How Much Sleep Do You "Need", And Has It Changed Over Time?

[ProudLib72]

I keep hearing how, as you get older, you need less sleep. I have not found that to be the case with me. I have also heard of people who only "need" two or three hours of sleep a night to be fully functional (and they only sleep a few hours a day for years).

And just for funzies, have you ever tried first and second sleep? Here is a fact filled article about it: Humans Used to Sleep in Two Shifts, And Maybe We Should Do It Again https://www.sciencealert.com/humans-used-to-sleep-in-two-shifts-maybe-we-should-again

So what say you about your sleep patterns, DU?

[smirkymonkey]

1. A lot.

Probably about 9 hours a night, but I rarely get it. I have a lot of vivid, stressful dreams which makes me feel that I haven't really slept and when my alarm goes off in the morning, I feel like I could sleep for another 4 or 5 hours. I think my "sleep clock" is off, as I am a much heavier morning sleeper than a night sleeper.

I have always been a sleeper and a night person. Have never been able to get up in the morning. I always say getting up out of bed is the hardest thing I do all day and it's true. It's hell for me.

[ProudLib72]

6. If I have to get up early with an alarm, I feel like I'm not getting enough sleep

I have trouble falling asleep anyway, so I'm probably only getting 6 hours...when there is an alarm. But, you know, I make it through the day just fine and don't feel tired until evening. On the other hand, if I just sleep in, I often feel a lot more tired than if I had just gotten out of bed early.

[msongs]

2. not much change over a lifetime nt

[KY_EnviroGuy]

3. Only my bladder knows.....

........

[ProudLib72]

7. Oh boy, ain't that the truth!

[elleng]

4. 6/7/8 hours,

but I GET more (if I feel like it.)

Not much change over time, I think.

[elfin]

5. No you don't NEED less sleep, you GET less sleep

During the night. It needs to be supplemented during the day. Let's hope it isn't at a meeting.

Geezer here. Used to easily get 7-8 hours a night. Now, no matter what I do, no matter what I take (Benydryl, zolpidem etc.) only 4-5 hours max even though it is not a call of nature that wakes me up.

Feel like I am coming down with the flu the next day and power through until I get the rest of the hour or two via a nap.

HATE the new normal.

[dewsgirl]

8. My grandpa was a farmer and during his 88 yrs only ever needed 3 to 4 hours of

sleep per night. I have always needed at least 8 to not feel tired, I'm 42.

[ProudLib72]

11. That's what I'm talking about. I don't understand these people who get 3 hours a night

And then they function perfectly well during the day. I wonder just how many such people like this there are in the world. Is it genetics? Is it training?

[dewsgirl]

32. Idk, I'm miserable without 7-8 hours if it's genetics I definitely didn't inherit it.

No one else in my family is like that. Maybe training, I mean he wouldn't been like that as a child. Or maybe he was?

[dewsgirl]

33. Me too, im useless without at least 7.

[yellowdogintexas]

37. The after lunch nap is still essential with farmers.

Every farmer I have known has a siesta after lunch. It makes sense - hottest part of the day and they have all been up since 4:30 or 5:00 am and will work until dark (or later if trying to beat a storm which is threatening a harvest) Those huge farm machines have really good headlights. My brother in law is usually in bed by 9 pm

The wives are up at insane o'clock too, making the big breakfast etc. They nap too.

Life in a college dorm guarantees 4 years of sleep deprivation; so does a baby.

Most of the farmers I know welcome the winter because all the crops are in - once the winter wheat is in the ground not much is going on until the plant beds are seeded and steamed in February. That is when they spend the day in the shop making repairs to the equipment.

[Flaleftist]

9. About 6 hours works for me. nt

[customerserviceguy]

10. If I can get six hours a night

I'm OK with that.

Since being retired over two years ago, I have radically changed my waking hours. I'm still a Northwesterner in my heart and soul, and love to listen to Mariners games with the MLB subscription that was only the price of four beers at happy hours prices. So, if a game starts at 10:10 PM East Coast time, I will stay up through the whole thing, even extra innings, and being able to make up for it the next day.

Retirement is great!

[OregonBlue]

12. l'm 70 and I definitely sleep much less but not out of choice.

I go to bed at 9 or 10 and read a couple of hours and then cat nap on and off until about 6 am. I can say however that for the first tIme in my life I find that I can take a nice nap in the afternoon and feel good after.

[ProudLib72]

13. I rarely take afternoon naps. I find if I try to nap, I end up sleeping for two hours

Maybe someday I will be able to master the art of the nap. I just have too much trouble falling asleep in the first place, even for a nap.

[OregonBlue]

16. Always been the case with me as well but now I can sleep

for 45 minutes and feel good. If you want to go to sleep, start teaching yourself a new language and do verb conjugations. Works every time.

[ProudLib72]

19. Was that why I was always so sleepy in grad school

Studying Yiddish and Hebrew?

I laugh, but it actually sounds like a good idea. I may have to try it.

[OregonBlue]

35. It works and eventually you do learn to conjugate verbs in

Your chosen language!!

[trackfan]

14. I like 9 or 10 hours; probably "need" a bit less.

I also often like a nap in the afternoon.

