
Ask YC: How many hours do you sleep on average ?  - VinzO
Since years I tried to wake up earlier and reduce my sleep time. But it is a daily struggle for me. By reducing sleeping hours I hope to be able to do more everyday. I know that some people need only 4h sleep and they are full of energy. I wish I could do so but I usually need 8.5 hours. I would like to  know how many hours you guys sleep and if you have some tips to reduce sleep time. Do you think we are "born" with a needed amount of sleep or can we change it? I am also interested to know at what time do you wake up every morning.
======
mechanical_fish
It doesn't work. You can't change the amount of sleep you need by any
significant amount. If you consistently shortchange yourself by a small amount
each night, you may be able to _convince_ yourself that you're getting more
done ... but you'll actually be less sharp, less productive, less healthy, and
much less happy (seriously -- it has big effects on your mood).

Read a book like Maas's _Power Sleep_ :

[http://www.amazon.com/Power-Sleep-Revolutionary-Prepares-
Per...](http://www.amazon.com/Power-Sleep-Revolutionary-Prepares-
Performance/dp/0060977604/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1202917354&sr=8-1)

I'd recommend a better book but I don't know of one yet. I spend my time
sleeping rather than hacking sleep.

You can tinker with _when_ you sleep (using naps, etc.) to try and improve the
quality of your sleep and adjust the times of day when you are most awake for
maximum productivity. Just realize that you're basically rearranging your
sleep and not magically reducing it.

If you can't find time to sleep the 8.5 hours that you need, you need to fix
something else. Find a partner. Hire an assistant. Outsource. Prioritize.
Postpone unimportant features. Get a better paying job with fewer hours. Play
less World of Warcraft. Kill your television. Read David Allen or Tim Ferriss.
Set noprocrast to numbers like "1024".

~~~
iamelgringo
Good point. Your body needs what it needs. You can self-medicate with caffeine
or other stimulants to try and hack the system, but they end up cutting in to
your next nights sleep.

As an ER nurse, I've worked nights for 14 years. And, for the last 5, I've
gone completely caffeine free. I've felt better than I have in years. It's
amazing how easy it is to get into a (sleep deprivation -> stimulant -> sleep
deprivation) cycle. Why? Because caffeine stays in your system for 24-26
hours. So, that cup of coffee that you had yesterday is still in your system
when you go to bed the next night. And, the caffeine is stimulating you while
you sleep preventing you from getting the normal cycles/amounts of the stages
of sleep that you'd be in normally.

It takes a few weeks to come down off the caffeine addiction, but after you
do, you feel so much better.

~~~
randallsquared
~24 hours? Interesting. I've used coffee as a sleep aid: when I really need to
go to sleep at X in order to get 8 hours before some important event, drinking
coffee at 4 hours before X seems to help me sleep, due to the huge crash
between 3 and 4 hours after the caffeine hits.

~~~
iamelgringo
At least that's whay my Doc told me last time I saw him. Noodling around
online, it seems that the half-life of caffeine can vary anywhere from 2-3
hours to 100 hours depending on the person, their metabolism and if they smoke
or not.

------
edw519
7-8 hours. Never used an alarm clock in my life. Wake up with the sun.

Here's a dirty little secret than runs counter to most of the advice in this
thread.

(% of diet that's fresh fruit & vegetable) is inversely related to (hours of
sleep needed)

There's some logic to this, too. Fresh fruit requires much less energy to
digest --> less sleep needed. Try it for yourself. Eat no processed or cooked
food for 3 weeks and see if your sleep requirements change. It usually works
for me, until I drive by "Five Guys" and then I can't resist - back to 8
hours.

