

Easy way of gaining or losing five years of life - rkwz
http://books.google.com/books?id=si0CAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA99#v=onepage&q&f=false

======
drKarl
Using this logic, if one sleeps 3 hours less than 8 (that is, 5 hours), In a
40 year period that would be 43800 hours (365 * 3 * 40). That amounts to 1825
days (that is, 24hour days) which is equal to 5 years (that is 365-day years,
a simplification).

Teorically if you slept only 5 hours a day, you would live 5 years more in
wake time during your lives, but... perhaps there should be studies
correlating sleep deprivation and a shortest live span.

Nonetheless that is an interesting theory if we combine it with polyphasic
sleep, which could ease the effects of sleep deprivation.

~~~
karanlyons
I sleep five to six hours a night. The information I find usually says that
something around six to seven hours is ideal, and that less than six hours is
a bad idea (It's usually stated that there are some links to health issues and
lower longevity. This is also true for more than seven to eight hours.).

But then I also find information saying that it really varies from person to
person, and that it's best to make sure that you don't feel tired during the
day; if so you're probably okay.

(Note that this is all second hand. I've never really sat down to read studies
themselves, I just read journalist interpretations.)

Anecdotally, I've had little problem with my sleep schedule. It gives me an
extra chunk of time in the morning which I find extremely helpful, and I
rarely find myself worn out until a little before I normally go to sleep.

------
chadp
\- medical advances add 40 years to our lives (maybe) so we can live to 120 \-
use polyphasic sleeping to sleep 4 hrs a day \- for the next 80 years (for a
40 year old man) \- and gain another 20 years in awake time so in effect you
may be able to live 140 years! Cool.

