Why We Sleep - read this if you are sleeping less than eight hours a night
I've slept less than eight hours a night regularly for most of my life. This behaviour was based on my work schedule in high school and working in the games industry. I suspect many of you also sleep less than eight hours a night thanks to crunch time and working late on projects.
I listened to Joe Rogan interview Proffesor Matthew Walker who is a researcher specializing in sleep. The effect on your body and mind of sleeping six or fewer hours a night is devastating. It's slow suicide.
If you are sleeping less than eight hours a night regularly, watch the linked video. His book "Why We Sleep" goes into more detail.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwaWilO_Pig
Replies
I know waking up early makes you perform better but over 8 hours of sleep?
I worked with a hunting guide outfit a few years back. Lots of the clients are well-to-do types. Not necessarily CEO's but lots of big oil-money types. They're just like anybody else. Full of insecurities, and constantly trying to affirm that they are in some way superior to others, which is why they must be so rich. Never once do you hear somebody honestly say, "I was just born lucky. I've never worked a day in my life and yet I'm richer than Midas."
Try this : If you can't sit through a boring meeting at work and pretend to be interested, you didn't get enough sleep.
If you only slept 5 hours a day, and worked 16 hours a day, then you would be so much further than someone who slept 9 hours a day and worked 10 hours. Sort of explains why FZD students become so good as they are pushing themselves.
Interesting, didn't sit through the entire vid so maybe overlapping somewhat. Now I also think aspects worth mentioning other than physiological factors resulting from sleep deprivation are those associated with environment or basically a 21st century lifestyle which is entirely due to the profound consequence of 24/7 electric light.
Thomas Edison thought for reasons known only too himself that sleep was bad for you:
“The person who sleeps eight or 10 hours a night is never fully asleep and never fully awake. He has only different degrees of doze through the 24 hours, extra sleep made a person unhealthy and inefficient.”
How the lightbulb disrupted our sleeping patterns and changed the world
The article also states that poor sleep is a symptom of an unwound body clock or Circadian Rhythm, thought too control 15% of our genes and if malfunctioning due to overexposure to artificial light at night "effects a rogues gallery of health disorders with studies linking depression, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity and even cancer"
Even if you take away all the health risks you don't really gain much from sleeping less in order to work more. I did this for a long time, averaged 4 hours a night with the occasional normal sleep during the weekend, and sometimes I just skipped sleeping a day. I did it mostly because I thought I was getting things done but overall I just got shitty results or less done then someone that would work normal hours, so yeah don't do it.
I think what is most natural and good for you is to do what I do now, no alarms, I go to bed and I wake up when I wake up, not possible for everyone, but it feels right.
We all work a bit differently but the body probably takes the same damage.
But I do think sleeping habit can be changed also, but your body needs time to adapt with it, it's not something you can do in a week or two.
Personally, I rather not chemically induce sleep just to reach a specific number. I know when I feel rested and when I don't. If I feel tired, I go to sleep earlier or get up later.
I'm sure you could cherry pick anecdotal "evidence" from "geniuses" and "famous people" (how are you even defining these?) throughout history, just as I could cherry pick evidence to support just about any wild claim I decided to make up.
Also what makes "famous people" worth emulating? I can think of a whole lot of famous people whose advice I would very strongly recommend that no one follow.
Also geniuses and successful people that say they sleep 3-4 hours a day usually don't recommend it and usually advice against it, they just have so much stuff they want to do and so little time that it can't be helped.
Your point was that there are a lot of contradicting opinions and research and you supported that argument by...making a bunch of unfounded claims about the supposed research and some biographies (?) you've read. Got it.
I guess my point is that there is a pretty large, well researched and documented body of evidence to support the idea that not getting at least 6-8 hours of sleep each night is detrimental to mental and physical health. It takes almost no time at all to do some research on google and find reputable studies to support this argument (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5449130/) (http://healthysleep.med.harvard.edu/healthy/matters/consequences/sleep-performance-and-public-safety)
On the other hand, there are your claims that this is untrue because of some stuff you read and a billionaire said in their book.
I'm not even saying you're incorrect. I'm saying if you're going to make the argument that there's lots of contradictory evidence that says you only need a few hours of sleep every night I think that you should back those claims up with something other than "I read" or "there's research that says", otherwise you're only contributing to confusion on the subject.
But I guess it's easier just to make a flippant comment about citing references *shrug*
But instead you just come back with another flippant comment about others remaining ignorant. You're clearly not interested in sharing any relevant information, just acting superior and accusing others of willful ignorance.
You come here and make a bunch of baseless claims on the subject being discussed, the onus is on you to back up your claims with something other than the hot air you're spewing, it is not on us to just "do the research" to confirm or deny whatever nonsense you claim.
"I don't have to prove anything" -- the eternal mantra of the BS artist
Watching one hour video is not research lol !
Yeah, you're clearly arguing in good faith and not just being a condescending troll *epic eye roll*
Well, I'm done. Frankly I should have stopped an hour ago when it was clear you werent interested in contributing anything relevant to the discussion.
You could be tired after sleeping 7-8 hours, but that could be due to your diet, snoozing, or even eating too late in the day before bed. You could sleep 5-6 hours, feel energized as hell but feel tired in the afternoon, but this could be due to what you're eating for breakfast or dinner from the night before. Again, to many variables to say "this is the exact number you need".
Best thing you can do is experiment and listen to your body. Alzheimer and any other disease can be caused by so many things as well. I might already have some disease waiting to pop off after living in LA all my life and breathing in that air. I just try to eat as healthy as I can most of the time, don't slave myself at the computer, exercise and make sure that I'm happy.
The logic is strong with this one
Elon Musk (or whoever) sleeps 4 hours a night. He's rich and stuff. Thus, sleeping 4 hours a night will make me rich.
Also, I like bananas. Monkeys eat bananas. Hence, I am a monkey.
In conclusion, if I only sleep 4 hours a night I will be the richest monkey ever. My logic is flawless.
I remember reading a article a few years ago with CEO reported sleep time, the average was 7 hours. Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos did about 7 hours. Elon Musk 6 hours.
Einstein also said he slept 10 hours a night, which would be more than average.
Has there been any evidence that lack of sleep inhibits drawing skills. I'm guessing reaction time is decreased.
But, if you think about art and a lot of the skills you do in art. It might not be hit so hard by sleep deprivation. Even the tiredness problem it not like your doing something really physical when you are doing art.