5 ms·

> Put it this way: If you rely on an alarm clock to wake up, you’re out of sync with your own biology. I get told, especially by lots of armchair wannabe docto

> Put it this way: If you rely on an alarm clock to wake up, you’re out of sync with your own biology. I get told, especially by lots of armchair wannabe doctors here on HN that I need 8 hours of sleep but if I don't set my alarm (I actually rarely set my alarm) I often wake up in naturally in 6 hours regardless of when I go to sleep. Maybe 30% of the time I can go back to sleep, the other 70% I'm not tired. Otherwise in relation to the topic in general I'm not 100% I want my most awake time to go to the company I work for. Is that wrong?

QML 8y ago
No, it’s just that 8 hours is the recommended amount for the average person. Your “chronotype” may differ.
- jghn 8y ago
  The key here is that many folks who claim they're the atypical ones are not. In the GPs case, perhaps they are.
jSully24 8y ago
We are all so different about what we need for rest. Some need 9h, some need 6h. We all need to experiment. And many/most of us will not, or can not take the time to experiment. I feel I can’t. So much to do...
nicoburns 8y ago
People definitely vary quite significantly in the amount of sleep they need. I have some friends who can happily get by with 6 hours of sleep on a permanent basis. Whereas I need at least 8, and would happily take 10 or 12 if the time was available.
- ehnto 8y ago
  I thought I could get by on 6, but then I started sleeping naturally and I was sleeping much longer and now I feel like I operate better. I had been sleeping short hours my whole life so it was just the norm. It wasn't energy or thought capacity either, I have always been fine with that even on 6 hours. But longer term thinking, sense of continuity and ability to remember, to think more broadly about time and my place in it were all drastically improved. Things I used to do a lot I do far less now and don't feel a need to, stimuli like video games and reddit are not nearly as appealing when I sleep longer. I feel no different moment to moment but there are what feel like auxilliary mental capacities I didn't realise I was missing. Resistance to stimuli, temporal thinking and memory being the key ones.
trophycase 8y ago
Counter anecdote. I feel I need less sleep if I wake and sleep with the sun. If I stay up very late, I feel I need more sleep to feel rested
- tokyodude 8y ago
  Can you clarify what you mean "wake and sleep with the sun". Right now where I live the sun comes up just before 7am and sets at 4:30pm. Are you saying you sleep ~14 hours a night?
codyhazelwood 8y ago
I think it definitely varies for each person. If I let myself sleep until I wake up 'naturally' - it's usually 9-10 hours. I'd love to be able to get somewhere in the 6-8 hour range. I drink a copious amount of caffeine to keep going during the day, too. (5+ cups of coffee and sometimes an energy drink, too)
- watwut 8y ago
  That may mean sleep deprivation. If you have sleep deprivation, you will sleep longer for some days. Afaik, 6 hours a day is not enough for optimal performance for most people. It is minimum where people can function with somewhat, but also one where your cognitive capabilities are affected measurably.
muse900 8y ago
> Otherwise in relation to the topic in general I'm not 100% I want my most awake time to go to the company I work for. Is that wrong? Nope, I completely agree with that also. I personally don't want to spend my most awake time for the company I work either. Also just to comment on something that has been said times and times again, the 8 hour working schedule was introduced more than 150 years ago and started getting implemented 100 years ago. Its time for humanity to move on and find different systems that will allow us to work less and enjoy more of what life has to offer. We did have the computational revolution during the 90's early 2000 and now we've reached a point where a lot of jobs have been automated and a lot more to come. Think of everything out there and how much faster its been done with the use of computers and the internet. So our productivity must have went up by tremendous amounts although the working hours didn't go down at all, they remained exactly the same. My personal belief is we can easily bring it down to 6 hours a day and slowly slowly bring it down to 4 working days per week. Of course such thing must happen massively around the globe, given how interlinked countries are nowadays.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
shados 8y ago
Absolutely not a doctor (or even really know what I'm talking about), but I've been hunting down a sleep disorder I've been dealing with for a decade+, and there's at least a couple of things to consider (someone please correct me if I got anything wrong) My understanding is that during the day (evening?), your melatonin level increases. While you sleep, it goes down. If you wake up for any reason just a few hours before your optimal sleepy time, it might be a lot harder to get back to sleep. A lot of stuff might cause you to wake up early. Very common ones, especially in the US: GERD and sleep apnea. You end up waking up, you're not tired, but you didn't get the sleep you needed. The last part I was told only recently and I dunno how accurate it is, but supposedly you get most of your important REM sleep in the last few hours of sleep, so there's a pretty big difference between 6 and 8 hours, even though you might wake up (for reasons such as the ones above) but not be functioning at your fullest. And while you might be functioning on par with your colleagues...maybe you'd just be a total badass if you sleep better/more... Take all of this with a huge grain of salt :)
stephen_g 8y ago
Wow! If I don’t set an alarm, I’ll easily sleep for 10 hours...
uncletaco 8y ago
When I was in ROTC my cadet commander said "you only really need 6 hours of sleep" and like the good cadet that I was I've only slept a maximum of six hours ever since. After a couple years of using an alarm clock to do that I've been able to get up naturally after six hours for like the last 7-8 years. Not sure if its healthy but I do know I feel worse when I sleep longer.

