Reduce sleep time?

steve-in-kville

steve-in-kville

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Dec 25, 2001
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Some years back, I worked with a fellow that was a total machine. The guy typically got three or four hours of sleep a night, and sometimes went days only taking occassional naps. He worked a full-time job in construction and drove truck part-time. It was amazing.

I asked him once how he did it. Claims he started cutting back his sack time and watching his diet some (regulated his caffein intake). He also started taking day-time naps whenever he could. He avoided alcohol except on the weekends, or the occassional one beer before bedtime.

The guy was single, had no GF at the time. He was a work-a-holic. When he did sleep, he SLEPT!! And sound!! He claims he trained his body to get the most out of his sleep, thus eliminating a lot of "downtime."

Anyone else here able to reduce thier sleep to a minimum? I have some big projects right now and I'm tempted to get back my sleep schedule.

steve
 
Try sleeping in two sessions of about three hours each.
I did this for a couple of years and it does work.
You also can simply train yourself to sleep less.
 
steve-in-kville said:
I have some big projects right now and I'm tempted to get back my sleep schedule.
Click to expand...

"During the period 1989 - 1993, there were an estimated 56,000 crashes annually on U.S. highways in which driver drowsiness/fatigue was cited on the Police Accident Report...

During the same five-year period, drowsiness/fatigue was cited as a factor in an annual average of 1357 fatal crashes, resulting in 1544 fatalities (3.6 percent of all fatal crashes annually). These statistics for driver sleepiness and accidents are considered conservative...

Approximately nine percent of wheeled vehicle driving accidents resulting in injury or death during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm was attributed to driver drowsiness/fatigue..."

Effects of Partial and Total Sleep Deprivation On Driving Performance:

http://www.tfhrc.gov/humanfac/sleep/sleepweb.htm

...and that's just one downside of reducing sleep.

Face it: the human body was "designed" to need certain things, e.g. sleep and oxygen. Mess around with those "building blocks" and it'll come back to bite you. And others.

maximus otter
 
I was about to say the same thing, Maximus. There have been a number of medical studies released recently showing the deleterious effects of sleep deprivation.
 
Why? When I'm tired I sleep. It is about pacing yourself.

When I pull an all nighter and I send off the project, I go and lie on my desk, place a jacket under my head and have 1/2hrs sleep before heading home for a shower and rest.

When your cognative abilities are called for lack of proper rest starts to be disruptive and unproductive.
 
Studies have shown that when daylight savings time kicks in, accidents rise by about 10%. They remain elevated until we go back to normal time (standard) in fall.

There was alot of fire and blood around here on the roads etc right after the 'new and improved daylight savings time' was deployed.
 
Sleep deprivation is often used as a torture method.
 
Not an expert, but lived with quality sleep loss due to sleep apnea for some time. I strongly don't recommend forcing yourself to be deprived of sleep...
I was in bad enough shape that I quit driving for almost 6 months because of nodding off....Scary! Also was warned that I was a stroke or heart attack just waiting to happen.....
If there is any way to avoid sleep deprivation, based on what you need, please don't. You are also more productive if well rested, IMHO.
 
After many years of working law enforcement and getting irregular sleep or little or no sleep, I have found myself, in my retirement days, with high blood pressure and the inability to sleep soundly. Get your sleep...it is one of the best things you can do for your well being.
 
I only sleep 5 or 6 hours a night during the week, I've been on the same sleep schedule for 6 years now. I go to sleep around 2:30, and get up at 8. I've found that if I sleep more than that, I'm actually less productive. Though on the weekends, I'll usually sleep 8 or more hours, because I don't have anything better to do. I'm really lucky in that when I want to go to sleep, it's like turning off a light switch. I lie down and close my eyes and I'm asleep. When the alarm goes off, I open my eyes and I'm wide awake. If it takes me more than a minute or two to fall asleep, I get irritated. I can't imagine what life is like for people who have bad insomnia. That has to be the worst.
 
Why cut back anyway?? In order to work more and become some mega hamster in a mega wheel:eek:

Anyway, the older you get then insomnia becomes a natural state of being, I want more and better sleep:D
 
I'm no expert and there may be contradictory information out there, but from what I've read the requirement for sleep is different for individuals. Your buddy may just be one of those guys who doesn't require as much sleep. Personally, I've found that I get by well and wake up naturally with 5-7 hours of sleep, with most nights being about 5 hours. I seem to require less when I'm eating a healthy diet and getting some moderate regular exercise. I require more if doing lots of heavy physical work all day. If necessary, I've gone a couple nights without sleep but can then only do basic physical tasks - no tough mental work then ! Sleep is the time that your body & mind recharges and rebuilds itself. Once I do all that I can in terms of taking care of my general health & fitness, I pretty much let myself fall asleep & wake when my body tells it to do so. YMMV. - - -
 
I got into the habit of only 5-6 hours a night max when I was working full time and going to college. I just made myself take a nap whenever I had a chance ( I used to get a lot of dirty looks for snoring on the couch on the third floor of the library) and not loading up on caffeine, but drinking several cups of coffee a day, spaced out through the course of the day, right up to the time that I went to bed. The biggest trick is just learning to completely blank your mind when you lay down. Don't think about anything, at all, nothing. My normal sleep schedule for a full night these days is roughly 1:30am - 7:30. I fall asleep in a minute or two normally, and wake up before my alarm clock is set.
 
