How long is 4 hours of sleep sustainable?

[hope_]

Just a general question.
If you guys have any tips like if alternating between 4,5 hours can be better than 4 hours straight everyday. Or maybe eating/drinking something to keep yourself awake.
I might have to sleep this much only, so any advice will be helpfull.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[MTF]

I might have to sleep this much only, so any advice will be helpfull.

Sleep this much today and you'll pay at least double for it in the future when you get sick, injure yourself, get obese (insufficient sleep causes problems with appetite), get in an accident (you're essentially drunk if you're sleep-deprived), destroy your relationships due to stress, etc.

It's a very, very bad deal.

 

[hope_]

It's a very, very bad deal.

I kinda knew it, but i thought maybe there might be a way. My bad, i posted it impulsively (need to work on that) after my dad said something like "that dude only sleeps 4 hrs and studies."
I got a exam in like 45 days, which can be like the freedom to chase freedom. A bit complicated.

I think rather than expending the waking hours, I should better utilise the ones i already have. Cut off things that i should not be doing.

 

[PureA]

It's the last thing you should compromise, I find it hard to believe you are busy 20hrs/day.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[kr8nt]

Just a general question.
If you guys have any tips like if alternating between 4,5 hours can be better than 4 hours straight everyday. Or maybe eating/drinking something to keep yourself awake.
I might have to sleep this much only, so any advice will be helpfull.

I was running on 4-5hrs of sleep from September until November. I had school from 8am to 3pm, then job from 3pm to 11pm and then waking up at 4 am to go to the gym before school from 5 am to 7 am on weekdays and the same on weekends, but job was from 8 am to 7pm, and then from 7pm to 11pm I was working on my projects.

It was not worth it, and I don't recommend trying it. You will feel like you are becoming insane. And the movie "The Fight Club" will start to feel more and more relatable, especially the self destruction part.

Every smallest thing will trigger you and make you angry. Let's not even talk about closing your eyes for more than a couple minutes, because guess what, you will fall asleep immediately.

Another thing is binge eating, sugar and carbs will become a your biggest enemy-friend. You will not be able to win your brain/body in this fight and after each binge you will feel worse and worse until eventually you will stop trying to fight against it and get fat (if you don't start sleeping normal again).

The worst part is that some of the negative effects will stay even after you return to sleeping normal again. For example, no matter the amount of hours I sleep, I never feel like I have slept enough and feel sleepy even the moment I get out of bed, even though it has been 3 months since I have returned to sleeping normal 7-8 hours every night.

If the thing you need to give up sleep for isn't going to make you millions, I would recommend you not to do this.

16 hours per day should be enough, if you don't waste them and actually use them for producing something.

 

[Stargazer]

My dad said something like "that dude only sleeps 4 hrs and studies."

Does your father tuck the other chap in to bed and clockwatch that he 'knows' this fact?

Dan

 

[Xeon]

Does your father tuck the other chap in to bed

I went to work today only to hear that I won't be getting any increment or bonus, but this line above literally made me laughed out loud. Thanks.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Fox]

About 100 times easier to get rid of four hours of stuff you don’t even need to be doing each day.

Social media, the news, sports ball, idle talk and so on.

Losing that much sleep to get wealthy is like burning your furniture to stay warm.

 

[Doug Smith]

I think everyone is slightly different. I know people that only sleep 3-4 hours a day, and have for years. Others, myself included... Can do that for a couple of days, but it makes things worse. My ideal is between 6-7, those are the best days I have in business and in life.

 

[EvanOkanagan]

There is an extremely low percentage of people who can function properly on this duration of sleep. 6 hours should be the absolute minimum. Lots of science on this now.

I'd recommend a couple books (many others along with these that state the importance of sleep):

Why We Sleep - Matthew Walker
Outlive - Peter Attia

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[amp0193]

Easier in your 20s, much harder past then.

In any case, I wouldn't recommended doing it at any age.

I've gone through sustained stints at these levels in the past and regret it.

 

[Vntonio]

I kinda knew it, but i thought maybe there might be a way. My bad, i posted it impulsively (need to work on that) after my dad said something like "that dude only sleeps 4 hrs and studies."
I got a exam in like 45 days, which can be like the freedom to chase freedom. A bit complicated.

