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Comment by hoschicz | Hacker News Reader

I'm seventeen and need 10 hours of sleep to run at full capacity the next day. But with school I have to wake up at 7 and going to sleep at 21 is impossible, so I feel like a zombie very often and am only productive in the afternoon.

I have always hoped this could get better with age. Are you saying this will get worse?

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It does get better with age in that your circadian rhythm will shift as you get older. It's a crime that we force adolescents to wake up far earlier than they are biologically wired to just so their parents can get to their jobs. According to Matthew Walker (Berkeley professor and sleep researcher), waking up at 7 is equivalent to an adult waking up at 5. Highly recommend his book on sleep. It's incredible, the best non-fiction I've read in the last couple years. https://www.amazon.com/Why-We-Sleep-Unlocking-Dreams/dp/1501...

Indeed, this book is well worth anyone's read. Many insights on sleep and productivity (the effect of alcohol on sleep quality was particularly shocking).

Try out / read about biphasic sleep schedule. It relies on the fact that not all stages of sleep are equally resting to our bodies. And by taking multiple naps, you are likely to increase the duration of the "better" stages of your sleep. This allows you to be equally / more rested using lesser number of hours.

Note: This may not be good for you if you are NOT able to maintain the schedule so do keep that in mind!

Not worse in the sense that I need more sleep with age (apparently it's the other way around), I'd say it has stayed the same all my life, but at your age, I was better able to cope with the negative effects. Or maybe I've become less willing to tolerate them

If you feel that going to sleep at 21:00 is impossible, then your lack of sleep might get worse in adulthood. But if you decide that getting enough sleep is more important than other things, then maybe you can go to sleep earlier despite social norms.

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