A few years back my brother was doing this weird sleep training thing, where he was reducing his need. He was timing it with his REM sleep, or something, so that he was maximizing his 'restfull' sleep. He tried to explain it all to me, but it was pretty complicated. It seemed to make sense, in theory.

I find that I am needing a bit more sleep than I used to. Having kids puts a lot of strain on your mind and body! I need 7-8 to stay sane and happy.

DD
 
Yep, I remember reading about that. Something about 45 minute REM cycles and planning your sleep in multiples of that instead of hours.
 
steve-in-kville said:
Some years back, I worked with a fellow that was a total machine. The guy typically got three or four hours of sleep a night, and sometimes went days only taking occassional naps. He worked a full-time job in construction and drove truck part-time. It was amazing.

Anyone else here able to reduce thier sleep to a minimum? I have some big projects right now and I'm tempted to get back my sleep schedule.

steve
Click to expand...


I used to work with a guy like that. He was totally amazing. The guy could work circles around most people, to begin with, but for a period of time he worked an incredible schedule that would kill a normal person. He was our boss, so he had his job to do. On top of that he had to fire a guy, so he started to do this guy's work, also. Then, he started a part time business of his own to put icing on the cake. He was putting in about eighty to ninety hours a week on his regular job, thirty to forty on his part time business and to top it off, he was a perfectionist at home, so he was doing all kinds of stuff around the house and yard all the time.

This went on for quite a long time, maybe a year, or so. After a while he started to change. This was a guy who everybody loved and admired and he had friends everywhere he went. All the guys at work practically idolised him, myself included. But, the sleep deprivation started to change his personality. He started to lean heavily on the guys at work and he also started playing people against each other. There was constant strife and conflict around the workplace. He started cheating on his wife, also. He organised and ran a campaign of harrassment against one of the employees and practically drove him to a nervous breakdown and we later found out that he had planned, this is true, he planned, in great detail, to murder this guy that he decided he didn't like. He tried to carry out the plan, but couldn't go through with it, in the end, because there were some people asking questions about what he was up to.

In the end, he had to leave our region and work for the company in another area. He was lucky to have kept his job, but went from being a well loved and admired guy with a fantastic personality, to practically being banished from our town. I guess you could say that I am definitely against the idea of long term sleep deprivation. I strongly believe that it does something to your brain chemistry and could turn you from a good natured Dr. Jeckyll into a scheming Mr. Hyde. I've seen it happen.
 
Although I believe u can train your body and mind to do what u need and want with time. Sleep patterns are pretty different between people. Im one of those people who do not need a lot of sleep. Over the summer i get about 4 hours a night, and thats with working a physical job over 40 hours a week, park maintenance for the park district (this involves construction, lawn care, garbage, everything). And i work efficiently on that amount of sleep. During school i would get around 5 or 6 hours a night. But over the last 3 months because of school work, stress, social life, I was only been able to get 2 or 3 hours a night and it was disastrous. My body simply crashed, mentally and physically. My whole life was affected, school, family, friends, all suffered greatly. During the day i could not operate fully, and at night my body was used to not sleeping so i couldnt fall asleep, yet i couldnt make my time productive.

Like i said earlier i believe that the mind and body can do what u need it to so im not big on going to the doctor or taking medicine. But last week i finally got to the point where i couldnt do nothing about it anymore. I went to the doctor and got some medicine prescribed. The first 2 days i slept like 10 hours, but since then im back to getting about 5-6 hours a night and feeling great. Its amazing what a difference 2 or 3 hours of sleep can make.
Although youd be fine cutting an hour or of sleep out of your night it wont make you a more effective worker during the day. You most likely wont be effected negatively but the only benefit would be an extra hour to do stuff around the house before you head of to work. Which if you find worth it go for it, but dont drastically change your sleep pattern, even over time.

Your body knows what it needs and has taken years to develop the pattern that it has. It wakes up when fully rested (i wake up naturally after 6 hours of sleep without an alarm clock even on a medicine that is designed to make you sleep for 8). Sleeping less would just mean your not fully rested even if you can operate normally.
 
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