Sleep is a Waste of Time

a reply to: skunkape23

I wish I could sleep more than 4 hrs. Never could. Being a musician since I was young, am used to being up all night.

I just say what dad used to say when asked or prodded about going to bed. "I'll rest when I'm dead!"

I do nap here n there...

a reply to: skunkape23

Sleep is elusive for me.
It seems as if I can get an hour or so then I am awake again.
This can go on for weeks and then finally, mercifully, it will come in a wave and I can sleep for about 9 hours or so, straight.

The old man can drink coffee all day and half of the night, lay right down and go instantly to sleep. He sleeps all night waking refreshed. He's rather chipper in the mornings!
If I sound envious, I am. I am happy that he gets rest though, he needs it more than I.

Oddly enough, I will dream during those brief moments of sleep.

Maybe it's a waste of time for me to try. It seems as if some folks around me need it though.

originally posted by: Akragon
a reply to: skunkape23

Funny I was just talking about this with a friend today...

I fight to stay awake for no reason... as if im gonna miss something

yet when I finally get to bed I want to stay there forever...

That's me and my 3 yr old. I wouldn't be surprised if the part you didn't specify at the end is true of you as well, it goes like this:

...but I never get to (stay in bed.)

Us nightfolk get the short end of the stick. By nature, we would be happy sleeping from, say 4am-9/10am and feel 100% rested, but the world turns on the daywalkers' schedules, and so we struggle to force ourselves to fall asleep by 2am so that we can peel our eyes open at what we call an ungodly hour / the buttcrack of dawn (what most call "7 AM") to race to work.

If I don't get 8-10 a night, I'm useless. I cannot function on less sleep. Ever wake up & feel like you just can't get it together, can't wake up enough to so much as have fine motor control work right? That's me on less sleep. My brain is in a perma-haze & I just can't function properly. I think it's more accurate to say everyone's batteries charge differently than "sleep is a waste of time".

a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan

It's funny you mention the Alzheimer's connection. My great-grandmother was put on a pedestal by everyone in her family for being able to work a full-time factory job & one on the side her entire adult life, on 2-3 hours of sleep a night. The way everyone tells it, she was a superwomen with never-ending energy & no inkling of tiredness, ever.
I doubt it's any coinky-dink she started exhibiting AD symptoms in her 30's, and having it full-blown by her late 40's. With as much as she worked, and as little as she slept, it could be proposed that she unwittingly set herself up for failure, even if there was genetic predisposition towards it. It could have been the equivalent of hitting the FF button on her Alzheimer's.

a reply to: skunkape23

the requirement for sleep is different for everyone - some people need moore - others less .

i personally seem ok with 2 * 2 hours a day [ aprox 8 hours apart ]

but i would not offer this regieme as advice to anyone

I typically like to get around 10 to 12 hours sleep, but I stay awake for almost twice as long as the average person. I think sleep is extremely important for physical and mental reasons, our brain is able to sift through our waking memories and transfer important memories into long term memories. One thing I've noticed is that people who don't get enough sleep can be very stressed out and I think that causes them to age faster. There really is some truth to the statement "beauty sleep" imo. I've always had this theory that when we sleep our cells absorb some sort of energy which allows us to feel re-energized when we wake up, but there's most likely a scientific reason to explain why that happens.

a reply to: Layaly

Thank Gosh!!!!

Reading in bed is more comfortable than at the dining room table, anyway!!

a reply to: Nyiah

I can absolutely operate on less sleep....but i don't typically.

I get between 6-9 hrs a day, with long naps on the weekends. i may even take a day off of work so I can sleep some more.

When its 'go time' i can operate for several weeks on 3-4 hrs a night. Its not something that really bothers me, but i try not to do it because of the health impacts.

I get groggy at 8pm, and my mental faculties begin to slow compared to early/mid day, when I am thinking the most clearly. So work done after 8pm generally has to not require me to think too much.

To say sleep is a waste of time is a bit ridiculous given the fact that it is a requirement for life.

It is physically impossible to deprive the human body of sleep for extended periods of time.
The current scientifically documented record is 11 days without sleep. Yes you have your new agey claims of "I have gone 20 years without any sleep " but upon investigation those items never hold up.

Now what you can say is that exorbitant sleep may seem like a waste..I know someone that falls asleep in 2 seconds and requires a full 8 hours a sleep a night or else they cant function. I know other people that can function just fine on 5 hours of sleep.

What I know is that sleep deprivation is destructive to all aspects of living as a human so I would suggest finding a different limit to push.. =)

a reply to: opethPA

we do need sleep, isn't that when our bodies repair themselves??? and if sleep wasn't important people with sleep apnea wouldn't have the problems with heart disease , and falling asleep at the wheel.

they used to think we all needed 8 hours of sleep but they came to realize that is not true there is a sub group that only needs 4 hours, they are wired that way....

did you know in the olden days before lights 18 century, they would sleep form 8:30 pm to 2:30 pm then get up for a couple of hours (visiting, having sex,read a book, pray etc) then go back to sleep until dawn!!!

disinfo.com...

originally posted by: skunkape23
a reply to: Akragon

Things don't really get funky for me until day 3. That's the point I start hearing the voice of Samuel L. Jackson telling me to go the # to sleep. Just for the record, beer and tobacco are the only drugs I consume.

In my early college days, I stayed with my parents, got up at 7am, drove to college, then worked in the lab untiil 10pm (or thrown out by the janitor), then would take the bus home. Didn't get home until 11pm, had dinner, watch TV for an hour, then go to bed. I'd doze off on the bus only to be woken up by people coming down from the upper deck. Only problem was that it was a single decker bus.

When I got my first desktop PC, I could take an early express bus home (one of those luxury night-sleeper buses that look a bit like a caterpillar. They're all black inside, with dim lighting and a few glow-in-the-dark-buttons. It was something straight out of Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy.

Regular sleep is essential for repair if you exercise but not entirely sure what the recommended quantity is. Without 8 hours I'm a confused, achey mess for the rest of the day. It's also the only peace I ever get.