lifehacker.com: Everyone has an answer to "how much sleep do you need"? A common one—and one that I have given on many occasions—is to respond "Oh yes, I need my 8-9 hours of sleep every night, I know that." It turns out, that might not be true after all.
12 comments:
In the past I had a go to sleep ritual and a waking up ritual. Every evening I would catch a episode of Seinfeld and finish off the evening chores then I would go to bed. In the morning I woke up after about 7.5 hours at the same time and had a solid morning routine. I know by half way through the routine I was alert and ready to go.
I find that lately I have been having not been going to sleep as quickly, which is probably cause for not being as exhausted mentally and physically as you suggest. When working full time sleep did always feel more refreshing.
I do know the most difficult thing would be to introduce the nap into my schedule. I personally love napping but everyday seems quite difficult to accomplish. Many of your points I will process and see how they apply to my sleep patterns.
I liked the observation that suggesting an 8-hour sleep for everyone is like suggesting that everyone wear the same size shoe. Each individual has different needs.
The most enlightening thing to me in this article was the brain scans that illustrated how sleep deprivation affects focus and not performance. This is critically true in my life because I have the attention span of a fly.
I wished this article had explored a little more the different variables that influenced the quality of sleep. Sure, routine and patterns of regularity are important but he made no mention of where you sleep or whether or not you sleep alone, or mineral balances & imbalances in your body that influence the quality of the sleep you are getting. For me, I find that sometimes 4.5 hours of good sleep are better than 6 hours of mediocre sleep.
I also find it interesting that it's a proven fact that women need more sleep than men. This goes hand in hand with the studies that have demonstrated how women multi-task better and have different brain capacities for different things.
I like the idea of a routine, and I like to think that I have one both for going to bed as well as waking up. But the truth is, the only regular thing about my schedule is that there is nothing routine about it at all. But I do usually give myself plenty of time in the morning, as well as a regiment of things to do before I get my day going.
I am thankful that this article is so specific. I immediately thought to myself that napping does not work for me, but the specificity about having the nap not exceed 20 minutes makes me rethink my opinion. It sounds like I've just been napping incorrectly all along! I wish it was even more specific in other areas, though. The article gave fewer examples to support its point towards the end, such as what are good way to "make sure you are tired in every dimension." Overall, this is a great article for an overview of this topic and has some really great tips!
I am thankful that this article is so specific. I immediately thought to myself that napping does not work for me, but the specificity about having the nap not exceed 20 minutes makes me rethink my opinion. It sounds like I've just been napping incorrectly all along! I wish it was even more specific in other areas, though. The article gave fewer examples to support its point towards the end, such as what are good way to "make sure you are tired in every dimension." Overall, this is a great article for an overview of this topic and has some really great tips!
I noticed that while reading this article all I could think about was "Yeah I pretty much suck at sleeping".
I have no real routines in going to sleep or waking up.
The word regime is laughable because structure and sleep are never in the same sentence ever.
WIth this being said I started thinking about why I have no real consistency in my sleep patterns aka why do I always feel slightly tired..
and of course the first thing that comes to my mind is production.
I feel that this particular problem can be found to be universally shared amongst many theatrical practitioners.
For me whether it's finishing up some last minuet paperwork, or hw that was inevitably delayed because of production my sleep hour's always vary.
This article was definitely an eye opener for me and I will definitely begin looking at better ways to time manage to allow more sleep as well as keeping the hours...somewhat consistent
Aw, man. "Sleeping your way to success," that sounds awesome.
If I could sleep 24 hours a day I probably would. There is nothing I hate more than waking up. After I finally get out of bed I'm usually pretty out of it and cranky and just generally miserable for at least an hour?
So how do I combat this and arrive in class as the shining beacon of attentiveness you've come to know and love? I just push through it.
