Unfortunately it's not an exaggeration. I did that for more years than I care to admit.
What's your avg hours asleep per day in the past month? 1-4 sustained (let's call it 3.7 avg) over years is like no anecdote I've read and believed (though certainly medically possible).
Have you measured your performance at various levels of sleep? Supposedly feeling "rested" isn't even sufficient to guarantee full performance.