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Comment by grannyg00se | Hacker News Reader

I suggest (with no proof or expertise) that the optimum sleeping schedule is to sleep when you are tired and wake when you are no longer tired. This is very difficult to achieve given life's typical demands.

I've recently applied this same philosophy to eating. I eat when I'm hungry and I stop eating when I am no longer hungry (not when I'm "full").

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Except we have evidence that you can sleep too much.

With adequate access to natural light, it's pretty hard to oversleep if you follow your body's natural schedule. As soon as light hits your (still closed) eyes, your brain scales back melotonin production and raises your body's temperature, which is what wakes you up. The opposite happens when the sun goes down and you aren't around artificial light.

Given how vastly different lengths the night have depending on how far North/South you go, that might be so but it's a solution that won't for for a whole lot of people without artificially simulating a shorter night.

Now I'm curious. Do you have a link or citation for that?

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/03/120326113805.ht... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/17/sleep-alzheimers-br... http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-04/ul-tmo042109.... http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2279744/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2864873/

Which evidence?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5544007

Artificial lighting changes the time when you become tired.

One of the reasons why I'll turn down the inside light in the evening.

And don't forget f.lux :) http://stereopsis.com/flux/

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