QML 8y ago

No, it’s just that 8 hours is the recommended amount for the average person. Your “chronotype” may differ.

jghn 8y ago
The key here is that many folks who claim they're the atypical ones are not. In the GPs case, perhaps they are.

jSully24 8y ago

We are all so different about what we need for rest. Some need 9h, some need 6h. We all need to experiment. And many/most of us will not, or can not take the time to experiment. I feel I can’t. So much to do...

nicoburns 8y ago

People definitely vary quite significantly in the amount of sleep they need. I have some friends who can happily get by with 6 hours of sleep on a permanent basis. Whereas I need at least 8, and would happily take 10 or 12 if the time was available.

ehnto 8y ago
I thought I could get by on 6, but then I started sleeping naturally and I was sleeping much longer and now I feel like I operate better. I had been sleeping short hours my whole life so it was just the norm. It wasn't energy or thought capacity either, I have always been fine with that even on 6 hours. But longer term thinking, sense of continuity and ability to remember, to think more broadly about time and my place in it were all drastically improved. Things I used to do a lot I do far less now and don't feel a need to, stimuli like video games and reddit are not nearly as appealing when I sleep longer. I feel no different moment to moment but there are what feel like auxilliary mental capacities I didn't realise I was missing. Resistance to stimuli, temporal thinking and memory being the key ones.

trophycase 8y ago

Counter anecdote. I feel I need less sleep if I wake and sleep with the sun. If I stay up very late, I feel I need more sleep to feel rested

tokyodude 8y ago
Can you clarify what you mean "wake and sleep with the sun". Right now where I live the sun comes up just before 7am and sets at 4:30pm. Are you saying you sleep ~14 hours a night?

codyhazelwood 8y ago

I think it definitely varies for each person. If I let myself sleep until I wake up 'naturally' - it's usually 9-10 hours. I'd love to be able to get somewhere in the 6-8 hour range. I drink a copious amount of caffeine to keep going during the day, too. (5+ cups of coffee and sometimes an energy drink, too)

watwut 8y ago
That may mean sleep deprivation. If you have sleep deprivation, you will sleep longer for some days. Afaik, 6 hours a day is not enough for optimal performance for most people. It is minimum where people can function with somewhat, but also one where your cognitive capabilities are affected measurably.

muse900 8y ago

> Otherwise in relation to the topic in general I'm not 100% I want my most awake time to go to the company I work for. Is that wrong? Nope, I completely agree with that also. I personally don't want to spend my most awake time for the company I work either. Also just to comment on something that has been said times and times again, the 8 hour working schedule was introduced more than 150 years ago and started getting implemented 100 years ago. Its time for humanity to move on and find different systems that will allow us to work less and enjoy more of what life has to offer. We did have the computational revolution during the 90's early 2000 and now we've reached a point where a lot of jobs have been automated and a lot more to come. Think of everything out there and how much faster its been done with the use of computers and the internet. So our productivity must have went up by tremendous amounts although the working hours didn't go down at all, they remained exactly the same. My personal belief is we can easily bring it down to 6 hours a day and slowly slowly bring it down to 4 working days per week. Of course such thing must happen massively around the globe, given how interlinked countries are nowadays.

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]

shados 8y ago

Absolutely not a doctor (or even really know what I'm talking about), but I've been hunting down a sleep disorder I've been dealing with for a decade+, and there's at least a couple of things to consider (someone please correct me if I got anything wrong) My understanding is that during the day (evening?), your melatonin level increases. While you sleep, it goes down. If you wake up for any reason just a few hours before your optimal sleepy time, it might be a lot harder to get back to sleep. A lot of stuff might cause you to wake up early. Very common ones, especially in the US: GERD and sleep apnea. You end up waking up, you're not tired, but you didn't get the sleep you needed. The last part I was told only recently and I dunno how accurate it is, but supposedly you get most of your important REM sleep in the last few hours of sleep, so there's a pretty big difference between 6 and 8 hours, even though you might wake up (for reasons such as the ones above) but not be functioning at your fullest. And while you might be functioning on par with your colleagues...maybe you'd just be a total badass if you sleep better/more... Take all of this with a huge grain of salt :)

stephen_g 8y ago

Wow! If I don’t set an alarm, I’ll easily sleep for 10 hours...

uncletaco 8y ago

When I was in ROTC my cadet commander said "you only really need 6 hours of sleep" and like the good cadet that I was I've only slept a maximum of six hours ever since. After a couple years of using an alarm clock to do that I've been able to get up naturally after six hours for like the last 7-8 years. Not sure if its healthy but I do know I feel worse when I sleep longer.