Reducing sleep from 9 hrs to 7.5 hrs?

[RT Wolf]

Question is as the title says. I sleep 9 hours (wake up just before 8), and that's been fine up until now, but now I need more time in the day, so I want to reduce the amount of sleep I get(or do?) to 7.5 hours a night.

My questions are, anyone have experience reducing sleep like that? How did you do it? Reduce it all in one shot, or cut back by fifteen minutes or something? How did it take you to adjust to the new sleep situation, if at all?

I'm just to get down the amount of sleep I get by about an hour (go to sleep half hour later, wake up half hour earlier), starting tonight, unless someone has a better idea.

Thanks!

[Shamou]

Here is all the info that you will need on sleep requirement... the article was written by William Dement, M.D., Ph.D of Stanford University... so, the info should be reliable...

Sweet dreams...

.

[Minsc]

I'd recommend getting rid of all caffeine to reduce it by an hour or two.
There's caffeine in coffee, chocolate, and tea.

Foods high in caffeine: 216 Foods Highest in Caffeine<br>(based on levels per 100 grams)

Also, you should split it up into more than one block. Doing it all at once seems to work better than doing it gradually. That'll let you reduce it to 2-6 hours if you want.

[taitouwah]

Originally Posted by RT Wolf

Question is as the title says. I sleep 9 hours (wake up just before 8), and that's been fine up until now, but now I need more time in the day, so I want to reduce the amount of sleep I get(or do?) to 7.5 hours a night.

My questions are, anyone have experience reducing sleep like that? How did you do it? Reduce it all in one shot, or cut back by fifteen minutes or something? How did it take you to adjust to the new sleep situation, if at all?

I'm just to get down the amount of sleep I get by about an hour (go to sleep half hour later, wake up half hour earlier), starting tonight, unless someone has a better idea.

Thanks!

lol
they doesnt seems to answer the question that u had asked
according to a book named Power Sleep , sleep time can be adjust by half hour interval.

u have to experiment it with your self to find what is the time to wake up that is suitable for u. ever tried to wake up in the morning where u feel very tired? while some other time u wake up in the morning feel very fresh? this is because it is depends on which stage(phase of sleep ) you woke up. If u woke up on the early stage of ur sleep cycle , u will feel very alert.

but if u woke up on the deep sleep stage ( the 3rd or 4th stage) of your sleep cycle , u will feel tired.So try to find the "early stage" time to wake up by try out with and interval of 30 minutes . if wake up at 7.30 am u feel tired and not fresh , try out wake up at 7.00am , 6.30am or 6.00 . Once u had hit the "early stage" of the sleep cycle , its the most appropriate time for u to wake up.

i type this based on my personal understanding after reading "power sleep" ,the term i had used may not be totally correct , but the idea is there.

[Peter S C]

The following are some quick tips that have helped me reduce my sleep from 8 to 7 hours and also begin gladly waking at 5am:

Avoid caffeine and sugar after 5pm.

Go to bed at a reasonable time.

Wind down for 30 minutes before going to sleep, eg meditate, review your day, etc. You don't want your mind to be too stimulated when you go to sleep.

Know what time you have to get up for it to be 7.5 hours sleep and set the intention to wake up at that time.

Put your alarm clock away from your bed so you have to get out of bed to turn it off. Get up straight away - do not push the snooze button.

Reduce your sleep in 30 min blocks at a time.

Good luck.

[alexyeo]

Well, I am no expert in "sleep" topic, but I have something personal to share with you guys.

Right now, I am an undergrad and having an industrial attachment (IA) right now for a six months period. I have to wake up at around 7am before I reach my office at 8.15am. And I sleep at 2am most of the time. Sometimes even up till 3 am before I sleep.

I have a hectic schedule in terms of juggling my IA, internet business and part time work on Sunday. That's why I slept late most of the time and I only get around 4-5 hours of sleep.

Yeah, I felt tired. But normally on sat, I tried to catch up on my sleep and sleep for around 10 hours before I wake up on sat. In a sense that I tried to "replenish" my lost sleep hours on a fri night.

I feel I am ok with it. Has anyone tried "replenishing" your sleep?

[Brutha]

Here is all the info that you will need on sleep requirement... the article was written by William Dement, M.D., Ph.D of Stanford University... so, the info should be reliable...

Well if you buy for a moment that the average college student needs more than eight hours of sleep.
Then why have people how sleep 7 hours instead of the 8 a higher lifespan (according to a big study).
If the sleep debt theory was true, the fact that people like Steve can live halve a year with 2 sleep per day (Polyphasic Sleep) would be impossible.

[Kaspian]

Another possibility for giving yourself more time by sleeping less is polyphasic sleep. You don't have to do the extreme version of naps only. There are several sleep-at-night, nap-during-the-day combos that work well. The general consensus of the Google Group on Polyphasic Sleep is that the longer the core, the more flexible your nap times are, and the fewer naps you'll need. (They refer to the large chunk at night as a "core" sleep.)

