5 ms·
I need probably 7.5-8 hours of sleep. I'm very confident about this. If I get only 5-6 hours sleep for a couple nights, I become quite cognitively impaired; if
by currymj 6y ago
I need probably 7.5-8 hours of sleep. I'm very confident about this. If I get only 5-6 hours sleep for a couple nights, I become quite cognitively impaired; if it goes on long enough there are serious emotional effects too.
There are people who insist that actually, 5-6 hours is fine, and that I must be lying, lazy, or deluding myself. These people are trying to make me stupid and miserable.
It's an issue that provokes a lot of strong emotions, especially on the side of people who feel pressured to sleep less than they need.
- Tenoke 6y ago>It's an issue that provokes a lot of strong emotions, especially on the side of people who feel pressured to sleep less than they need. Perhaps you feel like it is much worse for the side you perceive yourself to be on. I, and plenty of other people have had very negative experiences and sleep-related anxiety because of all the people insisting that getting less than 8 hours of sleep is bad for you on flimsy evidence.
- currymj 6y agoI agree with your analysis above -- a lot of the causal claims trying to connect <8hrs sleep to bad health outcomes are pretty dubious. People shouldn't worry about their lifespan or dementia or whatever. "Why We Sleep" unfortunately seems to have serious flaws. However I really do maintain that the anti-sleep attitude is much more common. There is always huge pressure in schools, the workplace, social life to cut into sleep. I think the reason "Why We Sleep" became so popular without facing much scrutiny is because many people were facing these pressures and desperate for some countervailing authority to point to.
- shlep21 6y agoSurely you concede that, even if 5-6 hours is not enough for you, it might still be enough for them.