Anyone successfully reduced sleep hours per night?

[Zulu]

Has anyone done this (and used a sleep log to document it)?

I've gone about two months sleeping 7.75h a night, but many of those nights I used modafinil.

Now that I've stopped using it, I sleep about 8.75h on average. Admittedly, maybe 1h of that is laziness.

I see sleep as a lot like food. We probably get 20% too much for optimal health/time management... but your body will always fight to keep you in homeostasis. Everytime I think I've managed to sleep less than 8h a night, I always end up catching up that sleep.

So what are your experiences?

[skinnyninja]

My sleep schedule is a nightmare and has been for the past 5 years due to the fact that I work third shift only twice each week.

I actually sleep 8 hours at a time, 6 times each week. The seventh time I lay down is the morning after my two 3rd shifts, and that is just a 2 or 3 hour nap. Then I am back on a first shift schedule for the next 5 days. Then I stay up for about 20 hour straight on Sunday and switch back to third shift again.

So I guess if you figure 7 nights at 8 hours a night would be 56 hours of sleep. I'm only sleeping 6x8 = 48 plus the nap which gives a total of 50 or 51 hours. But, I feel it.

[Minsc]

I'm experimenting with some sort of polyphasic sleep...

Trying to get three hours of sleep on school days and two on weekends and days off. Works alright but could be better(a lot less than eight hours on school days and oversleep on weekends causes it to rise to 5-8).

EDIT: One of the times I sleep from is 4AM to 6AM, and it's pretty odd since I haven't remembered doing it for the last couple of days(but I had to have done it)...

[Stephen]

Originally Posted by Zulu

Anyone successfully reduced sleep hours per night? Reply to Thread

So what are your experiences?

Hi Zulu

Since our kids arrived on the scene they have remarkably assisted us with this one! I mean, without any effort, they can reduce our sleep to a few hours a night!!!

[micth]

i used to sleep 9.5hours but now i got it down to 7
I've started exercising every morning, and that helps.

Also, I think people have the mindset that '7 hours of sleep will make me feel tied' so they get 7 hours sleep, and surprise surprise, they're tired! I used to think like that, and was tired throughout the whole day, but now i think '7 hours is just enough sleep for me' and I don't feel tired anymore .

Oh, oh. Also, don't complain about being tired. I know heaps of people that always complain of being tired/not getting enough sleep, and I feel that because they say this so much, that their body is making them feel more tired than they actually are. So turn that around and focus on how energetic you feel, that may work.

So yeah, try changing you beliefs in relation to how much sleep you need, it may help. Or maybe i'm just deluding myself into thinking i'm not tired when i really am

[Pooka]

I was on the Uberman sleep schedule for around twenty-one days, earlier this year. I know, some people say three weeks isn't enough to properly transition, espescially accounting for all my slip-ups, but during those twenty-one days, I managed to produce a bit of creative work, do schoolwork, and not injure myself or others at all. I was forced to go back to monophasic by my school schedule. If my schedule relents next semester, I'll transition over Christmas break and be back on it.

Currently, I get around seven hours of sleep each schoolnight, though I'm certainly capable of sleeping for longer. I'm always torn between the efficiency of cutting down on sleep and the chance having more time to pratice my lucid-dreaming skills.

[Alarin]

A few years ago I used to sleep about 10 hours a night, tossed and turned, and always woke up feeling groggy and was tired all day. After doing a heap of research on sleep I now sleep like a log for 6 hours a night and wake up much more alert, and have a lot more energy during the day, than I ever did on 10 hours a night.

When I first made this change it was hell for the first week but after that my body adjusted and realised it wasn't getting any more than 6 hours a night so it had better make the most of it I also try and go for a walk every day as sunlight and exercise are natural caffiene for your body, increasing your circadium rhythm which helps you stay up later and sleep better.

I also try and listen to my body carefully when it wants sleep as sometimes I'll be fighting off a cold or virus and my body demands sleep so it can recover. If my body tells me to go to bed early occasionally (signalled by uncontrollable yawning lol) then I go to bed early, and if I'm having trouble staying awake during the day for some reason I go nap for an hour, and then usually just stay up later that night. This week I managed to get over a virus in two days that had my husband home sick for the entire week because I slept and slept and slept. I think sleep is the best possible way you can let your body repair itself.

Anyway sorry to go off on a tangent there Yes I have successfully reduced my hours of sleep each night. I think the main trick - apart from reducing the hours to force my body not to sleep lazily - has been to get up at the same time every morning, but go to sleep at night only when I'm tired. This lets my body call the shots as it knows how much time it has to do all that overnight maintenance that keeps us healthy.

