4 ms·

For me, If I get all the sleep I want, I'm lethargic and unenergetic, but if I get less sleep I'm tired all day (but strangely more energetic). It's like there'

For me, If I get all the sleep I want, I'm lethargic and unenergetic, but if I get less sleep I'm tired all day (but strangely more energetic). It's like there's no happy medium. I wonder if anyone else has this problem, and if there's a solution.

kroger 16y ago
I'm just like that. I can sleep for 10 hours but I wake up feeling rested but lethargic. There seems to be a sweet spot where I'm rested enough (but not lethargic) and with a good energy level. The sweet spot seems to be between 7 and 7.5 hours.
de90 16y ago
Do you exercise most days? Do you at least a similar wake up\sleep time for a month? And another obvious about drink enough water\food? All have a huge impact for me. I can go on much less sleep when I do hard exercise that day.
- ghshephard 16y ago
  Re: Hard Exercise - Bizarre. I work a mostly sedentary silicon valley lifestyle, with the addition of 2-3 miles walking a day, and typically get 5-6 hours of sleep a night, going to bed around 2:00 - 3:00 AM and getting up around 9:00 AM. Recently, though, I started a linear progress novice strength training program (Squats, Dead Lift, Bench Press, Overhead Press) - three times a week for 40 minutes. My sleep patterns immediately shifted, and I am incapable of waking up without at least 8 hours of sleep on off days, and 10 hours of sleep on the days that I lift heavy. For the first time in my life, ever, I'm finding myself going to bed at 10:00 PM at night so that I can get up by 8:00 AM the next morning.
  - cynicalkane 16y ago
    I've done Starting Strength. Starting Strength is raw lifts involving the entire muscle toolchain until you can't do anymore. It works your body in a total, basic way that most Americans haven't ever done. So you'll be sleeping alot as your body gets used to it. You'll notice incredible increases in everyday strength--as if the entire world, including you, lost a significant fraction of its mass over the course of a few months--and the desire for sleep will subside. Of course, I still have my original sleep problem...
  - megaman821 16y ago
    I am a light sleeper but hard workouts really help me go into a deep sleep and not wake up at every little noise. They also make me want to sleep an extra hour.
  - sliverstorm 16y ago
    You need that sleep for your body to repair and build itself up. What you'll find though is as your growth slows down (or if you shift to endurance work) the amount of repair your body needs to recover at night drops, your fitness has shot up, and the more fit you are the less you need of everything. (except potentially food. You are a little more efficient at processing food, but if you develop a large amount of muscle you need a lot of food to maintain it)
  - beagle3 16y ago
    Try radically changing your food intake (patterns and/or content). E.g., http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2010/12/interview-with-chris-voigt-of-20.html http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2010/12/interview-with... or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intermittent_fasting http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intermittent_fasting ; When varying mine, I switch from periods of being a night owl to almost being a morning person, and from needing 8 hours to 6 hours (and also at different times - e.g. sometimes it's 2-9 am, sometimes it's 11pm to 6am) Experimenting with yourself is cheap, interesting and rewarding. Not always easy, but definitely worth trying. Also, read Seth Roberts at http://sethroberts.net/self-experiment/ http://sethroberts.net/self-experiment/ - he (and his reader) report about a lot of experiments regarding sleep and mood; among those I remember: - eating lots of animal fat (bacon and/or butter) improves sleep. Standing on one leg for extended periods of time improves sleep (probably the easiest way to fatigue yourself into sleeping).
naner 16y ago
I've had a similar thing happen. Basically, if I stay off the caffeine enough to sleep all through the night without waking up, I'll wake up naturally after around 7 hours of sleep. At this point I'm still a little foggy and I can easily fall back asleep or lounge in bed for 20min or a few hours. If I do that, like you said, I'll be lethargic. So basically I have to moderate caffeine (for me it is every other day at most and none after 3pm) and get up as soon as I first wake. When I'm very good about no caffeine, regular exercise, and near-perfect diet I require less sleep. Kind of hard to maintain that level of discipline, though. So it's usually 7 hours a night.
spydertennis 16y ago
We're actually working on this problem over at WakeMate. Basically the solution is to sleep just enough to accumulate the number of sleep cycles you need to feel rested. We're building a tool to tell our users what that length of time is. I'll write up a post on the thought process/science behind it and put it up tomorrow.
- socksy 16y ago
  Is it similar to http://sleepyti.me/ http://sleepyti.me/ ?
SupremumLimit 16y ago
I'm in a similar situation, but I haven't always been like that. I linked it to stress (in the broadest sense) - very occasionally I get a great night's sleep if I'm completely relaxed and happy. However, eliminating stress to this degree just doesn't seem feasible. My optimum amount of sleep is 8 hours, and even a half hour either way has a very noticeable (negative) effect. However, a lot of the time even sleeping exactly 8 hours doesn't work well. I really wish I could find a solution!

