Interesting, I have a DEC2 mutation and don't need much sleep, but I do sleep very consistently. When I was first working through this discovery, I asked the dr how it was that people who have this have no adverse effects when folks always say not sleeping long enough is bad for your health and he said "well, we don't really know that's true" and kinda shrugged it off.
I recall watching a documentary on Discovery way back, where they followed some multiday ultramaraton competitors. They'd draw blood samples, measure vitals and have them answer mental acuity questionnaires each time they stopped for food or sleep.
The competitors limited themselves to power naps, max 30 minutes though often just ten minutes.
The scientist found that all the physical adverse effects of sleep deprivation were negated by the short power naps. Though IIRC the mental acuity did drop some as the event progressed.
Been at least 15 years since I saw the program so might misrember some parts, but I clearly recall the physical effects of the power naps.
Keep in mind these were quite fit athletes though.
>The scientist found that all the physical adverse effects of sleep deprivation were negated by the short power naps.
we don't even know if the "brain cleaning so, longterm, you don't get dementia" hypothesis is true, and here you/they are saying "we know it's false for these people".
> The scientist found that all the physical adverse effects of sleep deprivation were negated by the short power naps. Though IIRC the mental acuity did drop some as the event progressed.
I assume you mixed these up?
There's two well-known extreme sleep schedules (Uberman 6x20m or Dymaxion 4x30m) that let you subsist on two hours of sleep a day, because you drop into REM sleep immediately. This however only clears up "brain fog". If you would do exercise on these sleep schedules, you would make little progress because muscle repair happens outside of REM sleep.
also things are recommended for the average population, not the individual - with "conditions"/superpowers like yours, it's absolutely the individual that matters, not the mean.
I go to sleep between 1am and 1:30am naturally and wake up around 6/:30am naturally. Allergy season makes me kinda lethargic, but doesn't change how much sleep I need. 4/5hrs is ok, less than 4 is not ok. I also oddly don't get jet lag.
