Why Some People Can Run on Little Sleep and Get So Much Done
I'm glad that I finally have something (albeit thin) to point people to when they feel the need to lecture me about my sleeping habits.<p>As long as I can remember I've been happy with a mix of 4 and 6 hour sleeping sessions, two or three days of 4 followed by one night of more sleep (typically 6 hours) and then back to 4 hours again.<p>Under the recommendation of my peers and physicians I have attempted to do 8 hour nights but the results are that I feel worse in the morning, and each night I attempt to sleep 8 hours waking up gets harder and harder.<p>Over the years I've developed a few theories as to why I need less sleep than is recommended and someday when I get around to finishing my EEG project I'll gather some data to back them up, but for now I'm just making the most out of the extra time I have the same way someone with a different biological advantage might.<p>I will also mention that (as mentioned elsewhere here) there are definitely people at the other end of this curve who's performance is shockingly better if they get more than the "required" 8 hours of sleep per night, and I believe that we could all benefit by recognizing this fact and adjusting our cultural expectations to accommodate these patterns as well.  I think with a little flexibility on both ends we'd see a significant increase in overall productivity and quality of life.<p>In other words "When hungry, eat. When tired, sleep." - <a href="http://users.rider.edu/~suler/zenstory/whentired.html" rel="nofollow">http://users.rider.edu/~suler/zenstory/whentired.html</a>