Ask HN: How much do you sleep? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How much do you sleep?

50 pointsKevin_S86 comments

And how does that impact your productivity?

My biggest problem with sleep is the fixed working schedule I have to follow. The 9-to-5 is killing me. It's not that there isn't enough time to sleep, it's that I cannot convince my body to go to sleep if it doesn't feel like it. Just last night I stood awake till 5 a.m. unable to fall asleep despite all efforts. The problem is that my natural clock seems to be working on a 26-7 hours per day cycle and I cannot fit this properly into the regular working hours. This leads to general accumulation of tiredness during the week and on Friday I need a total reset by going to bed early. At least now I know what to look for in future job opportunities.

Wake up at the same time every day. Pick that time and stick to it. Whether you get too little sleep or not.

I've tried doing that. Even if it is possible, I really don't like it. When married to a fixed schedule, life just isn't as much fun for me.

Have you considered a polyphasic sleep schedule? If you truly do have a non-standard circadian rhythm, you should be able to adapt one of the dual core schedules towards it.

https://www.polyphasicsociety.com

Maybe? I was thinking more that stuff comes up that affects my schedule, and I don't be forced into living with the constraints of a 10 p.m. bedtime (or whatever time I set). More to the point, I am more disciplined about getting to bed before 12 a.m. I do not want to go bed at a fixed time.

I think it can make one feel trapped. Trapped to a schedule.

But you have to think of it as something that you choose, i.e. your own limitation, not some external limitation.

Having a normal circadian rhythm makes the rest of life a lot more enjoyable (fun) than not. Especially after 30.

Agreed, 5 years ago I would have made the same post. I just did the "wake up" time for 4-6 months, which had a lot of bad days, but eventually it clicked in that I wake up then, so I get tired at 12.

Also, get some exercise. I have a hard time falling asleep if I haven't done enough physical activity during the day.

I've personally tried this, and it only sometimes works. It depends on the wakeup time. I can go as early as 9am and feel rested. This is a few hours before my natural waking time - and wake up. 8am? That's a bit of a struggle, but overall doable. Any earlier than that and I get a sleep debt. The quality of sleep simply isn't good enough to keep me going and it winds up bad for my mental health.

To be fair, I've been like this since I was a child. Everyone thought I'd grow out of it, but I'm 39. I work evenings and nights with some ease, though, and luckily have generally had jobs that start later in the day or allow days I can sleep later (even if I had a few early days during the week).

I had this problem all my life. Now I take 500 micrograms of melatonin every night an hour before bed. I'm out like a light.

It might not be for everyone, but it's changed the way I feel about sleeping. And it's non-habituating

Yeah. Melatonin works unreasonably well for me too, and it's as "natural" and side-effect-free as a drug can be. Definitely worth trying.

How has it affected your quality of sleep? Do the same hours as before make you feel equally rested?

Personally when I take melatonin, I fall asleep quickly but I get weird dreams and I feel my sleep quality isn't the same. I took it for a little while (a couple of months) and now only take it when I'm really struggling to fall asleep.

I've tried it a couple times. I have to allow extra time to sleep and have someone there to wake me up since I sleep even heavier than normal - more chance to miss the alarm, unfortunately. I wake up groggy, but once that passes I'm very, very well-rested. Also, I get weird dreams as well.

I decided long ago I wouldn't try it again without a doctor's advice, which is probably a good thing since now I live in Norway and it is only available with prescription. Some folks do wind up needing it if they take it every night, though. I worked in a pharmacy in the states and heard the pharmacists' advice on this very thing many times.

It's really easy to develop a tolerance and a reliance on it though. That's the downside to a supplement like melatonin.

My understanding from speaking with sleep specialists is that you'd need to take a large amount every day for weeks or months to develop a tolerance. They thus recommend cycling off melatonin bi-weekly or monthly for a little while.

(Sorry, no source other than time spent visiting the Cornell Sleep Institute.)

I highly recommend you try meditation, not just because it reduces the total amount of sleep you need ( https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2919439/ ), but also because it sounds likes it'll teach you how to drift asleep more easily.