~~~
asdflkj
Do you have a source for that? The logic seems backwards. Per calorie
absorbed, it takes more effort to digest uncooked foods, not less. Some fresh
foods, like lettuce, actually take more energy to digest than you get out of
them.

~~~
edw519
[http://www.amazon.com/Fit-Life-Harvey-
Diamond/dp/1567315194/...](http://www.amazon.com/Fit-Life-Harvey-
Diamond/dp/1567315194/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1202949484&sr=8-2)

[http://www.amazon.com/80-10-Diet/dp/1893831248/ref=pd_bbs_sr...](http://www.amazon.com/80-10-Diet/dp/1893831248/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1202949509&sr=1-1)

[http://www.amazon.com/Eat-Live-Revolutionary-Formula-
Sustain...](http://www.amazon.com/Eat-Live-Revolutionary-Formula-
Sustained/dp/0316735507/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1202949530&sr=1-1)

[http://www.soilandhealth.org/02/0201hyglibcat/020121horne/02...](http://www.soilandhealth.org/02/0201hyglibcat/020121horne/020121toc.html)

[http://www.soilandhealth.org/02/0201hyglibcat/020125shelton....](http://www.soilandhealth.org/02/0201hyglibcat/020125shelton.pristine/020125toc.htm)

[http://www.soilandhealth.org/02/0201hyglibcat/020126shelton....](http://www.soilandhealth.org/02/0201hyglibcat/020126shelton.orthotrophy/020126.toc.html)

~~~
asdflkj
Those aren't very good sources. Amazon links are all weight-loss-oriented
"pop" diet books. The genre is notorious for being full of inaccurate and
misleading stuff.

On that other site, the author's other books include Natural Cure of Cancer.
More hilariously, he has "D. P., N. D., D. C., D. N. T., D. N. Sc., D. N. Ph.,
D. N. Litt, Ph.D., D. Orthp." after his name.

~~~
edw519
What a strange comment from a hacker. Sounds like something I'd hear from a
PHB.

What you call hilarious, many call life saving. I included the
soilandhealth.org links for those who may want to learn something without
buying a book. Those "golden oldies" are the based upon science that is still
unrefuted by better minds than me and you. They are also the basis for many
modern works.

Modern nutrition books HAVE to use the weight loss angle or publishers won't
touch them. Not because the authors care as much as the public is so myoptic.
(Hardly anyone cares about their health until they lose it. But almost
everyone cares about their weight.)

Wanna pick a fight, why not start with Dr. Fuhrman? But first read the
thousands of supporting documents footnoted on Pages 251-276 of Eat to Live.
If you're going to call data that can save someone else's life "hilarious",
you oughta be able to back it up.

------
jsjenkins168
Studies have shown you need at least 8 hours of continuous sleep if you are on
a traditional monophasic sleep schedule. Anything less and you start to
accumulate "sleep debt" and performance decreases, among other things.

If you are very very serious about reducing total sleep time, you can attempt
polyphasic sleep: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyphasic_sleep>

I recommend trying to find _Why We Nap_ by Dr. Stampi. Its the only detailed
research on the subject. Basically, dont trust much of the info about
polyphasic sleep around the net as much of it is false.

~~~
run4yourlives
Steve Pavlina: <http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/> did polyphasic sleep for a
while, and does a good job relating his experiences.

His conclusion: It sucks because life isn't set up for that sleep pattern.

~~~
euccastro
Sorry about the ad-hominem, but I think it's relevant to keep in mind that
this is the guy that proposed that you could manifest one million dollars into
your life just by declaring your intention everyday.

~~~
pchristensen
Well, last I heard he was making $40K/month and he had received valuations of
$1-2M. Pav says some crazy stuff but it's usually backed up by his
experiences.

------
wlievens
It doesn't seem to matter to me how much I sleep, I just feel like crap when I
have to wake up early, and for me that's unfortunately any point before 8 in
the morning. Sometimes I sleep 9 hours, sometimes 6... the only way to not
feel crappy is to wake up at 9 in the morning.

Same goes for waking up after, say, 9:30 because then I feel guilty about
wasting so much time.

I have a job and since I need to be there at 9, I have to wake up at 7:30,
which means setting the alarm to 6:30 and snoozing for an hour.

