4 hour sleep cycle

[AubreyJ]

I was wondering if anyone on here has heard of this, or actually does it themselves,

The 4 hour sleep cycle, here is an article about it:

http://www.businessinsider.com/this-guy-has-only-slept-45-hours-per-day-for-two-years-2013-11

For those of you who don't want to read the article, it is basically saying that we don't need 7-8 hours of sleep, and that if we train ourself, we can function just fine with only 4 hours. The article goes into a real-life example of a guy who has been doing this for 2 years, and it also talks about the scientific side of things.

I first heard about this a couple of years ago, and it is something that I find incredibly appealing, as I am a night person for sure. I do my most productive work late at night, but I also would like to get into the habit of waking up early in the morning to go to the gym. I was wondering if anyone does this? Or if there is anyone who has thought doing it? I'd love to hear y'alls thoughts!

 

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[CarrieW]

I live on a 4 hour sleep cycle not on purpose... but I seem to function on about 3-4 hours a night and maybe one or 2 nights on the weekend I will get 5-6. if I sleep more then 6 hours I feel ill...


I will check out the article I have read some about it before... gave up on trying to change to a more "normal" sleep cycle after that. LOL

 

[CarrieW]

I cant make myself nap tho. I have to be sick or not sleep my 4 hours to be able to fall asleep before 4 am LOL. then I will usually wake up after 3-4 hours wide awake and unable to fall back to sleep...

 

[AubreyJ]

So was it miserable for you to get into the habit of only sleeping 3-4 hours a day? I would like to start "training" my body to get used to that sleep schedule but am not looking forward to the process of doing it. I feel like you'd be really tired the first few weeks.

I am the exact same way with naps, I can take naps, but they never help. They always make me way more tired than I was before, and they throw me off, so I just try to avoid them all together.

 

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[IAmTheJeff]

I've been getting 4-5 hours of sleep per night since I was about 14 years old. Once every two or three months, I get one 8 hour night but that's never intentional and generally comes from pure exhaustion from working too hard. Hope that gives you some insight.

 

[Formless]

I need 10 hours sleep minimum to not have a miserable day. Napping cycles don't work for me. It needs to be 10 hours of continued sleep.

 

[IAmTheJeff]

Oh, and I'm not allowed to nap. Wife is needy as shit and my three year old is like the boss here or something.

 

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[IAmTheJeff]

I need 10 hours sleep minimum to not have a miserable day. Napping cycles don't work for me. It needs to be 10 hours of continued sleep.

Wuss!!!!

 

[Formless]

Not very hustle-y, is it

 

[IAmTheJeff]

Create a 90% automated business, THEN you're allowed to sleep 10 hours!

 

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[RogueInnovation]

Good sleep is the only time HGH is released. It hinders development to not have sound sleep.
Personally I do not see a job getting done sooner with less sleep. Often times I take a nap because I over worked, purely to get myself back into good condition.
Listen to your own body and your own process and don't be hard on yourself. Things are difficult enough without adding new variables into the mix.

I can't remember who posted this, but it is another side of the equation, so might be interesting

I have found rest to be equally important to the creative process as times of focus.
The only negative form of rest is "letting your gut out", because that eats up time and money.

7 mins in he says that novel solutions are enhanced 3x by being well rested, and it consolidates memory retention (important for learning and growth).

I once met a monk that apparently slept 50 minutes every day... Blew my mind.

 

[IAmTheJeff]

My sleep pattern is natural, though. I don't even wake to air horn alarms. Yes, I'm serious.

 

[Wimtbimtb]

I hardly ever sleep more then 4 hours at a time unless I am very sick even at that not more then 6 top's. I read a story a while back about how people use to sleep 200or so years ago. Which boiled down to sleeping 2 times for every 24 hour's They had to get up to put wood in the fireplace to keep warm and stay alive. They would get up in the middle of night reload the fireplace and do whatever needed to be done. Which makes a lot of sense. I have found over the years that naps do in fact help out, If you're body needs sleep it will tell you that. Seems now days most people just seem to be damn lazy.

 

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[AubreyJ]

I hardly ever sleep more then 4 hours at a time unless I am very sick even at that not more then 6 top's. I read a story a while back about how people use to sleep 200or so years ago. Which boiled down to sleeping 2 times for every 24 hour's They had to get up to put wood in the fireplace to keep warm and stay alive. They would get up in the middle of night reload the fireplace and do whatever needed to be done. Which makes a lot of sense. I have found over the years that naps do in fact help out, If you're body needs sleep it will tell you that. Seems now days most people just seem to be damn lazy.

That's actually a really good point and I never thought about it that way, as far as the sleep schedule of people 200 years ago- but it makes sense. I agree, a lot of people nap because they are lazy, I try my best not to nap unless it is absolutely necessary, but every once in a while I'll take one if I'm really tired

 

[Vagabond 007]

I used to go on 5-6 hours a night and be fine. Now I seem to need a little more. But for about the past 17 years or so I have had sleeping difficulties...

