are closer to 3 hours. My son simply is not a good sleeper.<p>Even though my son brings a lot of fun to mine and my partner's life, I have not felt well-rested since his birth, and feel impacted both mentally and fysically due to that.
You can meditate, you can chug red bull or coffee, you can use pomodoro's or live your life in a GTD system, but nothing will compare to the productivity increase of getting a good nights sleep.
I've tried multiple different sleep approaches in order to maximize "awake" time, but defaulted back to exactly 8h/day - my body simply takes 8 uninterrupted hours and wakes me up precisely without any alarm clock. While experimenting, I saw energy/cognitive decline (tested) after a while, correcting when going back to 8h, so multi-phase sleep is definitely not for me.
At night i tend to get around 6 hours or so.
I work from home and tend to find a 90 minute nap, as my (long) lunch break really works well for me. I eat my lunch whilst i work. This wouldn't work onsite, I'm sure, but it really works well for me.<p>Gives me that little pick me up in the afternoon that i used to power through with LOTS of coffee. Down to one coffee a day now
This linked article by the same author is a bit better: <a href="https://theconversation.com/broken-sleep-its-a-rollercoaster-ride-1792" rel="nofollow">https://theconversation.com/broken-sleep-its-a-rollercoaster...</a>.
I'm totally fine with splitting sleep in two, but it's incompatible with most jobs and even social stuff.<p>It's hard to find a fixed 2,5h slot that can be blocked every day. I could only do it during my high-school times.
I personally know a case of trying the "uberman" sleep schedule (aka "da vinci" sleep schedule, or ~30min sleep every four hours, permanently), having tried hard but could never completely convert to the schedule, where doing so is one of two strong possible causes of the individual now suffering very debilitating Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and can no longer work regularly despite years of medical tests and efforts.
I sleep from 1am - 4am and then take 2 x 30 minute naps at 11am and 6pm. I've done this for a very long time. As a child and teenager I was often forced to try and sleep so I just lay awake. Once it was realized that I just couldn't sleep I was allowed to do quiet tasks like read or after I learned to code, code :-)
My digestion won't support 8 hours of uninterrupted anything. I'm up 2-3 times every night, as though I had a young child, but I'm single. Some nights, I'll be up for an hour or more, then return to bed for "second sleep".
I've experimented with two 3-4 hour sleep periods and it is great, two fresh starts per day... but only works if you don't have anything resembling a normal schedule.
On the subject of Why We Sleep: I'm not sure how well it corresponds to the book, but Matthew Walker also has a Google Talks talk on the same subject that I recommend watching if you're not a book person:<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXflBZXAucQ" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXflBZXAucQ</a>
From a human performance and health point of view, yes, you need between 7-9 hrs of sleep a night.<p>It doesn't need to be continuous or perfect, but good sleep is going to have a huge impact on your quality of life.<p>In the short term, you can deal with the less, but your cognitive function, physical performance and metabolism are going to be impaired.
Meh. I don't really buy into this biphasic hype. If I go to sleep in the afternoon, my body still wants several hours sleep and I'll wake up groggy, disoriented and more tired than before.<p>I can live on 6, and feel bad. 8 is good. 9 is better. 10 is common for me at weekends when I have no particular plans.