Yoga is also another great option, but just know that both of these will require a small amount of dedication.

That's really interesting! Now all we need to do is find a MED where we save more time sleeping than we need to invest meditating. Although that might be offset by the amount of focus we gain by meditating as it would allow us to be more efficient.

I have this exact same problem. There aren't enough hours in the day...

I had the same problem. In fact, for a couple of semesters in college I followed the 28 hour day schedule:

https://xkcd.com/320/

These days my biggest problem is waking up too early, not too late.

What worked for me:

1. eliminating caffeine from my diet, saving it for medicinal purposes. Ibuprofen + caffeine is an order of magnitude more effective for me than ibuprofen by itself; but that's because I'm no longer caffeine tolerant. (See #4)

2. No screens after 8PM.

3. Better reasons for going to bed and waking up early. AKA a wife to share the bed and kids to get to school.

4. Getting older. Biologically, 7 year olds & 50 year olds share a propensity for waking up early, with teenagers the highest propensity for sleeping in. You don't have to wait until you're 50, it gets better in your thirties, in my experience.

I've tried most of the advices mentioned except (serious) meditation and melatonin. Exercise has the opposite effect for me - it pumps me up and makes falling asleep even more difficult, and since I exercise 3-4 days per week after work, this is the main driver that keeps me awake. I also wake up every day at the same time. The problem is not the waking up part but the general feeling of exhaustion that accumulates during the day and the week because when I feel like falling asleep (between 1 and 4 pm) I am at my busiest at work, so I just push through and by the time I am at home and ready to relax, my body has given up on the idea of sleep.

Have you tried exercising before work? I've been doing 1hr to 1.5 hr runs before work once a week and I'm always relatively sleepy by the time the sun goes down those days, as long as I haven't had caffeine after 2ish pm.

Between 7-8 hours usually. My son tends to get up at 5:30am, so the rest of the household does too. It was 4:30am this morning, though. Teething pain :(

That pretty much means my wife and I went from about a midnight bedtime to 9pm, which makes us feel really old & boring but it's the only way to make sure we have enough sleep to have a happy, productive day.

If I don't get enough sleep, my Tourette Syndrome gets worse. I also tend to get depressed & a little grouchy. It affects my decision making, and I have too many people depending on me to let that happen.

6.5 to 7 hours during the work week, and I notice my productivity drops off after two days or so. Productivity drop off manifests as worsened ability to focus and making decisions, and by my mood getting bad in general, which can also affect collaboration with others.

On the weekend I sleep up to 11 or even 12 hours in the first night, and 9 to 10 in the second. During holidays, 9 hours seem to be the sweet spot for me, which adjusts itself to be between 2.30am and 11.30am.

I'd like to sleep more during the week, but I just cannot get myself into bed before midnight. I don't feel tired enough and frankly I'm afraid of lying awake too long and being alone with my thoughts.

I'm also guaranteed to have a bad day when I don't have enough time before leaving for work. I need at least 1, better 1.5 hours between getting out of bed and leaving for work, plus a 30 minute commute by bike. This also limits my ability to sleep enough during the week.

7-9 hours. I require less sleep when I look after my body and eat healthily. For those who struggle to sleep, you may want to look into meditation when you are in bed. Effectively you focus on a single point and slowly your mind clears, kinda feels like it's shutting down regions. Then sleep comes naturally after, takes me about 20 mins with this technique. Concentrate on your heartbeat or breathing, and know that the more you do it the easier it gets.

This my sound strange, but has anyone tried this and had that sensation that if you stop thinking about your heart or breathing, they will stop?

Jesus, I must be filled with anxiety.

I actually find it quite relaxing, as they are both constants. You may just have to do it a few times to remove your anxiety.

Perhaps, but I think it just isn't for me. It feels unnnatural to think about it, even though I know that a lot of people say this helps them.

You may want to consider something a little more casual. I like this breathing pattern:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Wg-UAYGa2A

I settled on using a mental image due to the fact that I couldn't help controlling my breathing when I focused on it. I find that it's harder to hold your focus on an image than an automatic bodily function, but the tradeoff is that it's easier to disassociate.