I self diagnosed myself (I play a doctor on the internet) the other day with delayed sleep phrase syndrome. I fit all of the symptoms. Mainly, I just don't get tired when "normal" people do. Nowadays I stay up until 2:30 or so and I'm up around 8:30. Weekends, I sleep in later.

Sunday night I got 4 hours of sleep. I was fine all day Monday energy wise. You'd think I'd be exhausted and fall asleep early Monday night. Nope. I was up until 2:30. Got up at 8:30. But I was dragging all day! Took a 90 minute nap last night and here I am now up at 1:30 am my time. Getting somewhat tired though, so I am going to try and sleep soon.

I struggle with naps though. If I take them too late in the day, it will really screw me up later that night. I'll be up until 4 or so.

Still trying to figure my body out when it comes to sleep. I've tracked my sleeping habits before but I couldn't find any patterns to help. Just seems to come down to not getting tired until a few hours later than "normal" people. Which I'm totally fine with. I am a night owl and I'm pretty productive at night. But, when I have to get up early, that's what really screws me up.

I do think our bodies get used to things. I used to not eat until mid afternoon or so. At the time I was doing manual labor types of things as well. But I was fine energy wise and I wasn't hungry. Now I eat in the morning. And I find that I'm hungrier throughout the day. Like my body is expecting food more often now that I eat early in the morning.

And I find it very interesting that humans "need" so much sleep. Looking at it from an evolutionary standpoint, not really safe to be dormant for hours on end every day. Nowadays it's safe, obviously. But back in the caveman days, you had things out there trying to kill you.

 

[MorgothBauglir]

I wonder if there's any athletes that get by on something like that. I train a lot, and I can't imagine only sleeping 4 hours a day, seems like I'd run myself into the ground.

 

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[AubreyJ]

Thanks everyone for the feedback! @Vagabond 007 you make a good point. I remember a while ago I was watching a show about sleep, and this scientist basically said that the science community doesn't know why we sleep, and that the best explanation they have for why we need it is because we get tired.

I wonder if there's any athletes that get by on something like that. I train a lot, and I can't imagine only sleeping 4 hours a day, seems like I'd run myself into the ground.

I think it depends a lot on the person (or at least in my opinion) when I was in high school I played basketball for my school as well as select soccer, on top of working a lot. And every week day, I'd get up at 4AM go to basketball practice, go to school, after school I'd go to work, and then after work I'd go to soccer practice until 10-11pm, so I was consistently going to bed at 11:30-12AM and waking up at 4AM. Once I graduated high school though, I stopped waking up early and I haven't been able to get back into that schedule since

 

[The Autobahn]

Good sleep is the only time HGH is released. It hinders development to not have sound sleep.
Personally I do not see a job getting done sooner with less sleep. Often times I take a nap because I over worked, purely to get myself back into good condition.

this 1+
Less then 8 hours sleep will not work for me.

BTW im in a good shape, i can DL 400 pounds for Reps and run few miles after that.
But im fragile for less sleep.

 

[CarrieW]

your body needs sleep... from what I read while trying to figure out things that were happening in my own body I came across many interesting things...

I will use myself as an example

for one I have a bad back. when I am on my feet for any amount of time it causes me pain. the longer I am up or moving or whatever it more it hurts. till its so bad I have to lie flat. while lying flat helps the immediate pain, if I get back up and walk around even after a few hours I am right back in the agony I was in before I laid down...

now If I sleep for a few hours I will generally feel better. if I can be flat on my back for a few hours and then sleep for a few hours it essentially resets and I can get up in the morning and go about things until the stress becomes too much and I have to do it over.

now if I for some reason am in too much pain to sleep I can lay in bed for days and not get any relief whatsoever

your body rejuvenates and resets in your sleep. its physically proven that not having a good nights sleep will increase your blood pressure...(I have this happen to me) the longer you don't get restful sleep the higher it goes and the more stress accumulates in your body. all kinds of stress is relieved while sleeping... physical and mental... your body is constantly regenerating your cells... something like every 7 yrs you are entirely remade...

you can do serious damage to your physical self by depriving needed sleep.

that said not everyone needs the same amount of sleep. not everyone has the same amount of physical stress on their bodies. but everyone does need sleep..

just my experiences with the subject...

 

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[Vagabond 007]

@Vagabond 007 you make a good point. I remember a while ago I was watching a show about sleep, and this scientist basically said that the science community doesn't know why we sleep, and that the best explanation they have for why we need it is because we get tired.

Haha, that's the best explanation they came up with?!

Death and sleep are the 2 topics we don't know much about. Yet, EVERY SINGLE PERSON needs sleep and will eventually die. I always found that interesting.

 

[LTL]

This guy does it ....training twice a day as well