> The research is overwhelming that the vast majority of us require seven to eight hours of sleep to feel fully rested, and only a small percentage require less than seven.
I'm sometimes envious of people I meet that can function well with little sleep, but I resign myself to the fact that I wasn't dealt that particular card. You can't compete with those folks by simply trying to ape their habits.
This may be one part of it. Some time ago, I'd definitely tell you I'm fine with little sleep. You can do it if you sleep very little every night. It's quite easy to adapt to, for example during university exam times
But then after some years you realise you're not actually fine. You just don't remember how different is it to sleep longer. I'm still fighting with myself now to sleep for a reasonable time to reverse the old habit. I did tell people I'm fine with little sleep before. I will happily tell them now that I was lying - just didn't know it at the time.
There are two other components to this that you're glossing over. Sleep helps with long-term memory. So if your plan is to study-ahead and be prepared for the exam, fine. But then the second component comes in to play. People that are cramming for the exam are doing so because they didn't study ahead. For that second group of people, sleep is actually the last thing they need. What good is remembering something long-term, if you never actually "learned" it in the first place. And let's be honest, people that are cramming for exams, are not the type to have learned the content before, either. (Though I generalize a bit there)
Now I practice much less and focus on my health. My abilities seem to increase on their own on a slow-but-noticeable basis.
Exactly.
Not too long ago the combination of child, work and school forced me to completely re-evaluate how I was spending my time and what is actually important to me.
One big change I ended up making was getting to bed at the same time every night and clocking a consistent 8 hours.
Within a week or so the difference was remarkable in both my mood and acuity through the mid-afternoon - ideally I'd take a 45 minute nap around 13:30, but that's not an option with my current job.
In order of effect, the best things I've ever done for day to day clarity:
1.) Going to bed and rising at consistent times with 8 hours inbetween.
2.) Drinking plenty of water. At least 8 ounces per waking hour for me.
3.) Regular exercise. I feel best lifting weights 3 or 4 days a week, but I expect the specifics are less important than simple movement and exertion.
Exercise is like that, too. If you stay relatively stationary for a few weeks, then get out and do some serious exercise, you are more awake than you remember possible.
Similarly, smoking (especially green) and drinking are like that, too. When you stop, it takes awhile to get over, then it's amazing.
Probably being outside in nature in general has additional benefits, re: general sensory stimulation, removal of droning mechanical/electric noise, variety of light conditions, rhythmic subtleties of tone in the shadow of a moving tree, etc.
You notice northern hemisphere people that come to the tropics revert near-instantly to depression when boarding flights back home in their winter. I saw it in a set of Russians in Vietnam earlier this year... it was incredibly well choreographed!
PS. I went on a brief hunt via thesaurus.com and Wikipedia for an effect along the lines of 'acclimatisation' but failed to come up with a trans-disciplinary term. Please post if you know of one.
That's 3.8L per day [(24 hours - 8 hours sleeping) * 8 fl oz = 3.8L]. Recommended intake is 2-3L[1]. Just be careful of water poisoning...
[1] http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-living/nutrition-and-healt...
My case is a bit unusual as I'm far above average in height and weight. On average, the recommendation for my size is around 5.0L/day. In relation to that, the top of my head figure of 3.8L seems like a good lower bound.
It's always interesting trying to do conversions in a world made for folks are 5'8" and <200lbs. I'd be shredded to the bone if had a 'healthy' BMI and I'd be dropping pounds a week on a 2000 calorie diet.
Of course, drinking anywhere near 25L is not 'safe' either, and can still cause electrolyte abnormalities, neurocognitive dysfunction, seizures... Stick to the recommended intake, adjusted for water losses during significant exertion or high temperatures.
Yeah it works, but God does it suck. This has occurred out of a need to get work done, so I wonder how many others found themselves conditioned in the same way.
I was very recently talking to my son about how much more of a life my ex had than coworkers of his who required more sleep and who, thus, basically went home, ate dinner and went to bed most nights while he came home and watched TV, played games, pursued hobbies, etc. And I kept finding myself saying stuff like "so he did all this extra stuff and it's not like he had accidents on the job because of it...um, actually he did have that car wreck...but it's not like he maimed himself...um, actually, he has chronic back problems and is retired from the army on partial disability and has a handicapped sticker for his car..."
Some people who are sleeping less than you do not actually need less sleep and are not actually functioning better. They just have sleep disorders. They muddle through as best they can and they may be paying a price they don't realize because probably no one is going to ever say my ex was in that car wreck due to lack of sleep and, thus, has chronic back problems due to lack of sleep (because that accident, among other things, is part of why he has debilitating back problems).
I can't prove his sleep issues caused any of those things. But I do know how much more clumsy I am when I did not sleep well or did not sleep enough. I do know how much more productive I am when I sleep both well and enough. So I can infer that there is very likely a relationship between some of the bad things that happened to him and his chronic sleep issues. Our oldest son has similar sleep issues and I know our lives are so much better now that, most nights, he typically sleeps pretty well because we worked hard on resolving the underlying causes.
/Anecdata.
Also, I generally sleep less these days while being better rested because I have worked hard on improving my health. So I think there are things people can do to work on this issue but, for the most part, when I try to talk about stuff like that, I get shouted down, pissed on, and treated pretty horribly. So I say stuff like that a lot less than I used to. I don't think you need "good genes" per se to be well rested on less sleep. I think you just need good health -- and I think most people are less healthy than they really think (not exactly a popular opinion to express though).
> Researchers Shawn Youngstedt and Daniel Kripke reviewed two surveys of more than 1 million adults conducted by the American Cancer Society...
I love the idea - which book were you reading ?!