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[bluezebracat]

Have always been a solid 6 hour sleeper. 4 or less creates a noticeable drop in performance.  Recently, I've noticed that I've acclimatized to 4 hours and I'm wondering how long I can keep this up.  Have you tried to actively cut down on your sleep permanently?

[msparticularity]

I spent many years sleeping 4-6 hours per night during the week, and then absolutely crashing wherever I was at 7 p.m on Fridays. I literally could go to sleep under a friend's coffee table, or just put my head right down on the dinner table. (And no, this didn't involve alcohol!) As I've aged, I can't go more than 3-4 days without adequate sleep, which is 9 hours or so these days.

[tinyzombie]

Bookmarking.

TZ, who sleeps like a cranky infant

[prytania3]

My sleeping patterns are so bizarre. I sleep with Bloomberg on, so when I wake up during the night I can find out what's going on in the worldwide markets. Perhaps if I didn't sleep with Bloomberg on,  I wouldn't wake up so much. When I get out of bed at around 5AM, I turn the channel to CNBC.

I am a sick puppy.

[msparticularity]

Pry, I have to have something on to sleep, also. In my case I started doing it because if I'm listening to talking (BBC and NPR are good), then my mind doesn't start in. Now I have tons of books on my iPod, and that's very soothing to listening to at night--kind of like being read a bedtime story!

[molli_sols]

My sleep habits are horrible.   Between new preps and grading large sections I end up staying up to 3 AM a few nights a week.  On the nights in between I find ti hard to sleep before 1 AM because I don't feel sleepy.  So, I end up with 4-5 hours sleep a night most nights and then toward the end of the week I usually have a crash night where I go to sleep at 9 and stay down until 7 the next morning.  I don't worry too much about being functional during the day, but it's the evenings at home that are tough.  Even though I'm not sleepy, I lack the energy to do my chores after dinner so I save them up for the weekend and do work instead.  Also, when I do sleep I need 4 alarms to get up and I have been known to sleep through unusual sounds like phone calls, fire alarms, and tornado sirens.  I am looking forward to getting through the new prep stage when I can even out the workload through the week a little better.

[zarathustra]

I can manage with 6 hours a night, but then my naps rage out of control towards the end of the week and on weekends.  I mean, 2.5 to 4 hour naps! If I set my alarm to wake up earlier from the nap, I feel nauseous.  What's up with that?

If I start getting less than 6 hours a night consistently, with no opportunities to nap, I get sick--without fail.  And I'm trying everything to boost my energy levels, like ditching caffeine and exercising, etc.  

I really, really need to learn to go to bed at 10 p.m., so I can get up at 6 a.m. and function through the day without a mega nap, but that appears to be a radical shift for me right now (worse than the adjustment to getting a dog that wakes me up at 7 a.m. all summer).

Some people laugh, but my ideal schedule would be bed at 2 a.m., rise at 10 a.m., but that will never happen with my pets or my job.

[prof_smartypants]

I can manage with 6 hours a night, but then my naps rage out of control towards the end of the week and on weekends.  I mean, 2.5 to 4 hour naps! If I set my alarm to wake up earlier from the nap, I feel nauseous.  What's up with that?

If I start getting less than 6 hours a night consistently, with no opportunities to nap, I get sick--without fail.  And I'm trying everything to boost my energy levels, like ditching caffeine and exercising, etc.  

I really, really need to learn to go to bed at 10 p.m., so I can get up at 6 a.m. and function through the day without a mega nap, but that appears to be a radical shift for me right now (worse than the adjustment to getting a dog that wakes me up at 7 a.m. all summer).

Some people laugh, but my ideal schedule would be bed at 2 a.m., rise at 10 a.m., but that will never happen with my pets or my job.

Split the difference, Zara. I'm asleep by 11 or 11:30 and up between 7 and 8 depending on whose turn it is to let the dogs out. I used to stay up a lot later, but this has been working very well for me.

Oh, and I typically take two benadryl to help me conk out at night (Doesn't hurt my chronic nasal allergies, either).

