Ask HN: How 'little' sleep should I get? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How 'little' sleep should I get?

1 pointjabo6 comments

I've decided to sleep late today because I had to finish up some work. But I need to wake up early at unearthly hours (6AM :) ) and I'm debating how little sleep I could get and still feel fresh tomorrow morning.

I'm not sure if this is a phenomenon with just me, but I've noticed that if I sleep -

8-9 hours: everything seems perfect, I think clear, and I'm fresh throughout the day.

7 hours: strangely, I feel drowsy the whole day.

5-6 hours: waking up is a pain, but during the day I seem to be active as I would have been, had I slept for 8 hours (or is it an illusion? :) )

No sleep at all: strangely I don't feel sleepy for atleast another 6 hours during the next day. But if I close my eyes for even a minute, I'll be out cold!

1-4 hours: I haven't arrived at a general theory yet for this!

So I'm debating whether I should sleep for 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 hours so that I can be fresh from 6.30AM - 10AM tomorrow. Any one with experiences to share?

To feel fresh in the morning, I don't think it's the amount of hours you sleep, but the part of your sleep cycle when you get up. If you get up in the middle of a "deep sleep" cycle, you'll feel tired, but if you get up in a "light sleep", you'll feel ok. That is an over-simplification, of course, but it is related to REM (Rapid Eye Movement) and other phases of sleep. It would help you too, to take a short nap during thee next day.

So would I go into the deep-sleep cycle in 2-3 hours? Then I can sleep lesser than that.

Here you have a better explanation of sleep cycles

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep#Sleep_stages

You can also try polyphasic sleep. The easiest form of polyphasic sleep is biphasic sleep (with a nap), but there are other sleep regimes which can take you a month or two to get used to, but people who have tried them say gives them lots of time to do everything. The most difficult to adhere is Uberman, and most people who have tried it say that Everyman is quite easier to get used to.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyphasic_sleep

There is much information regarding this subject on the internet, so just google for more information if you are interested on this.

I had read some research paper showing the optimal number of sleep hour is between 6h 30 and 7h 30.

One thing to note is sleep deprivation is really problematic. Don't do this.

But you could sleep far less if you sleep in 3 our 4 times instead of only one time. But one thing to experience is the nap.

Try sleep only 4 to 5 hours. Then take nap at 12:00 for about 30min to 1h. And for me it worked well for some months.

i've tried this method.. the problem is if you go a day and miss that nap, your whole cycle gets thrown off. Then later in the day you will probably overcompensate take a long nap because you're exhausted and just sucks. It worked well during the week then the weekend just screwed it up. I've gone to a solid 6 to 7 hours of sleep consistently with hour naps in the evening , every other day. Seems to work. Anyways .. since you are not trying to get on a cycle of little sleep, I would say 4 hours as to get rem sleep

From a rational perspective: If maximum sustainable productivity is the goal, first take a big enough sample on what you are able to accomplish under various conditions.

But I wouldn't mess around too much as there are numerous physiological, psychological consequences and practical hazards.

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