I hope that helps

[Phi]

I get by with 4 hours per night. Used to sleep 7-8 hours, but managed to reduce my need for sleep after some biphasic/polyphasic experimenting.

To get by with only 4 hours, I do 3 hours core in the night and 2-3 20 min. naps during the day (around 6 am, 1 pm and 6 pm). My core is usually from 10 pm to 1 am.

[Trustme]

Originally Posted by Phi

I get by with 4 hours per night. Used to sleep 7-8 hours, but managed to reduce my need for sleep after some biphasic/polyphasic experimenting.

To get by with only 4 hours, I do 3 hours core in the night and 2-3 20 min. naps during the day (around 6 am, 1 pm and 6 pm). My core is usually from 10 pm to 1 am.

just curious - how long have you been doing this? My core at night is around 4.5 hours + a nap in the evening of 60 minutes. It somehow feels strange to me to try to reduce this further.

[Saidin]

I just went from 8 hours a night to 6.5 hours a night of 'normal' sleep. No naps. What helped is having something to do in the morning. I (want to) work for myself a few hours before I (have to) go to work. This helps getting out of bed immediately when the alarm goes of.

I'd like to try biphasic sleep. However, my understanding is/was that the nap needs to be 90 minutes because of the 90 minute cycles you're supposed to sleep in?

[Trustme]

Originally Posted by Saidin

I just went from 8 hours a night to 6.5 hours a night of 'normal' sleep. No naps. What helped is having something to do in the morning. I (want to) work for myself a few hours before I (have to) go to work. This helps getting out of bed immediately when the alarm goes of.

I'd like to try biphasic sleep. However, my understanding is/was that the nap needs to be 90 minutes because of the 90 minute cycles you're supposed to sleep in?

same situation for me - I work for myself before I go to work.

You don't have to be that religious with the nap time. I hardly ever nap for 90 minutes, usually I wake up after 60 minutes or more. Even a small nap is very refreshing and beneficial in my opinion.

[Ati]

Originally Posted by Phi

I get by with 4 hours per night. Used to sleep 7-8 hours, but managed to reduce my need for sleep after some biphasic/polyphasic experimenting.

To get by with only 4 hours, I do 3 hours core in the night and 2-3 20 min. naps during the day (around 6 am, 1 pm and 6 pm). My core is usually from 10 pm to 1 am.

Originally Posted by Saidin

I just went from 8 hours a night to 6.5 hours a night of 'normal' sleep. No naps. What helped is having something to do in the morning. I (want to) work for myself a few hours before I (have to) go to work. This helps getting out of bed immediately when the alarm goes of.

I'd like to try biphasic sleep. However, my understanding is/was that the nap needs to be 90 minutes because of the 90 minute cycles you're supposed to sleep in?

Hi from another board (intention manifestation)

This is a real interest of mine. I am not clear on what is healthy and what is not overall in regards to sleep. There is research suggesting that sleeping more is better and that there is a health problem with sleeping too little. I'm not sure anyone knows the answer to that question. I'll bet, like a lot of other things, this is an individual matter.

I have found this:
I can regularly get up at 3:45am within a schedule of getting up, having a cup of good coffee, doing various things on the computer (now this forum added!) until 4:25am then feeding the cats, doing their litter and getting myself into my music room to practice guitar for two solid hours. Then I have breakfast, sometimes a little more e-work and off to my day job , getting there early as well.

In order to do this, I do best with a half hour nap in the mid afternoon, or even as late as 5:30 if I don't get back til then.

Then I can stay up til about 10pm with my husband (and my grown daughter if she's around) That's important for family/marital life.

So, I'm sleeping 5:45 hours at night and getting an additional 30 minutes most days.

I'd like to have more time up if it turns out to be healthy. Maybe getting up at 2:45 instead of 3:45am. Any ideas how to keep energy and general health good doing with less sleep than I'm describing? I can't really count on putting in another half hour nap. Also, if I nap longer than 30 minutes it doesn't feel right although I've tried various ways to do that.

Ideas and experience would be most appreciated!

Phi, when you get up at 1am, do you do stuff at home, then go somewhere else? I'm asking because there seems a difference there between internal and external stimulation--if you go somewhere with a fair amount of public or people-related interaction, that's external stimulation which would keep me, anyway from nodding off although I might feel like it . Also, how might that be if you could only do the 6am and 6pm naps? Do you think something like what you are doing is possible with just 2 naps spaced say 10-12 hours apart?