After enough practice, you may even start to disassociate from your anxiety (as in be able to view it metacognitively, be aware and become friends with it rather than get rid of it).

8 hours when I have time. 7 to 4 in a crunch. I try to control the sleep debt and pay it off ASAP, or next weekends.

Lack of sleep has a noticeable effect on productivity (especially error rate). When I was younger I did not notice it so vividly, which I ascribe strictly to improved introspection.

One of the best vacations in my life, after a particularly hard project, involved having 12-16 hours of sleep every day, for two weeks, without any drugs; just a calm winter forest away from civilization. It did wonders to my productivity and cognitive ability. In 6 months past it I quickly learned a huge bunch of apparently hard things that propelled me for years after that.

I try to get 8-9 hours a night. I usually go to bed at 10pm and wake at 7am. I wish I could sleep less, but I just feel terrible when I do. At least I hope that I'm more productive the time I'm actually awake.

I had this same problem. But having to wake up to get the kid to the bus left me little choice.

Take a look at your diet. I cut out refined sugars and switched to a (mostly) LCHF diet and I can now function at nearly 100% on as little as 4 hours of sleep. Most nights I get 5-6 hours and can usually function at 100% as long as I get a good 7-8 hours once every week or so.

While running Camarades/ww.com I got by with 3 to 5 hours of sleep per night, usually because I could not fall asleep and then finally I'd fall asleep near daybreak and then sleep until 11 am. This was pretty terrible, combined with flying back and forth between Canada and the Netherlands it really drained me. It's not that I spent less time in bed, I just could not sleep until I was physically overwhelmed.

I'm in better physical shape now than back then, cycle more, eat better and no longer have the crazy travel schedule and I'm sleeping much better now, usually 6 to 7 hours but it still isn't 'normal' in that I often am awake in the middle of the night and sleep during the day, especially when work is more demanding.

Productivity has never really been an issue, no matter what the sleep regime was.

8 hours minimum, anything less than that I feel like crap. I also NEVER get sick. Ever.

FLW!

6 to 7 hours during the week, on weekends mostly 7..8, rarely up to 10 hours. In my teens and twenties I had a hard time getting up early, but this gets better with age ;)

PS: productivity is only affected if I only get 3..4 hrs sleep for 2 or 3 days. I'm basically useless then. The more important decision was to get up early and not working late, this reduced 'latent burnout' symptoms dramatically.

I started measuring my sleep this year.

The data is as follows:

I feel well and I can focus if I sleep for 8:00-8:30 hours. If I sleep less than 7:00-7:30 hours per day I feel unwell and I cannot concentrate. In between 7:30-8:00 hours I can somewhat concentrate but not for too long.

Sleeping longer over weekends does not work for me, since I still wake up at (usually) about the same time every day. So I still sleep about the same time every day.

I sleep for 7 hours, my partner sleeps for ~ 8.5.

Things I've noted:

- My sleep "schedule" doesn't have enough hours in the day. Monday I'm asleep at 10, Tuesday 11, Wednesday 12... etc

- Lying in bed when not tired destroys any chance of a good nights sleep.

- Lack of sleep = angry/bad mood. Bad mood = flustered/annoyed at things (noise/distraction/annoying problem) = No productivity.

During the week? 6 hours. Weekends are closer to 8. My time in the Army destroyed my ability to sleep in :(

Why did your time in the Army destroy your ability to sleep?

I've heard rumors that if anything the exhaustion taught you how to fall asleep at anywhere/anywhere.

Not sleep in the general sense, but sleeping late into the morning. Years of having to be in formation at 0600 every morning have trained me to rise before dawn :(

On the upside, some of my most productive coding time is during the quiet morning hours before the wife and kids get up.

Quite good question. I used to sleep 8~9 hours, less (and more as someone already pointed) meant i was not very productive, made more mistakes, and i was irritated whole next day.