[hipgeek]

I have always slept well.  Very seldomly, when stressed I clench my fists while sleeping.  But most of the time, I sleep quite well, 7-8 hours a night.  Once in a while, I even take a catnap during the day, especially on weekends.

I am always shocked by folks who pride themselves on their sleep deprivation.  In my first year of grad school I found myself surrounded by crazy young women who lived on diet coke and coffee and bragged about getting somewhere between 2-4 hours sleep a night.  I was always baffled.  Incidentally, those sleepless members of my cohort have since dropped out and left grad school while I remain plugging away at the PhD, well-rested.

[alastrina]

Some people laugh, but my ideal schedule would be bed at 2 a.m., rise at 10 a.m., but that will never happen with my pets or my job.

That one is ideal for me as well. For some reason, I sleep sounder between 4 am and 10 am and will wake feeling better rested than if I slept from 11 pm to 8 am.

I'm finding that most of my insomnia is hormonally based. Certain times in my cycle, I either don't sleep well, or wake up feeling like crap and can't get back to sleep.  If that's the case, I turn the tv on and hope to drift off.  If I just can't sleep I read or knit.  I only get a few rows of knitting done at a time anymore because it puts me to sleep so quickly.

In general, if I'm short of sleep, I do not function well.  I'm either hyper or slow and grouchy.

[zarathustra]

I can manage with 6 hours a night, but then my naps rage out of control towards the end of the week and on weekends.  I mean, 2.5 to 4 hour naps! If I set my alarm to wake up earlier from the nap, I feel nauseous.  What's up with that?

If I start getting less than 6 hours a night consistently, with no opportunities to nap, I get sick--without fail.  And I'm trying everything to boost my energy levels, like ditching caffeine and exercising, etc.  

I really, really need to learn to go to bed at 10 p.m., so I can get up at 6 a.m. and function through the day without a mega nap, but that appears to be a radical shift for me right now (worse than the adjustment to getting a dog that wakes me up at 7 a.m. all summer).

Some people laugh, but my ideal schedule would be bed at 2 a.m., rise at 10 a.m., but that will never happen with my pets or my job.

Split the difference, Zara. I'm asleep by 11 or 11:30 and up between 7 and 8 depending on whose turn it is to let the dogs out. I used to stay up a lot later, but this has been working very well for me.

Oh, and I typically take two benadryl to help me conk out at night (Doesn't hurt my chronic nasal allergies, either).

I end up going to bed 11ish if I'm really good, and if I can "sleep in" until 7, I do.  But I have an 8 a.m. class that starts in October, so I'd like to get adjusted NOW, if possible.  Once that 8 a.m. class starts, there's no splitting the difference.  I'm better off in the long run not taking anything, either. 

It's the naps that I have the hardest time with...like right now, I'm seriously nodding off...

[prytania3]

I love naps.

[zarathustra]

I love naps.

One of the things I miss the most about summer...guiltless naps.  Ahhhhhh, the bliss.

[chaosbydesign]

My sleep patterns are f***ed up. I don't need a huge amount of sleep, luckily. I can manage on 4 hours reasonably well. I am also better off sleeping from 3/4AM-10/11AM than at a normal time, but it's not practical to get up that late when I'm working.

[msparticularity]

My sleep patterns are f***ed up. I don't need a huge amount of sleep, luckily. I can manage on 4 hours reasonably well. I am also better off sleeping from 3/4AM-10/11AM than at a normal time, but it's not practical to get up that late when I'm working.

Delayed sleep cycle is a real condition--you might mention that to your psych, also, since it can interact with other treatments and with his/her understanding of your medication needs. It's also fairly intractable, so finding work that works for your own cycles may be a worthy long-term goal. I am a pretty classic case of this, in fact, and what saves me now is that I teach grad students who are themselves classroom teachers. I teach from 4-9 p.m., and arrange my office hours and all of the meetings I can manage in the afternoons. My colleagues are growing accustomed to the idea that they can, indeed, force me to be present in the (relatively) early morning hours, but I won't be very functional then.