------
nostrademons
9 hours. It seems to correlate with the intellectual demands of whatever I'm
working on at the time. If I'm learning a new technology or working on a
thorny design issue, it can be as much as 11 hours a night. If I'm cranking
out code for something I know how to do in my sleep (no pun intended), as
little as 8.

I also noticed a big correlation when I was doing math competitions in high
school. 9 hours or more of sleep and I could usually get a perfect score
without too much trouble. 6 hours or less tended to cut my score in half.

For that reason, I try to avoid shortchanging sleep. I figure something
important's going on upstairs, and I don't know exactly what it is but if it's
missing, it costs more in productivity than it gains in time.

I've read that the amount of sleep people require varies a lot from person-to-
person...I know some people can get by 3-4 hours a night, but I always feel
like shit if I try that. Can't concentrate, wake up with an upset stomach,
can't sit down to work. If I have 4 hours of sleep the next day is essentially
wasted for me, I might as well have just pulled an all-nighter and gone to bed
early the next day.

------
koolmoe
I usually sleep about 7.5 hours. I don't know any hacks for sleeping less.

The best hack I know for getting more done in the same amount of time is to
exercise intensely for 45 minutes to an hour every other day. It's best for me
when my muscles reach exhaustion during the workout. I need about 30 minutes
to an hour to recover, but my mind feels sharper and my enthusiasm is much
greater for the rest of the day and the following day. I try to go first thing
in the morning.

There's obvious health benefits, but I think the biggest benefit for me is
psychological/emotional.

Thanks for the question! I think it may have inspired me to increase my waning
dedication to exercise.

------
oPerrin
I seem to be an outlier. I need about 10 hours but can easily enjoy 12.

~~~
Hexstream
Well, outlier or not, you're not alone! I'm exactly like you on this aspect.

~~~
bluelu
And so am I :-)

------
prakash
someone needs more sleep:-). The question you are asking is how do you get
more done, how do you be more productive?

Take care of the usual suspects -- diet, exercise, sleep. Everyone needs
different hours of sleep, so don't use that as a metric. The hours you are
awake, make sure you are highly focused.

The other things that helps me is eating a light dinner (sometimes mostly
soup) taken 3-5 hours before I hit the bed.

In addition, here are some excellent articles that should get you started.

1\. Be an early riser: Steve Pavlina --
[http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/05/how-to-become-an-
ea...](http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/05/how-to-become-an-early-riser/)

2\. Take care of your health (diet & exercise), here's Gerry Weinberg's* notes
on health: --
[http://www.developerdotstar.com/printable/mag/articles/weinb...](http://www.developerdotstar.com/printable/mag/articles/weinberg_healthybody.html)

3\. The Programmers’ Stone talks about meditation, diet and sleep --
[http://the-programmers-stone.com/about/what-to-do-per-indivi...](http://the-
programmers-stone.com/about/what-to-do-per-individual/)

* -- as a side note I highly recommend Gerry's book on technical leadership & secrets of consulting

good luck!

------
mrtron
About 8.5 is my ideal amount.

On the average day I sleep about 7.5. I can sleep unlimited amounts without
any of the negative effects people mention, but if I sleep less than 7 it is
really noticeable. I also can stay up several days pretty easily, but then I
require a bunch of sleep to catch up, so it is pointless.

The sleeping unlimited amounts is really quite great for long flights or bus
rides - I can just sleep for 20 straight hours.

~~~
VinzO
woah, impressive. I wish I could sleep that long in the plane. So if you don't
use an alarm clock you sleep for about 20 hours?!?! Even if you aren't
specially tired?

~~~
mrtron
Absolutely. If I don't use an alarm clock I sleep a really long time.

I was at my brother's place for the holidays, arrived well rested, and nobody
woke me up the next day and I didn't have an alarm. I slept about 15 hours
until the baby crying woke me.

------
jdavid
6-7 hours.

i find the trick is to sleep, whenever you are tired, take naps, and don't try
to fight it. don't use alarm clocks, and don't lie in bed. you should either
be asleep or awake, but don't lie in bed trying to decide. i also found that
having a bedroom face east, does wonders for your biological clock and keeping
it really regular.

