9 years ago
11
What It’s Like to Need Hardly Any Sleep
While most people don't function well after an extended stretch of four or fewer hours of sleep a night, there may be a very small percentage who can thrive under these circumstances. In a landmark 2009 study, researchers discovered a genetic mutation in a mother and daughter who seemed to need much less sleep than the average person — the first time any mutation relating to sleep duration had been found (while the sample size wasn’t huge, the effect was replicated in mouse and fruit fly...
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I function best on 2-3 or 6-8 hours of sleep. Less than 2 is just a nap, 3-6 is not beneficial (I wake up more tired than I was when I went to sleep, but perhaps not as tired as I would have been if I stayed awake for that 3-6 hours), and more than 8 is not beneficial.
If I could have my genes modified to only need 3-4 hours of sleep a night, I would LOVE that. Sleeping, like she said in the interview, seems like a waste of time.
I personally hate laying in bet as I feel I'm just waiting perfectly good time, so I know where you're coming from. I noticed that if my nap lasts more than 45 min I will get dizzy and tired as my body most likely tried or succeeded in entering REM sleep which sucks to wake up from during that phase.
I got a new app for my tablet this weekend. It's called Sleep Better. It uses the tablet's accelerometer to measure your movements to determine whether you are awake, lightly sleeping, or deeply sleeping. When you set your alarm for 7:00 AM, it will wake you up at the most opportune time (not deep sleep) between 6:45-7:15. It also gives you a handy chart at the end of your sleep and tells you your 'Sleep Efficiency' score.
I haven't tried it for a nap, but it is worth a try.
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Sounds interesting. I gotta try this app.
Like I said, I've only used it for two nights, but I think it does a pretty good job. However, what surprises me is that I have a bunch of little 'Awake' sections every night. I think this is pretty much any time I move my whole body, which I guess could be considered 'awake' at a subconscious level.
I need 9 hours a night or I'm pretty dead and make a lot of mistakes. If you do the math, it's pretty crazy how much more time someone has if they only need three or four hours. Let's just say they get 4 hours of sleep a night - that means they have 5 hours more per day than I do or more than 1800 hours a year. That's 75 days a year that they have to do stuff when I'm just lying in bed. Insane.
Personally I can run on about 6-6.5 hours a day, if I get any less I will need to supplement the missing sleep with a power nap during the day. If I pull a week where I have an average of 5 hours of sleep, I will literally crash on Saturday and ruin my day.
Employers would love to have workers like this!
My friend is like this. He told me he thought something was wrong with him and that he was going to die early. So happy to pass this article along to him! I need at least nine hours a night to feel refreshed. It's really frustrating for me to see him be able to function perfectly with so much energy.