What references or information on biphasic sleep have you all found to be useful?


Thanks!

Ati

[Trustme]

Actually research shows that sleepling too little or too much has a negative impact on your life expectancy.

[Ati]

That's exactly what I have found! The question then becomes: what is too little or too much? I keep coming back to more global measures such as individuality, "listening to your body" and so on which does make sense. Undoubtedly what is right for a person at one point in time (in reference to everything from age to activity to usual schedule to stressful or wonderful life events etc.)

However, I'm really fascinated with the idea of experimenting with this, as has been posted by so many interesting folks on this board. How can we tell how much is too much, how much too little for an individual at a given time--that to me seems common sense and again highly individualized--no global "right answer"....

Yet.....discovering particular methods such as biphasic or polyphasic or other sorts of routines seems like just the sort of great leap that wouldn't come from just trying to sleep a bit more or a bit less, hence my interest and questions...

thanks!

Ati

[SuperStar]

My girlfriend only sleeps 2-3 nights out of the week and only for 3 hours usually, and has been doing this for several years. She's kinda insane. I'm always asking her, "when was the last time you slept?" so I know what kind of animal I'm looking at. She's usually fine, you'd never know. But sometimes when it gets to like the 5th day without sleep she gets some strange behavior. She gets really cold when it's not that cold out, she's super jumpy at any noise or touch she wasn't expecting, and has that weird giddy giggly thing we've probably all had at some point.

I don't know how she does it really except that she's used to it from being a perfectionist school-wise. She definitely has said that "it's an attitude. you tell yourself you're not tired."

[thadroe]

I've read a few places that the key to sleeping less, and doing it without negative effects, is to make sure you are getting a longer amount of deep sleep. The best way I've been able to do this is plenty of exercise, especially weight lifting. When I'm not getting enough exercise, I can sleep for 10 hours and still not feel rested. When I do some good strength training, I go into a much deeper sleep and feel much more rested with only around 6 hours.

There's a book called the Pleasure Trap that has an excellent perspective on sleep, among many other things.

Thad

[Unregistered]

Originally Posted by SuperStar

My girlfriend only sleeps 2-3 nights out of the week and only for 3 hours usually, and has been doing this for several years. She's kinda insane. I'm always asking her, "when was the last time you slept?" so I know what kind of animal I'm looking at. She's usually fine, you'd never know. But sometimes when it gets to like the 5th day without sleep she gets some strange behavior. She gets really cold when it's not that cold out, she's super jumpy at any noise or touch she wasn't expecting, and has that weird giddy giggly thing we've probably all had at some point.

I don't know how she does it really except that she's used to it from being a perfectionist school-wise. She definitely has said that "it's an attitude. you tell yourself you're not tired."

Unbelieveble! This is absolutely incredible. Do you know how much she used to sleep at younger age? I ask because i want to know if its a learned ability or not. I'm getting by with 3 - 4,5 h at night and a 20 - 30 min nap in the afternoon, but your girlfriend is just far beyond

[Phi]

Answering some of the questions from above:

Been doing if for about a year. Started biphasic (3 + 1,5 hours), went polyphasic for 2 weeks (no fun if you have a family and enjoy being with them). Ended up with current schedule which I have maintained for about 8 months (except for a month long holiday where I was monophasic like everybody else).

Totally agree with SuperStar's girlfriend... it's a question of attitude. If I tell myself I'm tired, then I really am tired. So I usually tell myself that I'm totally fresh and ready for anything

I work on my own business in the morning before going to my normal fulltime job. My plan is to live on my business within a year or so, so I'm very motivated in the morning hours. I don't think I could pull it off if I weren't motivated.

[Ati]

Originally Posted by Phi

I get by with 4 hours per night. Used to sleep 7-8 hours, but managed to reduce my need for sleep after some biphasic/polyphasic experimenting.

To get by with only 4 hours, I do 3 hours core in the night and 2-3 20 min. naps during the day (around 6 am, 1 pm and 6 pm). My core is usually from 10 pm to 1 am.

Originally Posted by Trustme

just curious - how long have you been doing this? My core at night is around 4.5 hours + a nap in the evening of 60 minutes. It somehow feels strange to me to try to reduce this further.

Originally Posted by Saidin

I just went from 8 hours a night to 6.5 hours a night of 'normal' sleep. No naps. What helped is having something to do in the morning. I (want to) work for myself a few hours before I (have to) go to work. This helps getting out of bed immediately when the alarm goes of.