[Phentex]

15. I was one of those people functioning well on 4 or 5 hours a night...

I was always an early riser, even as a teen. Up before everyone in the house. Never slept late in college or even into my 20's. I got a lot done in a day!

Had kids and my sleep patterns changed and I was very tired all the time but I still didn't sleep more than 6 hours or so. I'd say that's when I became Queen of the Power Nap. 15 mins here and there was like recharging my batteries.

Somewhere in late 30's early 40's, everything changed. TIRED ALL THE DAMN TIME. Can fall asleep anywhere, anytime. NEED a nap most days and very cranky when I don't get one. Power napping still. I feel pretty good most days until late afternoon and then I go downhill pretty fast. Love hate relationship with coffee.

Don't know if it was age or hormones or something that changed my body but I love sleeping now.

[Ron Obvious]

17. I sleep in two hour intervals

I've no trouble falling asleep, but rarely sleep more than 2 hours at a time. That means 6 hours on a good night as it happens.

It's not really the bladder issue either. I have extraordinarily vivid dreams, and usually wake up in the middle (at the end?), which means I always recall them. I suppose it's good that I'm getting to REM sleep, but never feel all that rested. I slept like a log until my late thirties, early forties, but only sleep that well now after a 5th of Vodka, which I've sworn off.

[erronis]

30. Same here. Check out "lucid dreaming".

I'm pretty sure that the conscious brain (what we think we think) needs to sleep while the sub-conscious (amygdala, hippocampus, cerebrum, etc.) is rearranging the furniture.

In lucid dreaming I can be at the periphery of awakeness and observing those pieces of furniture being moved around. It can be scary but very exciting. I need to be careful not to let the consciousness try to take over the dreaming or I'll actually wake up.

This can actually be enhanced/trained. Let me know if you'd like some articles I've collected.

[Codeine]

18. About five hours is normal for me.

Occasionally I’ll lay down early and get six or six and a half but that’s mayyyybe once a week. Even if I feel I WANT more I simply can’t get more, my body just wont play that game.

And I wake up at just about exactly 3:15 every morning, seven days a week, without an alarm. Fine on weekdays, a bit irritating on a Saturday.

[Harker]

20. As I age I sleep more.

I think moving from the Colorado Front Range to W PA messed me up. It seems like very early morning light lingers til about noon.

My hours vary week to week, as do hers. Mrs. Harker usually starts work an hour and a half earlier when we both work in the morning. I get up, make tea, empty the dog, and start her breakfast.

On my late work, and off, days, I go back to bed for several hours.

I can get by with six, but sometimes sleep for twelve.

I'm 60. Can't wait to retire. I do miss my 4 a.m. to noon sleep pattern.

[Laffy Kat]

22. I always sleep better in the early morning.

Best sleeping in the world starts from 3:00 - 4:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. is a great time to rise.

[Harker]

23. If only! n/t

[Laffy Kat]

24. I work from 3:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m.

That's the only reason I am able to do it. I feel like my heart doesn't start really beating until around 5:00 p.m. and by 11:00, when I get home, I'm bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Ideally, I should work a graveyard shift. I've always been this way, opposite of everyone else.

[Harker]

34. My bookshop hours! n/t

[Laffy Kat]

21. I know! The older I am the more I want to sleep.

What's up with that?

[Kurt V.]

27. i need less sleep as i get older. Likely from being less active as i get older

[Stargleamer]

28. The answer The Guardian gives appears to have merit

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/feb/09/best-thing-you-can-do-for-your-health-sleep-well

Reagan and Thatcher apparently bragged about getting by on little sleep; they both developed Alzheimer's

[MicaelS]

29. Because I have BPH..

I cannot sleep more than 4 hours at a time before I have to get up to urinate. Usually it is 2 hours at a time. I do go right back to sleep though.

[erronis]

31. Always wondered about the scientists/pundits who have said we need 6-8 hours of sleep.

Have they ever had children? Had pets? Worked on a farm?

And we're also told that the normal sleep cycle for humans and pre-humans is a couple of sleep hours followed by vigilance. Other members of the family/tribe would alternate vigilant periods.

We're getting so much health information from white-coated academics who really don't know how life operates, in the wild.

[True Dough]

36. I'm around a 6-hour sleeper

Maybe 7 on a good night. Very rarely 6 or 7 uninterrupted hours though. Most of my life I have been a night owl. Fall asleep around 1 a.m. or so. But I usually wake up around 6 a.m. I feel awake but I know if I get up and start my day, I'll be groggy. I can function but it's just not optimal.

Since I've worked from home for the past three years, and I had an evening shift at my job before this one, I've had the luxury of being able to grab my laptop or a book and start reading at 6 a.m. It can take 90 minutes or a couple of hours but I'll begin to feel tired again. So then I get another 60 to 90 minutes sleep. I get up after that, often around 9 a.m. or 9:30 and I feel just great.

[yellowdogintexas]

38. For years I was able to go on 5 or 6 hours a night but

did a lot of sleeping in on weekends, especially in college.

Now I am surprised if I sleep more than 6 hours at a stretch. I have fibromyalgia and my body wakes me up very early. Interestingly, I can nap much better than I used to. Nap sleep is more restful for some reason. When the fibro flares up though I literally sleep off an on all day until it passes.