I think rather than expending the waking hours, I should better utilise the ones i already have. Cut off things that i should not be doing.

You have to get better a productivity and focus.

Also, if you want to study better, you have to sleep to memorize and understand the notions better.

So I would say sleep more than 8 hours a day and focus on the things you study. (that's what I did in highschool, bachelor and the first semester of master degree and I was top 1, top 4, and top 1 in terms of grades.

 

[Spenny]

In the tens of millions of years, animals have evolved, died, survived, and thrived.

But why do we still have to sleep? We put ourselves into a vulnerable state, unaware of our surroundings or predators. We rely on the trust of others not to attack us but instead to protect us. Not only that, but we have less time to survive & do things.

If evolution could have removed it, it would have. The time it takes also shows how important it is; we could use that time to increase survivability, but no, we shut down for eight hours.

It's not a coincidence that every animal has some form of sleep.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Kevin88660]

Just a general question.
If you guys have any tips like if alternating between 4,5 hours can be better than 4 hours straight everyday. Or maybe eating/drinking something to keep yourself awake.
I might have to sleep this much only, so any advice will be helpfull.

Most people are not that productive with so little sleep.

Wealth building takes years if not more than a decade for most people, even if they are building wealth on a faster lane.

If you ignore health chances are health breaks down faster before wealth arrives, which is the worst scenario. Even the better scenario will be your wealth enriching the doctors, hospitals, and your children but not you.

 

[Subsonic]

Just a general question.
If you guys have any tips like if alternating between 4,5 hours can be better than 4 hours straight everyday. Or maybe eating/drinking something to keep yourself awake.
I might have to sleep this much only, so any advice will be helpfull.

It's a bad idea because you will do much worse work while tired.

I'd rather study for one hour and sleep 9 hours than study for 4 hours and sleep 5 hours.

Why ?

Because the brain can't remember things well when tired. Students who sleep deprive themselves will never benefit from it.

Get your sleep and do 2 to 3 hours of actual deep work. Looking at your books for 16 hours a day won't help you nearly as much as properly sleeping.

I am on track to get a B+ finals average and I study at most an hour a day, probably less most the time.

 

[ZackerySprague]

Try to get 7 to 8 hours of Sleep.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Nostalgia]

Most of the neural pathways are actually built when you rest. That's when your brain actually comprehends and organises the information that you've learnt.

 

[alexkuzmov]

Just a general question.
If you guys have any tips like if alternating between 4,5 hours can be better than 4 hours straight everyday. Or maybe eating/drinking something to keep yourself awake.
I might have to sleep this much only, so any advice will be helpfull.

You can sleep 4 hours or less per day for a long time.
It is possible, but best avoided.

I've made the mistake of taking from my sleep to do more, work more, hustle more, work 2 jobs at the same time, 2 projects, 2 kids etc.

There are times when you cant really sleep a lot for example when you have to take care of a newborn for months.

However to do this to yourself on purpose is beyond stupid, it cacthes up to you eventually.
Sleeplessness for a long time causes extreme stress. The likelyhood to start having panic attacks is very high.
Not to mention all the other bullshit that goes bad when you havent slept enough.

 

[srodrigo]

I think rather than expending the waking hours, I should better utilise the ones i already have. Cut off things that i should not be doing.

This. Go do a quick read on what happens when you are sleep deprived for even just a few days (not to mention weeks or months), so you don't waste any more time on this for the rest of your life. Then get back to work.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[kp001]

dude, i believe it ages you. quickly!

I used to work with a lot of guys who were ex investment bankers. They quit in their mid 30s, but during their 20s- mid 30s were regularly working 2-3am back in the office 8am. 6-7 days a week.

All looked at least 10-15 years older than they were.

Just my observation, could be totally wrong

 

[heavy_industry]

This is the most idiotic strategy you can employ to increase "productivity".

This line of thinking is coherent with modern hustle culture - a bunch of people who have yet to understand that most of life's results will not grow linearly with the amount of time spent working, but will rather grow exponentially based on the quality of your work and the effectiveness of your system/strategy.

