I’ve never needed a lot of sleep. I can’t lay in bed beyond 8 hours without developing a head ache. I thrive on 6-7 hours sleep, and can operate on 5 hours sleep for several days in a row… although if I do this too many days in a row, it does affect my productivity and focus. I know others have noticed this, when I have abused my minimum sleep patterns.
When I’m going to get less that 6 hours, I do a breathing exercise before falling asleep to help get a boost of oxygen into me. I don’t care if it is physiological or placebo, the fact is that I wake up feeling like I’ve had more sleep when I do this with intention.
When I was starting out as a teacher, a buddy of mine told me that I was going to die 10 years early because of my lack of sleep. That night at about 1:30am I sent him an email that essentially said, ‘I’ve done the math… if you live to 85 and I live to 75, in my lifetime I will have been awake longer than you.’ 🤣
I’m fascinated by people’s interest in sleep. For some, extra sleep time is treasured. For me, it is lost time. I don’t consider unconscious time as time well spent.
That said, I love short naps. My perfect schedule would be sleeping between midnight and 6, with a 20-45 min nap between 1 and 2pm. I think I was designed for a siesta culture.
Does wanting only 6-7 hours of sleep a night make me an anomaly? I’m I fooling myself into thinking I need less sleep than I should get? Have I convinced myself that some unhealthy habits are ‘good enough for me’?
I’d say, ‘let me sleep on it’… but I won’t. I’m happy to delude myself at this point, and spend more time awake.
