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Comment by papito | Hacker News Reader

Do they "only" need 5 hours of sleep or do they say they need it? Are they as productive as they could be when fully rested, or will they "sleep when they are dead".

Arianna Huffington also thought she was being greatly productive at no sleep, until her body told her to fuck off and she collapsed in her office from exhaustion.

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I used to get by on about 5-6 hours. If I slept early, I'd wake up long before my alarm feeling well rested, alert, and ready to go. Something changed when I was around 30, and it took a few years to figure out that I wasn't getting enough sleep. But even so, it's rare that I sleep more than 7 hours.

I personally don't need much more than five hours. As in, even when I'm completely on my own free time and I don't set an alarm I'll go to bed at 24:00 - 1:00 and wake up at about 5:30 - 6:30. My father is the same, he even often sleeps only four hours, I guess it's genetic.

They only need 5 hours of sleep. Why is it so difficult to understand that not everyone the same ? There are a lot of variability in human.

Why is it so difficult to understand that not everyone the same ?

Touchy. Perhaps you need some more sleep.

Because these people are exceedingly rare. I get 5 hours of sleep a night because I have some pretty bad lifestyle choices. The few weeks where I have a normal sleep schedule I am absolutely a different person.

I mean I can function on 5-hours, I'm able to hold a job and live a life; but my well being could be so much better if I got a normal nights sleep everyday.

How rare?

So you are not the one how can function with 5 hour sleep but doesn't mean other people can't.

Because this kind of reply gets posted every single time sleep deprivation is brought up.

Needing this little sleep is usually a lie or a self-delusion. Perpetuating it has negative consequences for the rest of us. Do some of these unicorns exist? Sure. But they are nowhere near as common as this type of comment suggests. Most of the people in question would be better off with more sleep.

Can they survive on 5 hours? Sure. Most of us can also survive on nothing but pizza. Doing this doesn't make you different, just unhealthy.

How are you sure its a lie ?

Not common? How do you know?

Eating nothing but pizza is not healthy? I disagree, Pizza has carbohydrates, protein, vegetables, vitamin, etc. Not always but it can be healthy.

How can you be sure it's not a lie? What I meant by "lie" is this: let's say you ask someone how much they sleep. Currently society tells us that working as much as possible is a virtue. So they tell you they sleep 4 hours every night. You have no way of verifying this information. For all you know they could be sleeping 8 or 9 hours. But it is very easy and tempting for them to lie for a small boost in social standing.

Just because its easy/tempting to lie doesn't mean they are lying.

Do you have data showing that it's "usually a lie or self-delusion"? Because there's a genetic explanation[1] for why folks need less sleep. The only way I can sleep 9 hours in a night is if I work up a sleep debt.

[1] https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/gene-id...

It’s incredibly rare though.

That one mutation is rare, but it's an advantageous one in a society of workaholics, so there's probably a sampling bias: we're more likely to encounter folks with that mutation when selecting for high performers. It's also a single mutation -- there may be others that provide a similar, if more moderate, effect.

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