I'd like to try biphasic sleep. However, my understanding is/was that the nap needs to be 90 minutes because of the 90 minute cycles you're supposed to sleep in?

Originally Posted by Trustme

same situation for me - I work for myself before I go to work.

You don't have to be that religious with the nap time. I hardly ever nap for 90 minutes, usually I wake up after 60 minutes or more. Even a small nap is very refreshing and beneficial in my opinion.

Originally Posted by Phi

Answering some of the questions from above:

Been doing if for about a year. Started biphasic (3 + 1,5 hours), went polyphasic for 2 weeks (no fun if you have a family and enjoy being with them). Ended up with current schedule which I have maintained for about 8 months (except for a month long holiday where I was monophasic like everybody else).

Totally agree with SuperStar's girlfriend... it's a question of attitude. If I tell myself I'm tired, then I really am tired. So I usually tell myself that I'm totally fresh and ready for anything

I work on my own business in the morning before going to my normal fulltime job. My plan is to live on my business within a year or so, so I'm very motivated in the morning hours. I don't think I could pull it off if I weren't motivated.

Good morning!

It's 4:26, I got up with alarm at 4:00am this morning. Decided to give this a try yesterday after reading these posts and the ones on another thread, this board "post your polyphasic sleep logs here".

I've been getting up at 3:45am in order to practice my music for 2 hours in the morning before getting to work early, which I also really like to do--going to sleep anywhere between 9 and 10:30 depending upon how I felt--that's been a habit for maybe 2 1/2 to 3 months now, over the 30 day mark for sure. Now, in order to see if it will feel healthy and work right to go from somewhere between 6:45 hours and 5:15 hours a night--(PLUS a 30 minute nap during the day so should add that)--to 4:30 plus 1:30 = 5 hours per night, I'm trying this new thing. To be clear, I think I was most often closer to 6:30 to 6:45 hrs than 5:15 before.

David Hausladen on the polyphasic log thread has been very active and seems to also have gotten very much into this. His information is like what you said here, Saidin--90 minutes being an important duration since it encompasses a solid sleep cycle (including both REM and deep sleep as I understand it).

So last night, I took a 90 minute nap 630 to 800 and then slept as above through the night. We'll see how this works. The folks on the other thread who are actively trying these things out have tried to log their attempts at this, to compare notes and experiences, etc.

Phi, you said you "Ended up with current schedule which I have maintained for about 8 months..." I guess you mean what you mean what you had in an earlier post: " 3 hours core in the night and 2-3 20 min. naps during the day (around 6 am, 1 pm and 6 pm). My core is usually from 10 pm to 1 am." You have a lot of experience with this! May I ask you, if you couldn't do the 1pm nap because of time related stuff, what might you do instead?

All best, I'm going to log in my daily experience with this on the thread set up for logging but will check in here as well.....really fascinating stuff and sounds like many of you have a good amount of experience with it!

Ati

[Alarin]

Originally Posted by SuperStar

My girlfriend only sleeps 2-3 nights out of the week and only for 3 hours usually, and has been doing this for several years. She's kinda insane. I'm always asking her, "when was the last time you slept?" so I know what kind of animal I'm looking at. She's usually fine, you'd never know. But sometimes when it gets to like the 5th day without sleep she gets some strange behavior. She gets really cold when it's not that cold out, she's super jumpy at any noise or touch she wasn't expecting, and has that weird giddy giggly thing we've probably all had at some point.

I don't know how she does it really except that she's used to it from being a perfectionist school-wise. She definitely has said that "it's an attitude. you tell yourself you're not tired."

Wow, that's incredible! I'm amazed she can still function ok after a few days without sleep, does she have trouble driving or reacting to things or anything like that?

I have a friend who sleeps no more than 3 hours a night, with a 1 hour nap in the afternoon, but usually every 5 or 6 days she 'crashes' and sleeps for 12 - 14 hours straight.

[SuperStar]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Unbelieveble! This is absolutely incredible. Do you know how much she used to sleep at younger age? I ask because i want to know if its a learned ability or not. I'm getting by with 3 - 4,5 h at night and a 20 - 30 min nap in the afternoon, but your girlfriend is just far beyond

Originally Posted by Alarin

Wow, that's incredible! I'm amazed she can still function ok after a few days without sleep, does she have trouble driving or reacting to things or anything like that?

I have a friend who sleeps no more than 3 hours a night, with a 1 hour nap in the afternoon, but usually every 5 or 6 days she 'crashes' and sleeps for 12 - 14 hours straight.