------
frankus
I need about 9 hours, more if I've skimped lately and less if I haven't. I
have an alarm set for 8AM but that's only because my work time is not entirely
flexible. I'd probably wake up between 9 and 10 if I could set my own
schedule. I could probably cut this down a little bit by improving my sleep
quality (I often wake up at 4AM and can't get back to sleep), but I haven't
really investigated that fully.

But to step back a level, there are probably other time sucks you could cut
back on other than sleep. For me those things are surfing pr0n and the sort of
unfocused yak shaving that could be avoided by just getting enough sleep.

Cutting back on sleep seems like denying yourself something pleasurable that
your body needs anyway. It's like trying to not masturbate.

------
pmjordan
I need about 7 hours, my girlfriend needs 8-10, so we tend to compromise
somewhere in the middle, with me continuing to read for a while after she's
fallen asleep. I must not sleep much longer than 8 hours though, or I end up
lethargic and unproductive and also unable to fall asleep the next night.

For me, the main sleep-related productivity boosters are making sure I _can_
and _do_ actually sleep, which took me years, (lying awake until 4am+ sucks
big time) and making sure I'm ready to work at about 8-8:30 in the morning.
8:30 to 11:30 easily is my most productive time of day, probably 2-3 times as
productive as other times.

I wouldn't bother trying to reduce sleep time. Optimise your awake time for
happiness and productivity.

------
akkartik
Related PG quote: <http://scrapbook.akkartik.name/post/7867532>

Also cited at <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=97829>

------
llimllib
In college, I experimented on myself to see how much I needed. I found that <5
hours over time led to bad things for me (hallucinating, shaking), and
surprisingly that >7 made me groggier than anything in between 5 and 7.

So that's what I shoot for.

------
pistoriusp
I usually sleep 6.5 hours each night. I don't have a set "bedtime," but I'm
awake every morning at 07h30.

One of the most important things that you can do is just get up, once your
alarms rings don't hit snooze, just get up! It's easier once it becomes a
habbit.

I usually drag myself out of bed with my blanket, turn on the kettle and do
some stretching on the lounge floor. I drink tea, eat cereal and then I
shower.

------
ivan
If you procrastinate your tasks, it means you sleep not enough. That's all.

~~~
VinzO
How come? Can you explain?

~~~
jdavid
i don't think he meant long term procrastination, but rather daily
procrastination. if you stay in bed, then you may need more sleep in your
week.

once i wake up, any additional sleep is usually meaningless, i find a nap
after lunch to be of much better use to me.

~~~
ivan
I meant short time procrastination as an indicator of sleep deficit. It's the
best indicator you sleep not enough. You should pay some bill today but you
can't find enough energy to do it (you can also feel strong aversion to do it)
so you move this task and three other tasks to the next day. Ask yourself if
this already happened.

There are some techniques by ex. some very intensive buddhist meditations (you
can't perform in normal daily life) which can help you slow down your
metabolism and so also need for sleep and eat without impact on your health,
or techniques how to wake up exactly at 7AM (it's the best time IMO) without
alarm clock.

------
bfioca
I used to brag about how little sleep I've gotten, but lately I've seen that
as much more of a short-coming. I've been able to measure my productivity on
weeks where I've had good nights' sleep and weeks where I haven't, and even
though I maybe work more with less sleep, I accomplish much less.

------
jaaron
6 hours on average. Lately, I've been staying up to 2-3 am and waking up
between 8-9 am. I'd like to shift that an hour earlier, but it's been hard to
break the habit. I never napped before, and generally don't like to, but I'm
finding now that it helps if I take a short 30 minute nap at some point of the
day.

And I work from home, which makes this schedule possible. I tend to take about
an hour after waking up to get started working and then stop work from around
6:00 pm to 10:30 pm to be with my wife and daughter. Then back to work when
everyone goes to sleep. So that's 8-9 hours during the day and another 4 hours
or so at night.

Before I got married I would sometimes go on really long working binges of
like 16 - 20 hours or longer and then take a day or so off. Honestly, I prefer
working in spurts like that.

------
axod
What is it with all these ASK YC lifestyle questions? Are we trying to define
success in terms of things like sleep/watches tv?

Ah most hackers get 6 hours of sleep! I should too then my startup will
succeed.

Sorry, but seriously... A few are kind of interesting, but how many more of
these questions are to come?