I've read many articles on the PTM blog and elsewhere proposing what sleep schedule is best, but all that seems to work for me is getting on some manner of reasonable schedule and sticking with it. I've tried breaking up my sleep into two 4 hour naps or napping periodically but everything leaves me feeling confused, disoriented, and tired.
So, my advise is to just get some sleep. Like a normal person who doesn't go to CMU SOD might.
In my previous comment I said that "After I finally get out of bed I'm usually pretty out of it and cranky and just generally miserable for at least an hour?"
That wasn't supposed to be a question. That is very much so a true fact.
I realize that this article speaks mostly to sleep deprivation and routines, but I've recently started to become more aware of the opposite too, oversleeping. This is something that I tend to notice more so when I feel the need to "catch up" on sleep after a particularly long week when I might have averaged 3-4 hrs a night, or when I'm sick.
Contrary to the thought that spending more time in bed and often forcing myself to sleep longer will make me feel better I actually end up being more tired. And eventually, more often than not, I end up taking a nap for a couple hours and sometimes even turn around and go to bed early. Now I've always found this to be a fairly acceptable thing, and I didn't think much of the fact that I still felt miserable regardless of the extra rest I was getting. However, after reading this article I would think (without having done any further research) that too much sleep is capable of shutting down parts of the body in a similar way at too little sleep does. And it would seem that the common function lost is 'focus'.
I have noticed when I tend to sleep in I am more tired during the day compared to when I get 8 hours of sleep but I have never heard of the sleeping 6 to 7.5 is a lot better for you. I will have to try sleeping for only 7.5 hours and seeing how that will turn out. Also, the information that women have to sleep more than men is interesting. With the article saying that a nap is great during the day but when could I as a college student be able to do that? Maybe once I get out into the real world it would be easier maybe part of a lunch break. Also the time of a nap is does not allow you to get into a REM sleep which I find interesting.
Since the last few weeks of my summer contract, I have been on a really inconsistent sleep schedule due to traveling, going out with friends at home, etc. This week I have noticed that this has really taken a toll on my productivity. The point in this article about not being able to refocus when you haven't had enough sleep rang very true for me. While I think that some of these suggestions are more feasible than others for me at this time, I find that they all seem logical and it's odd that this stuff isn't more common sense. The idea of taking a walk at the same time every night and then going to bed at the same time is just not realistic for me (or any college student ever), but the idea of having a routine as simple as getting ready for bed in a specific manner/order every night is much more realistic and shouldn't be too difficult to implement. On another note, I wonder (along with Joe) about the consequences of sleeping too much. Is it really better to not take advantage of sleeping in on the weekend when the opportunity arises because it is not optimal for your body to sleep that long? This article doesn't make that clear, but I do appreciate the clarity and specificity of the tips that have been provided.
Wow, that was a fantastic article. I've been an insomniac since I was 12 and since coming to CMU ive found ive been getting much more sleep. I think its really true what the article said about sleeping much better if you are drained mentally and physically by the time you get in bed. Its also good to know that reading fiction is a good thing for you to do right before sleeping because ive been doing that since i learned how to read. I never realized that feeling so awake after not sleeping was really just a false sense of security. Especially during high school I would get little to no sleep and then feel as if i'd slept 8 hours during the day. I also think i will try taking 20 min naps when i feel too tired to work productively any more, that seems like it might really have merit because usually if I do nap its for an hour or so and by the time i wake up I never want to get back out of bed so the nap backfires.
Ha! I dont need 8 hours! That's good cause Ive just stopped actually getting that much sleep. In high school I never really got more than six hours and Im glad that, in that regard, I did not impair my health this early on in life.
I did find it interesting that women need more sleep than men do, though I am not so sure that we get said sleep.
I would love to know the amount of sleep that I personally need, because I feel it is somewhere between 10 and 12 hours, but I want it to be like 6 hours.
I think there is defiantly a correlation between the amount of sleep one gets, a person's productivity, and their life span. The people that experience more of their way and are active tend to live longer. I find.
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