kroger 16y ago

I'm just like that. I can sleep for 10 hours but I wake up feeling rested but lethargic. There seems to be a sweet spot where I'm rested enough (but not lethargic) and with a good energy level. The sweet spot seems to be between 7 and 7.5 hours.

de90 16y ago

Do you exercise most days? Do you at least a similar wake up\sleep time for a month? And another obvious about drink enough water\food? All have a huge impact for me. I can go on much less sleep when I do hard exercise that day.

ghshephard 16y ago
Re: Hard Exercise - Bizarre. I work a mostly sedentary silicon valley lifestyle, with the addition of 2-3 miles walking a day, and typically get 5-6 hours of sleep a night, going to bed around 2:00 - 3:00 AM and getting up around 9:00 AM. Recently, though, I started a linear progress novice strength training program (Squats, Dead Lift, Bench Press, Overhead Press) - three times a week for 40 minutes. My sleep patterns immediately shifted, and I am incapable of waking up without at least 8 hours of sleep on off days, and 10 hours of sleep on the days that I lift heavy. For the first time in my life, ever, I'm finding myself going to bed at 10:00 PM at night so that I can get up by 8:00 AM the next morning.
- cynicalkane 16y ago
  I've done Starting Strength. Starting Strength is raw lifts involving the entire muscle toolchain until you can't do anymore. It works your body in a total, basic way that most Americans haven't ever done. So you'll be sleeping alot as your body gets used to it. You'll notice incredible increases in everyday strength--as if the entire world, including you, lost a significant fraction of its mass over the course of a few months--and the desire for sleep will subside. Of course, I still have my original sleep problem...
- megaman821 16y ago
  I am a light sleeper but hard workouts really help me go into a deep sleep and not wake up at every little noise. They also make me want to sleep an extra hour.
- sliverstorm 16y ago
  You need that sleep for your body to repair and build itself up. What you'll find though is as your growth slows down (or if you shift to endurance work) the amount of repair your body needs to recover at night drops, your fitness has shot up, and the more fit you are the less you need of everything. (except potentially food. You are a little more efficient at processing food, but if you develop a large amount of muscle you need a lot of food to maintain it)
- beagle3 16y ago
  Try radically changing your food intake (patterns and/or content). E.g., http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2010/12/interview-with-chris-voigt-of-20.html http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2010/12/interview-with... or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intermittent_fasting http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intermittent_fasting ; When varying mine, I switch from periods of being a night owl to almost being a morning person, and from needing 8 hours to 6 hours (and also at different times - e.g. sometimes it's 2-9 am, sometimes it's 11pm to 6am) Experimenting with yourself is cheap, interesting and rewarding. Not always easy, but definitely worth trying. Also, read Seth Roberts at http://sethroberts.net/self-experiment/ http://sethroberts.net/self-experiment/ - he (and his reader) report about a lot of experiments regarding sleep and mood; among those I remember: - eating lots of animal fat (bacon and/or butter) improves sleep. Standing on one leg for extended periods of time improves sleep (probably the easiest way to fatigue yourself into sleeping).

naner 16y ago

I've had a similar thing happen. Basically, if I stay off the caffeine enough to sleep all through the night without waking up, I'll wake up naturally after around 7 hours of sleep. At this point I'm still a little foggy and I can easily fall back asleep or lounge in bed for 20min or a few hours. If I do that, like you said, I'll be lethargic. So basically I have to moderate caffeine (for me it is every other day at most and none after 3pm) and get up as soon as I first wake. When I'm very good about no caffeine, regular exercise, and near-perfect diet I require less sleep. Kind of hard to maintain that level of discipline, though. So it's usually 7 hours a night.

spydertennis 16y ago

We're actually working on this problem over at WakeMate. Basically the solution is to sleep just enough to accumulate the number of sleep cycles you need to feel rested. We're building a tool to tell our users what that length of time is. I'll write up a post on the thought process/science behind it and put it up tomorrow.

socksy 16y ago
Is it similar to http://sleepyti.me/ http://sleepyti.me/ ?

SupremumLimit 16y ago

I'm in a similar situation, but I haven't always been like that. I linked it to stress (in the broadest sense) - very occasionally I get a great night's sleep if I'm completely relaxed and happy. However, eliminating stress to this degree just doesn't seem feasible. My optimum amount of sleep is 8 hours, and even a half hour either way has a very noticeable (negative) effect. However, a lot of the time even sleeping exactly 8 hours doesn't work well. I really wish I could find a solution!