~~~
euccastro
_When art critics get together they talk about Form and Structure and Meaning.
When artists get together they talk about where you can buy cheap turpentine._
\- Picasso

These days I was asking myself about how to clean my LCD screen and was
hesitant if that was 'serious' enough to ask here. I was very relieved when I
found someone else did.

You admit a few of these mundane questions are 'kind of interesting'. I guess
all of them are interesting to some of us.

I see no specific problem with this. I'd let the usual voting mechanism take
care of it.

~~~
axod
It just reminds me of the endless "Vote up if.." that plagues Reddit.

------
dkokelley
Different people do need different amounts of sleep, but also, the same people
will need different amounts of sleep at different points in their life. Young
children don't need as much. Teenagers need quite a bit because their body is
growing rapidly. College level people through their 30s can usually get by
with little sleep, then you need more as you get older.

I try and shoot for around 8 hours of sleep each night. You could argue that I
could get more work done if I only got 5 or 6 hours, but the quality of the
work would not be the same. I also find that going to bed at 11 and waking up
at 7 is not the same for me as going to bed at 2 and waking up at 10.

Einstein and Donald Trump supposedly needed very little sleep which is why
they could work so hard.

~~~
aaco
_"Einstein and Donald Trump supposedly needed very little sleep which is why
they could work so hard."_

Interestingly, I read in a magazine from my country that Einstein slept at
least 10 hours each day (and more if needed).

So, reading your statement, I decided to search more about this typing
"einstein hours of sleep" using Google.

I found some links like:

 _"... while others have been known to require 8 to 10 hours (such as Albert
Einstein)."_ \- in <http://webhome.idirect.com/~readon/sleep.html>

_"She points out that Albert Einstein sleep nine hours a night and was still
able to get plenty done."_ \- in <http://evenstaronline.com/resources.html>

_"Einstein, on the other hand, demanded 10 hours of sleep every night for
himself."_ \- in <http://www.quickiesheets.com/>