But for more then a year I'm a father, so now much changed. Now I sleep 5-7 hours, often with breaks during night. For example, tonight we had some problem and o lot of crying due to daughter's ear infection. I sleep 5,5hrs with 2 breaks.

How do I feel now? Unexpectedly well. I need little longer sturt-up in the morning - plus good coffee. I know that my productivity, creativity, and susceptibility to errors are little down, but I can tell that my body switched to new scheme and it's not such a bad think as i thought.

Also, all my troubles with falling asleep, etc, all are gone now. I know that you can handle much more then you think :)

5 hours on a bad night. 7 on a good night. Not including the 50 or so minutes awake in the middle of the night.

I'm extremely unproductive on the days I get 5 hours, and can work around 4 hours/day when I get 7. I'd probably be extremely productive if I can get 9 hours of sleep.

About six hours per night. Never more than seven. I've been working from home on my own schedule for years, so productivity is probably not impacted either way. I seem to be consistently waking up at 0425 in the mornings. I'm 31, more or less male-bodied, and I've taken exercise only once in the last two years -- biking 70 miles to see the eclipse. I suspect I'm too much of an outlier to be of any use to this discussion, but I would like to suggest that the "early to bed, early to rise" phrase has some truth to it. I also think that proper sleep is more important than anyone's business schedule, but I don't know how well that one might go over with employers.

At 46 I used to be well and good with just 4h sleep.

Four months ago I started a new job at a nearby university campus and there are secure bike lanes the whole 7 miles from my home to the office. In the middle of the traject there is a park with outdoor fitness equipment where I make a stop and do some pull-ups and push-ups.

Since I started biking to the work I have a lower level of energy unless I rest for at least 7-8 hours. I don't know if is the age kicking in or if it is the less sedentary lifestyle.

The change in the sleep pattern combined with my 4yo autistic kid demanding my full attention at home (he was diagnosed early and is doing very well) diminished my availability for side projects.

Based on my experience:

Apart from number of hours, it is also important that you sleep sound. 7 hrs of sleep for a person with no sleep disorder and person with sleep apnea has different impact on productivity.

For me this is what I have found age < 20: Sleep hours never impacted my productivity, even if awake all night. 20-30 Years of age: Min 5 Hrs of sleep and I was 100% productive. 30-35+: Productivity got impacted if I slept less than 6. At present(35-40): I am 100% ONLY if I sleep more than 7.5 Hrs.

Every now and then we see studies come out and researchers tell us the importance of sleep and its impact on our brains. I found it to be true in my case.

Pretty much always between 7 to 8 hours, if less then it becomes super difficult on second part of the, if too long then strangely it's harder in the first part of the day. Might be related to sleep cycles from which i wake up.

I usually go to bed between 10-11 and read (non-light emitting eink screen). Lights out is almost always around 11:45. I wake anywhen from 6:30 to 7:30 usually.

My kids (both on the autism spectrum) use 1-3mg Melatonin and have from a young age, otherwise they would never sleep. If I'm travelling or find I have a few nights in a row with trouble getting to sleep I'll take it for a few days too. Works well.

The quality of your sleep is an important factor too. If you suspect you may have obstructive sleep apnea then go get it checked out. It may be the cause of all manner of irregularities in your sleep routine.

Many activity trackers will provide stats about how much you sleep, and how you compare with the rest of the population. I appreciate your question is about HN readers rather than fitness nerds, but there might be an overlap.

I sleep about 5-6 hours on average. Generally, I feel well rested with this amount, but I can function on 3-4 hours per night for a few weeks without serious ill effect. I just feel slightly groggy, although at the end, I will have a "hard crash" where I sleep more than 12 hours. If I'm ill, I will sleep 8-10 hours a night. I think this is mostly genetic, because my father has been going to bed at 9 or 10 PM and waking up at 3 AM for as long as I can remember. I usually stay up later, but sleep about the same amount.

