Ask HN: How many hours do you sleep?

I have a two year old, so at night, I sleep between 0 and 8 hours. On days where I've slept 0, I usually take an afternoon nap with her so I pick up an extra hour or two of sleep during the day. Since April 5, I have averaged just under five hours of sleep in a 24 hour period.

Last year, I had a bout with extremely high blood pressure that lead to me spending some time in the hospital and getting an angiogram.

I'm pissed because I knew that high blood pressure was a huge problem for me, yet I let myself get out of shape. So, I built an app to record things like sleep, nutrition and exercise and see what gets me closer to my goal. Currently, my goal is low blood pressure but I'm about to switch over to a long distance running goal.

I mention this to tell you how I know my average sleep, but also because thus far, I've found two strong correlations to my blood pressure and athletic performance. Good sleep and lots of water have a dramatic impact upon both of those measures. And, unlike other things, their impact is immediate. Heck, I can exercise for 90 minutes a day for two weeks and barely move the needle. But, if I get nine hours of sleep, my blood pressure will be on the low side of normal!!

My body has 2 patterns:

6 hours - feeling awesome on the morning but quickly fade around 2-3pm

8 hours - feeling slow all day but I can last longer

6ish, my target is 7

7.5

4-8, 6 on average.

around 6 hours

7 - 9 hrs