I'm not sure if this is really true, but I do believe that a lot of hard work
people can easily sleep during 10 hours.

~~~
mechanical_fish
Misdirection. If you accomplish enough when you're awake people will _assume_
that you must not sleep.

------
bootload
_"... By reducing sleeping hours I hope to be able to do more everyday. I know
that some people need only 4h sleep and they are full of energy. I wish I
could do so but I usually need 8.5 hours. I would like to know how many hours
you guys sleep and if you have some tips to reduce sleep time. Do you think we
are "born" with a needed amount of sleep or can we change it? ..."_

Sleeping 4 hours a day and feeling refreshed! Fatigued more like it. I
certainly don't believe it. I've had stretches of months with only 4 hours
sleep per day. I functioned but only at a base level. I didn't feel refreshed
staying up 76hrs at a time. [0] For me and (we are all individuals) I need a
good 8Hrs. If I don't, I'm one sorry mess to work with. Communication is by
grunt.

    
    
      With rest, bit of exercise, food I work far better and do tasks far better
    

You need sleep. If you don't get enough sleep there is enough studies [1] to
suggest performance at a lot of levels is severely reduced. Sleep deprivation
is also form of mental torture. I don't know why anyone would want to have
less sleep and as a result do things worse than they can.

    
    
      Trying to avoid sleep is a symptom
    

What is the real problem? Are you trying to do more with the time you have? Is
it a time management issue? Is it an issue of living far from your work and
travelling? Do you have poor sleep hygiene? Do you work in a job that
_"demands"_ so much it requires you to miss something so basic as sleep?

    
    
      Is your boss torturing you?
    

Re-define the problem. Is it sleep you need to miss out on or is it something
else?

[0] 3 days doesn't sound like much bit it is. An interesting experiment was to
find ways to keep me awake. Funny but some Yoga & breathing worked a charm.
Another thing is I learnt how cat-nap. Fall asleep, deep sleep at a moments
notice. Day or night.

[1] BetterHealth, Victorian Gov, "Sleep deprivation" ~
[http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/BHCV2/bhcarticles.nsf/pag...](http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/BHCV2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Sleep_deprivation?OpenDocument)

------
oditogre
Varies by how long I've been awake. 5 - 6 hours on weeknights. 8 - 9 on
weekends (but the entire 'day' - from time I woke up on Friday to time I wake
up on Saturday, for instance - will be longer than 24hrs total). I can get by
on 4 or 9, but usually less than 5 for 2 days in a row or more than 9 under
any conditions and I feel like hell all day. When I have extended periods
(more than 5 or 6 days) where I have no particular reason to get up at a
certain time, I fall into a sleeping pattern essentially the same as the '28
hour day / 6 day week'. My sleeping habits have been about the same since
puberty, and my mom's are about the same as mine (my dad sleeps about 9hrs a
night).

------
NoBSWebDesign
2-5 hours a night, but I've only been doing that for the past 4 years.

My family members have seen sleep specialists, and according to them, the
"people need 8 hours a night" argument is not true for everyone. Different
people need different amounts. And if you actually read the research papers
(it's been a couple years, so I'm not sure of links), scientists don't even
know with 100% certainty what the purpose of sleep is.

However, that being said, there was a study done recently showing a
correlation between getting less than 5 hours a night and heart problems later
on in life. This has prompted me to start averaging closer to 5 hours than 2
hours lately.

------
ldambra
Let your body regulate your sleep, it's his job, just trust him and let it go
and you'll be surprised at how much good he is at it. No expert can beat your
body in this field.

Thinking about how much time and how you should sleep just brings an
unnecessary cloud to your consciousness, wich is a limited and precious
ressource. Keep the sky clear, focus on your objectives, be passionate about
them and your body will just follow and gives you what you need. In return
just listen to him and sleep when you feel tired. The quality of your sleep
will be astounding.

------
sethg
As the father of three young children who _finally_ are all _usually_ sleeping
through the night, I am all too familiar with the difference between four,
six, and seven hours of sleep.

I haven't tried anything fancy like polyphasic sleep, but I can say that
simply "reducing sleeping hours" is not going to make you "able to do more
everyday". It's going to make you spend more time staring at your monitor
going "uuuhhhh".

------
goodgoblin
6 hours usually - 7 if I'm lucky. Can't usually get to sleep before 1am -
usually the kids are up by 7, I can sometimes stay in bed until 8. I wish I
slept more actually - I really sometimes do feel like I am brain damaging
myself. But I try and take a nap around 7pm usually - a half hour or hour
while the kids go to bed - then I get up - watch TV and hang out with the
missus, and get to work.

------
gibsonf1
Averaging 5.5 hours right now (with the help of 3 cups of Earl Grey and 2
hard-core commute bike rides each day up beyond category climbs). But this
little sleep is not recommended except during a definite deadline after which
one can recover. My average without pressure is 6.5 to 7 hours, Studies seem
to show that 7 hours is a good healthy amount of sleep.

------
ejs
I find it depends on whats on my mind. Many times I will wake up earlier then
I wanted and cannot get back to sleep because I start thinking of things I
need/want to get done. Currently I probably get around 6 - 7, 8 would be a
good sleep and 4 - 5 hours on a bad night... I wouldn't worry about it too
much, even sleeping 9 hours leaves 15 hours for the day.

------
izak30
6hrs - 7A

Something that got engrained in me, is that you tell yourself what time you
are going to wake up, and then you make it standard, 7 days a week. Your body
will adjust quickly and you will be tired when you need to be tired. Also
sleep in 90 minute cycles, so I go to bed around 1A every night. if you still
feel really tired during the day, take a nap < 20mins.

------
omakase
4-6 hours. every week or two i get a night of 7 or 8 to catch up. can't say
its the healthiest thing but i'm still productive. the more annoying part is
that my hours are slowly shifting around i've been going to sleep at 10am
sleeping till 2pm these days and its my second time all the way around 24 hour
clock in the last 3 months :(

------
aaco
9 hours. But I can easily sleep up to 10 hours!

Anyway, I don't care about my time of sleep if I can be very focused in my
work for several hours. And this does happen often (when I'm not reading
News.YC, heh).

I believe there are enough hours to work each day if you are really focused in
what you do and if you're really feeling rested with your sleep time.

------
sosuke
5-6 hours a night, I use up until 12 or to work and then wind down for an hour
or two playing games or watching a movie with my wife

I should be getting more, but there is just too much to do and not enough time
to do it all in.

8:30-9 commute, 9-5 work, 5-6 commute, dinner, then work again on my startup,
then some games for the icing on the days cake.

------
Neoryder
I was able to manage 3-4 hours sleep to be able to continue learning outside
of my 9-5! My first week of doing this resulted in a onversation with my
manager telling me to shape up or ship out. I was okay afterwards. The human
body is a wonderful thing , it seems to adjust to whatever you throw at it!