That's the weird thing - she doesn't get lethargic she gets antsy. Actually I think that's part of the "attitude" thing I mentioned. I think she basically does it by always keeping stimulated in some way. She always keeps herself busy with either work or school and rather than sleeping when there's neither, she keeps a full social life as well, so there's just not time for sleep, and she regards sleeping as a waste of time. When it gets dicey she gets kinda hyper because she knows if she "lets down her guard" she'll just crash, so she has to keep herself going by keeping stimulated.

City driving is not hard but driving on the freeway long distances is sometimes a problem. I tell her to call me if she's getting sleepy while driving so I can talk to her to keep her alert. I think her temperature level has something to do with it too. I mentioned she gets really sensitive to cold - I joke with her that it's her body going into survival mode and protecting the vital organs and letting her limbs die. Get her under a comfy blanket and she's out like a light - all warm and snuggly does her in. So I think the being cold keeps her alert as well.

I asked her about her sleep habits when she was younger but I honestly can't really remember what she told me. I think it was a combination of both - she didn't sleep as much as "normal" to begin with and then starting in high school she was just so stressed and competitive that she started cutting back more and more.

I should also mention that she does take short 20 min naps sometimes, and does "crash" once in a while - like when the semester is over - but for her a "crash" is like 6 hours.

[Phi]

Originally Posted by Ati

Phi, you said you "Ended up with current schedule which I have maintained for about 8 months..." I guess you mean what you mean what you had in an earlier post: " 3 hours core in the night and 2-3 20 min. naps during the day (around 6 am, 1 pm and 6 pm). My core is usually from 10 pm to 1 am." You have a lot of experience with this! May I ask you, if you couldn't do the 1pm nap because of time related stuff, what might you do instead?

I don't think it would be possible without the 1pm nap. It's absolute essential if I want to avoid falling asleep during the afternoon.

But I would immediately quit my job if my boss didn't allow me to take a nap after lunch.

[Scott Bird]

Originally Posted by Ati

What references or information on biphasic sleep have you all found to be useful?

Ati,

I've been biphasic sleeping quite happily for a couple of months now. I've seen several studies on sleep (and like everything else they vary quite a bit), but none of them really cover the biphasic approach. For this reason I've found my own experimentation (with times etc) to be the most helpful, as well as reading of the experiences of others.

Zulu, to answer your original question, I've gone from around 7.5 hours to a steady 6. No massive change in quantity, though the quality is a lot better.

[vuurstorm]

I have been a bad sleeper for my hole life (29 years old) Used to sleep 7:30 hours and never felt refreshed when waking up.

I recently did a juice fast and after that started running and changing my diet to a mostly raw fruit diet. I now sleep beteen 5:30 and 6 hours and feel refreshed everytime.

Before my diet and exercise change it usually took me an hour to fall asleep always rolling arround and thinking of stuff instead of sleeping, sometimes even getting angry not being able to fall asleep but now when I go to bed I fall asleep witin 5 minutes.

It is amasing how your diet and excercise can change your life.

[Alarin]

Originally Posted by SuperStar

That's the weird thing - she doesn't get lethargic she gets antsy. Actually I think that's part of the "attitude" thing I mentioned. I think she basically does it by always keeping stimulated in some way. She always keeps herself busy with either work or school and rather than sleeping when there's neither, she keeps a full social life as well, so there's just not time for sleep, and she regards sleeping as a waste of time. When it gets dicey she gets kinda hyper because she knows if she "lets down her guard" she'll just crash, so she has to keep herself going by keeping stimulated.

City driving is not hard but driving on the freeway long distances is sometimes a problem. I tell her to call me if she's getting sleepy while driving so I can talk to her to keep her alert. I think her temperature level has something to do with it too. I mentioned she gets really sensitive to cold - I joke with her that it's her body going into survival mode and protecting the vital organs and letting her limbs die. Get her under a comfy blanket and she's out like a light - all warm and snuggly does her in. So I think the being cold keeps her alert as well.

I asked her about her sleep habits when she was younger but I honestly can't really remember what she told me. I think it was a combination of both - she didn't sleep as much as "normal" to begin with and then starting in high school she was just so stressed and competitive that she started cutting back more and more.

I should also mention that she does take short 20 min naps sometimes, and does "crash" once in a while - like when the semester is over - but for her a "crash" is like 6 hours.

That's pretty amazing! She must get a lot done. Does she get sick a lot or easily, like does she have poor immunity? I know that sleep contributes a lot to body repair and immunity so it would be interesting to know if lack of sleep negatively effects her health?

