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Comment by pluijzer | Hacker News Reader

This site takes into account that Americans get there 8 hours of sleep though some quick googling revealed that the average American only gets 7 hours and 13 minutes of sleep. Just want to preach to those not getting there 8 hours, getting enough sleep really gives an enormous boost to mood, creativity, productivity and health. Give it a try :-)

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I recently started sleeping more and the changes in my life have been unbelievable

I am

- procrastinating less

- having less headaches

- coming up with more creative solutions at work

- being more attentive and present in social interactions

- ACTUALLY FEELING HAPPY AGAIN

I don't know how much of this is placebo, but ever since the corona lockdown started here in Germany, my sleep has been completely messed up. For the last two years, I felt like a zombie, like I was kinda living my life but not really there. I came to a point where I said to myself "I can't remember the last time I was actually happy or enjoyed anything".

So I've been trying to take better care of my health and fitness overall, and sleeping better is one of the thibgs I started doing

I've found that no matter how much I sleep it doesn't affect what people usually report. Last night I was lucky if I had 5 and with 8h+ I feel the same, I do the same.

Yeah, I've had the same experience, I will say I'm slightly more productive at work, but am I about to give up an hour or two of rare leisure time every day to be more productive for my employer when my current performance isn't an issue? No thanks.

Have you tried doing it over a long period of time? I found that my mood and general well-being only started to improve a week after consistently sleeping 8 hours. The effect wasn't instant, and in fact, when I sleep 8 hours after a few days of only sleeping a few hours, I notice that I wake up feeling horrible and very tired

8+ might be too much for you.

My sweet spot is around ~7 hours. Less than 6.5 and more than 8 makes me feel the same, but if I manage to sleep around 7, it's completely a different story.

I drink 3-4 cups of coffee daily, maybe that smooths things out :)

No, it won't, honestly.

I was drinking 2L/day at my peak, while I was sleeping 6 hours a day (Ph.D. corrections). It gives you awakeness, but the not the concentration of a well rested mind.

Nothing replaces sleep, since your brain flushes its toxins through your spine to be expelled from your body.

Sleep is underrated and deprivation of it kills you slowly.

I work way better with half a mug of coffee (a Starbucks tall) and proper sleep than two Ventis and not enough sleep.

> Nothing replaces sleep, since your brain flushes its toxins through your spine to be expelled from your body.

You mean you don't want those delicious Alzheimer's-related beta-amyloid plaques? For shame!

Not everyone's that lucky genetically. I go to bed at the same and I can get out of bed whenever I want and yet I can't get 7 hours let alone 8 hours. And no I'm not the type who can be refreshed with less than 6 hours of sleep (those are the genetically lucky ones).

Sleeping 7 hours instead of 8 gives you ~30 extra waking hours a month. I always get caught up on that, for better or worse.

What good are 30 more hours if they (and the others) are less productive, more irritable, and overall less enjoyable? Why not just sleep 3 hours a night and get 150 more hours every month?

People need different amounts of sleep, and the same person needs different amounts at different times. Just aim to get what you need.

Well one thing people never seem to openly mention is that sleeping that extra hour a night only makes me more productive for my boss, and doesn't really improve my life more than 30 extra hours of doing whatever I want. I don't think, for most people, that single hour of sleep will be the deciding factor of anything

You're the one talking about the job/boss, not me. You can be productive at things at home too!

And sleeping 6 instead of 8 you get ~60 hours. Also, imagine how much time you can save by not going to the gym!

However, not being able to do anything productive at that extra awake hours except being groggy and battling with concentration problems while grinding down your health has no benefits.

So be awake less, do more with less effort, have a longer life.

On average I sleep around 10 hours. I've never felt like I'm missing out, until now perhaps.

Like all things human this is general guidance - people should really find a lifestyle and routine that works best for them.

For example, I have “type 2” “bipolar disorder”. I put those in quotes because the DSM diagnostic criteria doesn’t really match me and that’s the closest diagnosis anyone has come up with.

Anyway, I’ve been able to determine my optimal sleep is six hours of QUALITY sleep. I do roughly one hour of fairly intense exercise daily and when it’s time to sleep I fall asleep nearly instantly - I’m exhausted.

I’ve noticed if I sleep less than six hours consecutive nights I tend to tip towards my version of hypomania. If I sleep more than six hours I tend to tip towards my version of (extreme) depression. This isn’t specific to me with my illness, it’s fairly well known that sleep regulation is one of the best things you can do for these kinds of conditions.

My best routine was when I went to sleep when it was dark and woke up when it was dark. I went to sleep at the same time every night. What was amazing was that I would wake up at the time every morning, within like 10 minutes. Then at the time to sleep, I would be too tired to keep my eyes open. I wish I would have documented this better, but I believe it was close to 8 hours (a little more or a little less.

My thinking was that waking up when there was light, would mess with my sleep. The light might wake me up earlier than I would otherwise, acting as sort of an alarm clock.

It's just hard because it meant that I was sleeping at like 8PM.

Can't you just darken the bedroom, or use a sleep mask?

Could you share your source please? I am getting conflicting results. The recently released American Time Use Survey 2022 [0] has it closer to 9 hours. Those 9 hours also include "naps and spells of sleeplessness."

[0] https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/atus.pdf

I didn't put any effort in my source. I just googled for 'average sleep time Americans' an quoted the featured result. It wasn't really meant as a statement just a silly segue in to telling about the benefits of sleep. Both sources didn't really make it clear whether this is the time sleeping + trying to fall asleep, or actual sleep. I myself unfortunately take a full hour to fall asleep and wake up at 4 for at least another half an hour. Anyway, it is good to include nap-times because these do count towards your total amount of sleep. It doesn't have to be continues.

Yes, but if I stay up late I can mindlessly doomscroll through the dregs of reddit, so who can say which is better, really?

Depending if the amount of sleep has a normal distribution in the USA using the average instead of the median skews the results.

Their 8 hours...

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