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.

[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...