~~~
omakase
agreed. i was working co-op 9-6 then my startup 7-4am for 4 months. at first
it was tough but once i adjusted no one at work noticed.

------
cos
4-6 hrs + amphetamines for my ADD. on the weekends when I don't take my speed
I can sleep for about 12 hours.

~~~
rms
I'm curious if you started taking those as an adult or a child and if you wish
it was one way or the other.

~~~
cos
adult. and I'm happy I waited. the effect on me now is indistinguishable from
drinking coffee all day only it doesn't give me the shits. I'm at the maximum
legal dosage at 90 milligrams a day of adderal.

------
sammyo
I think it also varies by events. An exciting project that's nearing crunch
time can get me running on just a few hours, the eyes snap open at 6:15 and
life is fun (or...) til 2am. But don't try to keep running at that pace more
than a few weeks if that long.

------
DaniFong
If I wake up by eastern light: 6-7 hours. If I try to sleep through: 9-10
hours; sometimes more.

Sometimes I feel like I have very 'important' dreams that never resolve
themselves. This keeps me in my bed for a _long time_.

------
asmosoinio
About 8-9 hours. I strive to sleep enough, and have noticed that trying to cut
on sleeping does not work for me. I can sleep even longer, especially if I
don't have any interesting/urgent tasks to accomplish.

------
brlewis
I usually sleep 6-7 hrs, but I need 7.5 to be at my best. I wake up at 6:45
normally, 6:30 this morning to shovel snow.

If you are at your best after 8.5 hrs, listen to your body and don't try to
reduce sleep time.

~~~
davidw
"6:30 this morning to shovel snow."

... and you guys were trying to convince us that the NE isn't so bad?;-)

~~~
llimllib
Shoveling snow is my favorite chore. It's quiet, solitary, beautiful,
moderately but not overly hard work outside.

~~~
edw519
Shhh! If this gets out, the fitness industry is in BIG trouble. No machine, no
matter how expensive, provides better exercise for the human body.

Oh, and you don't even need snow...

<http://www.shovelglove.com/>

------
tbx
I did polyphasic sleep. Three days. Got a stomach ache and colitis...

Don't recommend it.

~~~
pchristensen
The first week is a $#%^$#^@$%@@#$% pain. The trick is to train yourself to
fall asleep quickly (5-10 min). This takes tinkering (link below). Now,
especially if I'm in one of my three comfort places (bed, couch, or car), I
know can fall asleep in 5 minutes or so.

Another key is DON'T try to sleep for more than 30 minutes. The deeper you
fall asleep, the harder it is to get up. If I snooze my alarm even once for 10
minutes, I'm probably going to be too asleep to bother getting up when that 10
minutes is over.

