How much sleep do you really need?

[ArtVandelay]

Hey guys.

I'm 18 years old, and like any high school student, I've always had issues finding a good sleep schedule. At one point last year, I functioned on about three hours of sleep a night for a very extended period of time, so I know that I can at least function reasonably well without a whole lot. I'm sure that's not very healthy though... so my question is, how much sleep should I be getting, and how little sleep is REALLY problematic?

I know that people about my age in the military certainly don't get eight hours a night, and yet the government trusts them to wield automatic weapons, so I'm a bit skeptical of the eight-hour-for-functionality thing. Anyway, all thoughts are appreciated!

[Brutha]

Nobody really knows.

I also think that it depends on the person. Different people need different amounts of sleep.

One criteria for making sure that you are getting enough sleep is to be able to awake without an alarm clock.
If you go below six hours you can use that test to be sure that you get enough sleep since I think that your brain wouldn't let you awake without alarm clock when you get a dangerously low amount of sleep.

As long as you get six hours and fell well rested you probably shouldn't worry much.

[ArtVandelay]

How can you possibly wake up without an alarm clock?

I remember that up until about 6th or 7th grade I would always wake up a few minutes before my alarm, which I thought was very cool, but I always attributed that to habit. Is that what you're talking about, or is there some sort of natural way to wake up at a specific time (this sounds unbelievable to me, but what do I know!).

Thanks for the reply.

[Brutha]

I remember that up until about 6th or 7th grade I would always wake up a few minutes before my alarm, which I thought was very cool, but I always attributed that to habit. Is that what you're talking about, or is there some sort of natural way to wake up at a specific time (this sounds unbelievable to me, but what do I know!).

Before alarm clocks got invented people still woke up. I know personally people (my mum for example) that can wake up by choice at 5 o' clock the next day when they would normally sleep till 9 o' clock.

There are people who can target a specific wakeup time in a 5 minute interval and there are others which can target the time in a 15 minute interval.

There was a study about that phenomen that said that the more educated a person is, the less likely they are to be able to wake up in a short predetermined inteval.

I think that it is simply a skill that can be learned.
As a start one can repeat the desired time in ones head all the time when one goes to sleep.

I think that the people who have the ability to wake up by their own intention often are also able to go to sleep in a very short periode of time.
The lie down with the intention to sleep and sleep halve a minute later.

If you however don't sleep enough, you won't succeed.
The interesting thing is that here enough doesn't mean the number that someone thought up, but enough is something that your brain gives you.

I think that it enough to wake up by habit at a certain time for this purpose.

[ArtVandelay]

The trouble I have understanding this is that your internal body clock can't have any understand of what "5am" means. Even if I repeat this to myself ad infinatum, I can't imagine that the part of my body that "knows" what time it is will actually be able to connect that to the phrase "5am."

I will try this though... it sounds very cool!

[Michael Howe]

Because you've lived with the clock all your life, your internal clocks does "know" what 5 am is. Your subconscious is like a translator: You say "wake up at 5 am" and your subconscious translates that to it's internal clock equalivant.

Works for me.

As far as how much sleep to get, it's different for each person, but I agree with Steve's logic that falling asleep when you need to and waking up at a predetermined time each and every day makes more sense than other sleep patterns. Give it a shot and listen to your body... except the first few days, since your body will probably be kicking you in the rear for staying up so late.

[Brutha]

The trouble I have understanding this is that your internal body clock can't have any understand of what "5am" means.

I unfortunatly can't explain to you exactly why it works but the fact that I know people personally who have success with the method and the fact that there are peer reviewed studies about it is enough for me.

Conceptually it can help to think about it as hypnosis. Unfortunatly that only works if you have a bit of a concept of hypnosis in your head