Surviving on less sleep?

[Tallulah]

Wow. I'd sleep even MORE if I could. Sleep is awesome. It's productivity that's overrated.

[laintpe]

I had insomnia... it was hell. I wouldn't have minded as much if there was something to do, but my mind would start to race and the only way I could feel relief was by running.... outside... in the San Rafael hills... where I would come across the occasional "well-he-looks-kind-of-freaky" person. The longer I went without sleep, the less sense/inhibitions I had. I have relapses, but for the most part I sleep much more consistently. With school starting, I haven't sleep for a little over 48 hours, but that will adjust soon. I can definitely tell that my concentration and my performance in tennis is negatively affected because of it.

I have heard interesting things about hypnosis and sleep. Supposedly, if it's done correctly, 2 hours of sleeping while "hypnotized" is equivalent to 8. My weights instructor was in the marines and apparently they incorporated hypnosis to be more "sleep efficient". Would be pretty nifty if it is easy and successful... (I've obviously never tried).

[BerberElla]

Originally Posted by MacGuffin

Polyphasic sleep - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You can take naps as short as 30 minutes several times a day, increasing your wake time.

The downside is you have to be very regimented, you are training yourself to go into REM almost immediately. Skip a nap and you'll crash hard.

Google Steve Pavlina's blog for his successful attempt and why he gave it up to have a more normal life.

Thanks for the link and the heads up, that guys blog was interesting. It sounded so appealing, but too regimented like you said, not sure if I could commit like that to something that is reliant on me to keep to a rota forever lol.

The guys an ENTJ, I'm an INFP, I doubt I'd last a few weeks with that kind of routine.

Originally Posted by Darjur

Yes and No.

It's not healthy by any means, but it's a lesser of two evils.
I'd also suggest a 30-45min nap in the day at roughly 5pm if it's possible.

But basically, even if it's not recommended, for an adult roughly 5 - 5 and a half hours of uninterrupted sleep is a doable and a manageable amount. But by no means try sleeping less than that.

I suggest giving in a week for calculations to determine when your body goes into deep sleep and when it goes out to get the most of it and get the best results. Believe me, if you plan on ~5.5 hour sleep days, waking yourself up during deep sleep will kill your motivation.




P.S. I suggest you drop any activities, if you have any, that are dependent on your bodys ability to repair itself at night (weightlifting, long distance running, gymnastics, ect...) If you do any of those, it's an absolute minimum of 7 hours of sleep a day for you.

I hate naps, sleeping in the day just seems like a waste of my precious time. Plus I wake up feeling more tired than when I went to bed.

Mind you I can see how it would be important to include one if I do this sleep reduction thing, because other times I have tried to go for too long without sleep, I have ended up walking around in a state of sleep, slipping between the two places and blurting out stuff that are part of a dream.

But I can't see myself giving up the bike riding (long distance) in favour of it. I think exercise is more important, and I'm a lazy so and so as it is, bike riding is the only thing standing between me and being fat.

Thanks for the advice though, at least I have a better idea of what is needed than I did when I concocted this little idea.

Originally Posted by Shaula

I know what you mean. My body would rather go to sleep than finish a project I'm but I don't think the problem lies in the amount of hours you sleep but how efficient your time management is durring the day. Concentrate on finding times durring your day that you are being idle and could be doing something else to further the progress of whatever projects your trying to do. A little bit at a time is better than none at all. Also I suggest that you refrain from cutting back the amount of hours you sleep as 7-8 hours is what the body needs to rejuvinate for the next day. My friend who has been an insomniac for several years only gets 2-5 hours a sleep every night and sometimes no sleep at all which greatly diminishes the quality of her work. Also you might need to come to the conclusion that you are taking on too many things at a time. At this point prioritise what's more important for you to work on.

Tips to Increase Daily Engergy
- A good night's sleep and maintain a regular sleeping schedule.
- Regular exercise in the morning. This will also increase your metabolism for the rest of the day.
- Eat a healthy, balanced diet and avoid fast food at all costs. Fast food will make you very tired.
- Keep a clean house. Seriously, a clean house can be a motivator but a messy one can be depressing.
- Avoid energy drinks and caffeine. Although they will temporarily give you a boost, they will tire you out faster in the end.

Absolutely, I mean I'm not currently the owner of a tidy house, but when I do go through my tidy phases, I am actually much more happy and relaxed within my house. Must make more of an effort to win the war against the mess.

Now, the thing is, when I said I wanted more time because I felt I never had enough time to myself, it was so that I could be idle since I enjoy being idle.

It's more a case of there never being enough time for me to just sit, stare off into space, and live my fantasy life for awhile, the day is spent doing things, kids, college, tidying, cooking, running my forum, an hour bike riding, all my day hours are taken up. I wanted to increase the time of being awake so that the new hours I gained, could be used to be idle or to write. Not sleeping, but awake and aware.

I think I'm going to go with a combination of your advice and Darjurs.

[Chris_in_Orbit]

I think the average person sleeps 1/3 of their life away but whose counting.

I always have had a problem maintaining energy. I think the problem is I wake up a lot during the night during the winter season (not sure why) I also have a roommate who likes to stay up all night and leave the light on/play videogames until like 4 am... so thats not helpful at all. I eat healthy, I exercise, though I rarely clean up my room; I'll try that out and see how it works.

Honestly I've never been one to have much energy. Not sure if I can do anything about it.