I used to sleep usually on average 7 hrs when i worked the regular 10 am to 6pm shift. However , working 1 pm to 11 pm shift nowdays and tend to turn in much late than before however wake up earlier than 7 hrs to study for an exam that i am preparing for alongside. I I have observed my productivity in view of this routine to be at peak later in the day rather night when lesser to no distractions or people in office. However am trying to balance out my routine to get the magic number 7 hrs of sleep.

7-8 hours every night. If I sleep 4 to 5 hours I am equally as productive as when I sleep 7 to 8 hours however I can only keep that up for a couple days, before loss of productivity.

Yeah pretty much this; on average I sleep 7 hours, but I can go in to "overdrive" mode and sleep less hours while not losing focus/drive to produce, this only lasts 2 days though, after that I really need to "recalibrate"

I used to be a bad sleeper , like sleeping only for 3-4 hrs work week. it badly affected my digestion, I got fat, I was weak, I ate junk and I drank more coffee and I was always dizzy and confused. The day I decided I need to sleep more and started to sleep for 6-7hrs every day and doing this consistently have improved my focus , less coffee and no frustration and I am active and lost few pounds. This is my personal opinion. things improve if you sleep more. 6-8 hrs is good.

When things are going well I sleep about 8 or 9 good hours, and I feel rested and able to cope with the day ahead.

When things are not so good I sleep maybe 4 hours of broken sleep.

When things are bad I might get one or two hours across a 72 hour stretch. That has pretty severe impact on my ability to function.

I have an understanding GP who knows that I make sure my "sleep hygiene" is good when I'm having problems, so when I ask for a few zopiclone it's because I'm at risk of other stuff happening.

Around 8.5 hours (lights off to alarm ringing).

Productivity is a bit complex to relate in a direct way (I can be "productive" also with less sleep), but I know for sure that this is the amount I need to be 100% of my potential.

Interestingly, I estimate that doing sports (which I do heavily) accounts for 30 to 60 minutes of my sleep - in other words, if I didn't do sports, I could sleep such amount less and be equally "productive", although obviously, my body would slowly decay.

I try my best to hit 8 hours a night, used to keep 10PM-6AM every day even on weekends to keep things consistent. But with a partner that works from home (and therefore wakes up much later) its kind of hard most nights so it ends up being more like midnight to 7AM if I'm lucky.

I take ZMA as part of my supplement regime, and coincidentally I do notice that it helps with my sleep a bit - or at least it helps me stay asleep and not wake up several times a night.

I've had sleeping issues since I was a kid so mine are probably a bit skewed. Weekdays, on a good night, 4-6 hours. Anything below 4 hours is a bad night and does happen more than I wish. Weekends: 6-8 hours

If I get 4 or less hours of sleep, it affects me pretty heavily and I honestly feel somewhat 'hungover' and it can be hard to get meaningful work done. For me, 5-6 hours is the sweet spot.

7 to 8 hours during the work week, 9 if possible on the weekend. A couple of nights of 6 do not have a good effect, one night of less than 6 hurts.

Used to sleep for 8 hours, now its down to 7. Less sleep definitely affects productivity, but i can stretch couple of days with very less sleep (<5 hours), after that I hit a block and see a drastic decrease in productivity if I don't get a good night sleep.

Are you are feeling low productivity, and blaming lack of sleep? There is a chance it could be something else as well.. pls seek help if needed.

6-9 hours. It depends. I need to be well slept to be productive. It's not the number of hours but the feeling that matters. I have taken naps at the office when I had a bad night to bump my productivity. If I don't, I'm just warming up a seat.

Thankfully I have lot's of flexibility regarding working hours. That helps a lot. I don't think I could work fixed hours for long.

Less and 7 hours kills my productivity. It's can be a real problem, and I know that a lot of people on here use Modafinil to deal with it.

6.5 to 7 hours. Staying longer in bed makes me feel worse than getting less sleep so I'm usually pretty sharp at getting up.

Used to be 9h per day for decades. Any more and I'd feel strangely groggy (unproductive), my body cannot deal with oversleeping.

Lately I experimented with a 1h nap after lunch (I'm getting old!), and can report that I feel equally refreshed with only 6h of sleep a night.