90-minute core, 4-5 naps 15-25 minutes long
3 hour core, 3-4 naps
4.5 hour core, 2-3 naps
6 hour core, 1-2 naps

Obviously, there are people who regularly get 4-6 hours of sleep with no nap and seem to do fine. (I still wonder if they're sleep deprived and don't know it because it feels "normal" to them.) The key is to figure out what works for you. If sleeping 7.5 hours leaves you tired after you've done it consistently for a week or two, try adding a mid-afternoon nap. It’s possible that adding an afternoon nap would allow you to drop to 6 hours at night and still feel refreshed.

I have no idea whether a gradual or sudden shift from 9 hours to 7.5 hours will be easier. When I've intentionally changed my sleep schedule, I switched cold-turkey. The initial adjustment to napping was a challenge, but the modifications after that were fairly easy.

Also, sleep cycles are generally 90 minutes long. If your alarm goes off near the end of a sleep cycle, you'll wake up feeling more alert than if you wake up somewhere in the middle. Through experimentation, I've found that mine are closer to 85 minutes long, so I wake up much easier if I sleep for 2:50 than I do if I sleep for 3-4 hours. Knowing this doesn't have to change your plans much, but it might explain some early morning tiredness while you're adjusting.

[Sam988]

A good way to reduce sleeping time to 6 hours per day without having to take several naps a day (impossible to anyone whos got a busy schedule) is going to biphasic sleep. Im going to try it myself in the next weeks.



More on biphasic sleeping

Switching to Biphasic Sleeping? Start here.

[Minsc]

Also, there's a pill that you can take that will make you sleep 6 hours without being tired and will let you stay up for a few days in a row but I forgot the name...

You probably wouldn't want to use it though?

[RT Wolf]

Thank you everyone for responding.

I've been trying to go to sleep at 11 and wake up at 7:!5 for the past week, with differing levels of success. I have noticed a marked loss of concentration ability and its like my brain is simulataneously really free and in a total brain fog. I especially had a sleep upset two days ago that I'm still feeling today. HOpefully, that'll be resolved. I'm going to keep trying to adjust to 11 to 7:15 for a week before I'd consider giving up. I will probably update this thread about my progress. The question I am trying to answer is essentially, is there really a personal requirement of sleep, or can I change the amount of sleep and keep my level of health, vitality, concetration, etc. That is, can I change my presonal requirement of sleep or not, and in a monophasic schedule?

taitouwah, I'll check out that book. Thanks for the info.

Kaspian, thanks for the info.

Sam988. I have considered biphasic sleep, but I don't have consistancy of schedule enough to do that, yet, unless I get core sleep from like 11 to 5 or whatever and then a name around 8-9 in the morning, would that work? I might try that out later. Thanks.

Minsc, you're talking about modafil I think. I'm not interested in using drugs. That site you firs tlinked looks very interesting, though, I'll bookmark it. Thanks.

Thanks again everyone.

[RT Wolf]

I've decided to return to my old sleep schedule instead of trying to pursue this any further. The goal was to discover whether it is possible to cut down the amount of sleep I need and, if it is, then do it. I had decided that I would allow two weeks adjustment time to a new schedule before allowing myself to reevaluate but its been difficult to continue. I've been following a regimented sleeping schedule for around eight months now and messing around with it just a little bit caused me to feel more tired, less alert, less concetration, harder to remember things (not by much, but enough), harder to control my mood (and mood swings), harder ot think and harder to control my emotions, all of which I sort of expected, but not on that scale.

I will probably try this again, but not until I have a less full schedule. I am a full-time student and have a part-time job and other committments, so now is not the time to be messing around with this. Still, I learned something valuable--Don't mess with my sleep.

Thank you again everyone for replying, I found your replies very useful and I'll review them the next time I decide to mess with my sleep schedule. The next time will probably be after this term ends and before hte next one begins, and I'll be trying for a biphasic slepe schedule of core sleep from 11 to like 5 and then nap from 8 to 9. Let's see how it goes.

[Amarena]

I’ve reduced my sleeping time for the same reason, but I didn’t to this progressively, I just continued my activity until a later hour than usual and woke up earlier than before. I think that sleeping 7,5 hours, if you are an adult, is enough ad healthy. Just don’t sleep less than 7 hours. I did this, too, and it turned me into a very irascible person until I began sleeping 7 hours. My favorite sleeping time is 11:00 PM- 6:30 AM or 11:30 PM- 7:00AM (it’s my favorite, but it doesn’t mean that I can do this all the time), because I have learned that hours everyone should sleep and not waste are 11PM-1AM and 5AM-7AM.
I hope it helps!

[RT Wolf]

Thanks for your input Amarena. I got the feeling that it'd be possible to do this, and your story confirms it for me. But I don't want to do this right now. When I get a break from school, I will probably do it.

Thanks.