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> I'm of the opinion that people can adapt to less sleep. Fortunately, we have facts about this, so we don't need opinions. Its not true, although it can appe
by thedufer 13y ago
> I'm of the opinion that people can adapt to less sleep.
Fortunately, we have facts about this, so we don't need opinions. Its not true, although it can appear true over short periods of time. More importantly, the amount of sleep a person needs can vary a lot between individuals - you might only need 6 hours/night, but that doesn't make it physically possible for everyone to survive like that.
- lightcatcher 13y agoLooking at the just the productivity aspect of sleeping less, I have yet to see a study that accounts for the extra waking time that people have when they sleep less. How much you get done = rate of work * time working. Many studies have shown that the rate at which people can "work" (which means something like respond to visual stimulus) decreases when people sleep less. I haven't seen a study that compares this decrease in rate to the increase in time available for work. If I have to do a task 1000 times each day and each time takes me 2 seconds longer on 5 hours of sleep than it does on 8, it'll take me 2000s ~= 34 extra minutes to do the task 1000x when I'm on less sleep, but then I still have 2.5 hours left out of the 3 that I decided not to sleep. (Numbers from this inspired by [1]) I acknowledge the health issues of chronic sleep deprivation. [1] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/30/sleep-deprivation-work-slower-productivity-speed_n_1720700.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/30/sleep-deprivation-w...