So, 7h total now, but split into two 1+6 sessions. It feels great to have 2 extra hours per day!

Well, I go to bed between 01:00 and 02:00, my alarm clock first goes off at 06:00 to get my daughter out of bed and up and running to go to school (and sometimes bring her to the station in case the weather is horrid), 06:30 to wake my wife, 07:30 to wake my other daughter to bring her to school. I guess I get around 4 to 4½ hours of sleep a night. I never slept much, not as a child either. I used to listen to the radio while reading, the programming generally turned boring around 24:00 with something for truckers, something for 'cultured people' and something which I never understood who it was for. I still remember the signature tunes for those programs and the haste with which I used to turn off the radio when they came on...

[edit: I just looked up one of those programs, the trucker show ('Krieken med Adje' [1]). Turns out it was scheduled between 04:00 and 07:00, this was when I used to get up at 07:00 to go to school. No, I did not sleep much as a child either... ]

[1] http://www.jingleweb.nl/index.php/category/ad-roland/

6-7 hours. Probably averaging 6.5. But I also commute for an hour both ways by bus - I'll often get a half hour or more of sleep both ways. Probably not great sleep (no REM) but better than nothing.

I sometimes notice as the week goes on I get a little more tired - usually make it up on the weekends by sleeping around 9 hours.

About 6~7 hours a night, more trending towards 6 hours and less. It impacts my productivity greatly, I wake up still wanting to sleep more and am tired for most of the day, which causes me to be distracted more easily (open office...) and get way less work done. Also stress affects me more when I sleep less

I sleep at around midnight and I wake up at 06:00 every day with no exceptions (e.g weekends or vacations ). I average about 6 hours of sleep. If I sleep for 7 hours I definitely feel better and think “faster” the following day. Sleep is good for you.

I try to get to be around 10:00 or 10:30, and typically wake up 6:00 or 6:15. I find the older I get the better I operate on 7.5 to 8 hours of sleep. I also seem to get sick less often, and be an all around nicer guy to to family, friends and coworkers.

I'm pretty useless if I get less than 5 hours of sleep. Anymore than that and I'm good to go. I shoot for about 9ish hours of sleep a night, I typically have a sleepless night every 10 days where I'm up at 330 until the next sleep.

Trying for 12 hours every night due to a recent concussion. Second in two years. Sleep is one of the best things for mTBI/PCS.

Productivity impact is annoying in the short term but it's definitely the optimal long-term chocie.

Normally I get 7-8 hours.

5-7 hours on work weeks, 8 hours on weekends. I don't think my productivity at work is affected, but I feel like a zombie when I get home at ~7pm. I fall asleep within seconds after hitting the bed. Dreamless sleep too.

8hrs minimum, sometimes 9hrs. Anything less and I drag all day until I get a nap.

I sleep somewhere between 3-5 hours on weekdays, and 8-10 hours on weekends. If I had to put a number on it, I'd say my productivity decreases linearly by roughly 10-15% every weekday.

4-6 hour on weekday and 7-9 hours on weekend can sleep and wake up pretty easy but lack of sleep will just make me a zombie the whole day

5-7 hours on weekedays 7-8 hours on weekends

Prolonged (3+ days) sleep at <6 hours eventually leads to me crashing at the weekend.

crash = a good 10 hour sleep

I sleep at least for 7 Hours. Whenever I sleep less or when I don't get quality sleep, it's very difficult to focus.

I try to get 7-8 hrs but sometimes I can only get 5-6. It is a negative to my productivity if I only get 5-6.

7-10 hours. I work from home and have no alarm clock or kids.

8-10 solid hours a day. No alarm clock. Work from home.

Anywhere from 5 hours to 11 hours. Yes, I'm young.

5 hours a night. Physically can't sleep more.

That would be me.

Productivity for me depends more on other factors like: relationship status, familymembers wellbeing, drinks & feeling in or out of control.

I can relate to this. Unless I'm ill or badly sleep deprived, I literally cannot sleep in.

something around 6 and 8. less than 5 and I'm not ok at work. more than 8 and I'm not ok at bed.

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