The good news is that my experience (Steve Pavlina echoes this) is that once
you train your body to work on the schedule, then even if you revert to a
normal schedule, you can switch back to polyphasic sleep without having to go
through the painful first week again. Right now I sleep polyphasic 5-6 days a
week and have 1-2 days a week where circumstances prevent me from napping
during the day and I then take a full night's sleep at night. Interestingly, I
feel terrible after the full night sleep but pretty darn alert during
polyphasic sleep.

Here are some of my experiences:

[http://www.pchristensen.com/blog/articles/category/polyphasi...](http://www.pchristensen.com/blog/articles/category/polyphasic/)

[http://www.pchristensen.com/blog/articles/sleeping-in-
your-c...](http://www.pchristensen.com/blog/articles/sleeping-in-your-car-
polyphasic-sleep-tricks/)

[http://www.pchristensen.com/blog/articles/what-happens-
when-...](http://www.pchristensen.com/blog/articles/what-happens-when-you-
oversleep-during-polyphasic-sleep/)

~~~
jsjenkins168
Agree with everything you said. I also think its easier to "ease" into the
schedule. Keep a few hours of core sleep at night and still take your 30min
naps every 4hrs until you feel like you're starting to get on the schedule.
Then shrink and eventually eliminate the block of core sleep and you're there.
Its never perfect, but at least it helps with the brutal agony of the
adaptation period.

The biggest benefit of polyphasic is not squeezing every possible minute of
awake time. Its the improved concentration and mood. If you want to leave
3-4hrs of core sleep at night thats perfectly fine.

------
azsromej
I typically get 6-7 a night. If I'm going to be tired it's usually during the
day; inevitably, even without much sleep (or coffee), I really wake up around
11pm

------
dylanks
5-6 on weeknights, 7-8 on weekends. Wake-up time is all across the board,
which is not a good thing, but I spend a lot of time in different time zones.

------
KirinDave
6 hours on average. My dogs don't let me sleep in, my girlfriend doesn't let
me sleep early, my job doesn't let me sleep during the day.

------
imsteve
The less you exercise, the less your body needs to recover. So you can balance
your health and sleep time depending on your goals.

------
Novash
5.5 hours, out of necessity. I usually oversleep during the weekends. It is a
poor compensation, but it is what I can do.

------
apexauk
i slept 12 hours out of 85 this week.. but then caught up just now so it's 25
out of 100 - or averaging 6 hours a night. i can't fit my sleep within a
standard 24 hour period - in particular i find it hard sleeping twice within
18 hours. but on average i find i need to catch up to something fairly
standard.

------
jkush
Lately, about 4 hours a night. With a full night rest every 3 days or so.

------
pg
7-8 hrs

------
tlrobinson
Recently... ~7 hours

Unfortunately those 6 hours have usually been 6AM to 1PM...

~~~
tlrobinson
And apparently I can't do simple math. Those _7 hours_.

------
nextmoveone
4-5 hours per day.

~~~
VinzO
Have you always sleep that few?

~~~
nextmoveone
No only recently, like the last 2 months. Before that 8 hours, before that,
12(when I didn't work).

~~~
reeses
Congratulations on the new baby. :-)

~~~
nextmoveone
yeah I named him remindsyou.com

------
tjr
Rarely more than 9, rarely less than 6.

------
edu
I usually sleep about 7 hours.

------
rokhayakebe
i get about 8. try taking power naps, those will boost your energy.

------
sonink
8.5

------
lst
There is no general rule here:

I know persons who need at least 8 hours of sleep, and I know others who are
more fortunate and only need about 4-5 hours.

It depends mostly on how sane you are in general (last not least: how your
infancy has been: very, very important!).

~~~
VinzO
Can you explain on how you think your infancy will influence your sleeping
hours? You mean if you are used to sleep much or not in your infancy?

------
CoreyKossack
I work crazy hours, but usually still manage to sleep 8 hours or so, minus
when I'm really excited and can't sleep at all.

~~~
dhouston
fyi: you're probably getting modded down because you add a signature to your
posts (which people avoid, by convention, on news.yc)

