- Is it true that some people need only a few hours of sleep? Helen Thomson talks to a woman whose genes might hint at how we all could survive on less shuteye.
I know, it's amazing how much I could get done without sleep. But damn, I really do enjoy sleeping. I Haven't had much of it of late. Do you have a long list of books lined up?
It's pretty funny how sleep works like that. I always wait too long before going to sleep, but I never want to get up in the morning. And yeah! I told myself I'd read more books over the summer, but I'm a little bit behind. I still need to read Anna Karenina, Oliver Twist and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. How about yourself? What would you do with the extra 4 hours?
Yep! It's called polyphasic sleep. You get about 3 hours of sleep a day. I tried it briefly in college but couldn't get past the first week.
I'd be careful with polyphasic sleep, my friends that have tried it said that they quickly lost any sense of time, and it's incredibly hard to interact with everyone else (because of the varying sleep cycle). There's also the downside that you have less flexibility than a standard sleep cycle. Miss one nap and it will knock you out for days.
My fingers are crossed so hard. I've always hated sleep, hopefully we can learn to do with less. It reminds me of a sci-fi horror I read awhile back. It was set in a world where people could live 24 hours without sleep. The natural thing happens and people now work 18 or so hours a day. The main character is someone allergic to the medicine that reduces the need for sleep. No one will hire him, and the jobs he does get have such long hours that he barely has a life. Why pay someone a full-time wage if they can't physically work for an entire shift? The conflict was something outlandish, but it's the world that always stuck with me. Maybe it wont be such a nice place when we don't need 10 hours of rest.
Maybe it wont be such a nice place when we don't need 10 hours of rest.
wow. TEN hours? I can't imagine getting ten hours of sleep. I used to do it all the time when I was younger. I haven't had more than 7 in a long while.