This is true in all areas of life, including fitness and academic pursuits. But in business, effectiveness is the name of the game. It doesn't matter if the ship is sailing for 12 hours a day, if it's sailing in the wrong F*cking direction.

One single choice can save you 1000s of hours of unnecessary work. One single choice can prevent a catastrophe that would set you back years or even decades' worth of progress.

And for that one choice, you need to have perfect mental health - a state that is primarily supported by sleep (among other things).

 

[mikecarlooch]

How Long Is 4 Hours Of Sleep Sustainable?​

I think asking people on a forum for health advice is bound to get you a ton of different responses which all aim back to one thing:

How do you feel?

There's your answer.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[alexkuzmov]

How Long Is 4 Hours Of Sleep Sustainable?​

I think asking people on a forum for health advice is bound to get you a ton of different responses which all aim back to one thing:

How do you feel?

There's your answer.

Judging by the responses, I think everyone is in agreement that sustaing 4 hours of sleep is bad and should be avoided.
I dont see different responses.

 

[Nikkko]

I would suggest 7-8 hours of sleep atleast! If you only have 4 hours of sleep it will utterly destroy your capacity and the amount of testosterone you have! You can have a few nights of sleeping late, but becomes a warning when you do it often.

 

[Oso]

Don't feed into the "you have to be grinding 24/7 to be successful" bullshit. You are exponentially more productive with legitimate rest.

That said, being completely transparent here, I've spent most of my life getting 4-5 hours of sleep/night. No idea why, but it has always been this way. In fact, it's 99% of the reason I still smoke weed. If I want to have a chance at sleeping for more than 4-5 hours, I have to smoke before I go to bed.

(And before yall goofies blame the weed, my insomnia was present prior to smoking).

TL;DR: Rest = super good, No rest = super bad.

Cheers.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Brookzo]

Don't feed into the "you have to be grinding 24/7 to be successful" bullshit. You are exponentially more productive with legitimate rest.

That said, being completely transparent here, I've spent most of my life getting 4-5 hours of sleep/night. No idea why, but it has always been this way. In fact, it's 99% of the reason I still smoke weed. If I want to have a chance at sleeping for more than 4-5 hours, I have to smoke before I go to bed.

(And before yall goofies blame the weed, my insomnia was present prior to smoking).

TL;DR: Rest = super good, No rest = super bad.

Cheers.

There are like a small fraction of population who can live on 4-5 hours of sleep for prolonged periods of time, but for other 99.9% of people it's simply not sustainable. You can skip sleeping good 7-8h one, two, maybe three nights in a row, but after that it's simply unhealthy and counterproductive imo

 

[Mike O’Dell]

Does your father tuck the other chap in to bed and clockwatch that he 'knows' this fact?

Dan

Right?! Dad worships the wrong hero. Chronic sleep deprivation is directly linked to early death (and a terrible life).

 

[Oso]

There are like a small fraction of population who can live on 4-5 hours of sleep for prolonged periods of time, but for other 99.9% of people it's simply not sustainable. You can skip sleeping good 7-8h one, two, maybe three nights in a row, but after that it's simply unhealthy and counterproductive imo.

Accurate. And as previously stated, I wish it were something that I didn't experience as I'd save a lot of money. It has simply always been a constant in my life. As with everything else in life, we learn how to handle it, and then move on.

Cheers.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Johnny boy]

4 hours of sleep is crazy, I haven’t done that in months.

Usually I can only squeeze in about 3 or so.

 

[Roli]

Just a general question.
If you guys have any tips like if alternating between 4,5 hours can be better than 4 hours straight everyday. Or maybe eating/drinking something to keep yourself awake.
I might have to sleep this much only, so any advice will be helpfull.

Not getting enough sleep is a form of self-sabotage because ultimately it will lead to poor performance.

When you sleep the brain flushes itself out and gets rid of various plaques and chemicals it doesn't need.

Also, if you work out, almost all of your muscle growth (and repair) happens in sleep.

By getting only 4 hours a night, especially if it's at erratic times, you are destroying your body and brain, but so slowly you hardly notice.

The fact you're asking shows that you are feeling exhausted and under par, start going to bed at regular times and aim for an absolute minimum of 6 hours.