I remember there was a man in India or China I think it was who claimed not to have slept for 20 years, and during the night he watched over his neighbours cattle to protect them from thieves. He said he'd never been sick or even tired, he just couldn't sleep

[Andrew Brunelle]

I've done something I find to be interesting. I've been going to bed a lot earlier and waking up a lot earlier. I get from 7 to 8 hours of sleep a night, and if I need a nap during the day, I take 20 min or so. But it's hardly necessary. The whole thinking of this is to reduce sleep time, I know, but what I find is that I hardly ever do anything of value after 10 PM, and if I do, I don't remember it very well the next day. So around 10:30 or 11:00 I go to bed, then I wake up around 6-7 AM, so that way I can get things done way before I go to work. This way, it allows for a more relaxed day and I usually get more things done when I get up early. I don't know what it is about waking up early, but it certainly boosts produectivity. Now if I could only get off these 2 PM to 10 PM shifts at my work...

[Scott Bird]

Andrew, are you using an alarm to wake up? It sounds as though you might be able to shave a bit off that total sleep time.

Also, what sort of time are you taking the nap? I'm just curious to see how long the 'reset' benefits last for other people - I'm good for another 5 hours or so.

[SuperStar]

Originally Posted by Alarin

That's pretty amazing! She must get a lot done. Does she get sick a lot or easily, like does she have poor immunity? I know that sleep contributes a lot to body repair and immunity so it would be interesting to know if lack of sleep negatively effects her health?

She does. It's (one reason) why she's a great girlfriend. She's always doing things for me - my laundry, grocery shopping, etc. She claims to have better-than-average immune system function. I've never seen her get sick. Allergies, but not sick. She's a scientist and pays close attention to sleep deprivation studies - apparently it makes your body try to conserve energy (get fatter (she's not fat)) and decreases your life expectancy.

Originally Posted by Alarin

I remember there was a man in India or China I think it was who claimed not to have slept for 20 years, and during the night he watched over his neighbours cattle to protect them from thieves. He said he'd never been sick or even tired, he just couldn't sleep

Yeah I've heard of that guy. I saw him on PBS or something one time. Aparently there was some traumatic incident (not sure if it was a blow to the head or what) and from then on he just never got tired. I think the number I remember hearing was 30+ years with no sleep. Weird. They should dissect that guy when he dies and find out if we can all do that.

[Keith]

Duplicated from the "minimising sleep" thread (what exactly is the difference between this thread and that, anyway?) :

I was just watching a story about sleep deprivation on a science show called "Catalyst". One of the things they said in this story is that extensive studies into sleep deprivation has shown that around 15% of people can get by on (what would be for anybody else) insufficient sleep.

Apparently brain scans show that a different part of their brain kicks in when deprived of sleep and functionality tests (memory etc.) show minimal deterioration.

Interesting stuff, and could explain why some people naturally take to a polyphasic or light sleep schedule (I'm looking at you, Steve!) while others don't...

[Alarin]

Originally Posted by Andrew Brunelle

I've done something I find to be interesting. I've been going to bed a lot earlier and waking up a lot earlier. I get from 7 to 8 hours of sleep a night, and if I need a nap during the day, I take 20 min or so. But it's hardly necessary. The whole thinking of this is to reduce sleep time, I know, but what I find is that I hardly ever do anything of value after 10 PM, and if I do, I don't remember it very well the next day. So around 10:30 or 11:00 I go to bed, then I wake up around 6-7 AM, so that way I can get things done way before I go to work. This way, it allows for a more relaxed day and I usually get more things done when I get up early. I don't know what it is about waking up early, but it certainly boosts produectivity. Now if I could only get off these 2 PM to 10 PM shifts at my work...

It sounds like you're an 'early bird' as opposed to a 'night owl' Everyone has their own circadian rhythm which dictates when they're sleepy and when they're awake, yours definately sounds like it has an early start so you're awake and alert early in the day and you start to flag in the later evening. I'm the exact opposite, I can make myself get out of bed by 6:30am but I'm a zombie for the next hour and my mornings are slow, however from about 8pm to midnight I'm at my most alert and creative.

If you're an early bird it's good to listen to your body clock, and it sounds like you're doing that which explains your good results. If you want to shave some more time off your sleeping hours you could try setting your alarm clock half to one hour earlier and seeing how you feel when you wake up - if you're more alert then you've woken up at the end of a REM cycle and it's a good time to get up, if you're groggy just go back to your usual waking time.