Is the 6 to 8 rule a load of crapola?

[gentleben]

I work in a nightclub and routinely only get 4-5 hours of sleep. A couple of weeks ago I had work til 5:30am, got up at 9 to go house hunting, worked again the next tight til 6:30-7:00, took my girlfriend to the airport at 10:00, went home, didn't go to bed until my normal bed time that night (usually around 12:00 - 1:00). You can go several days without long periods of sleep, provided you still get REM sleep in that time. There is nothing worse than sleep dep, except perhaps gassing out.

 

[Zildjin81]

You only need about 4 to survive probably around 8 to maintain sanity/stay healthy.

 

[Skeleon]

I require 6h to be fully functional and am comfortable with 7h.
So, yeah, you're on your own, sleepy.

 

[The Rockerfly]

Well I have insomnia and I constantly have 4 hours of sleep a night
and I've made it 17 years so I think it is

 

[Anarchemitis]

I was under the understanding that it was 7-10 hours.

 

[LongAndShort]

I think it has something to do with the fact you burn calories and other such nutritious goodies while you sleep (or so I've been told), so maybe if you don't have enough of the right stuff before you go to sleep, you'll still wake up tired.

 

[zoozilla]

Oversleeping can definitely cause you to feel tired for the rest of the day - at least, it does for me.

Especially with the summer heat - that's probably a factor as well.

If you perform some physical activity just after waking up, though, I seem to be more awake the rest of the day. Otherwise I'm inclined to laze around until I go back to sleep.

 

[Valiance]

It really depends on the person. Everyone has their own sleep cycles.

I personally work well if I get either 5 hours or 10 hours of sleep. Between I feel like shit most of the time. :/

 

[mrhockey220]

For me if I get 6 hours of sleep I am wide awake in the morning and ready to start the day but for some odd reason if I get more sleep than that I usually feel tired.

 

[Samsquamsh]

I need about 8 hours of sleep a day...

... and then 10 hours at night.

Sweet, sweet plagiarism.

 

[asinann]

I get 5 hours sleep a night, if its a good night
But thats not an optional thing
Fun fact: You can go for as long as you want without sleeping, there are no detrimental or permanent affects other than being tired (and cranky), and you don't die after weeks of being awake, eventually you just fall asleep, regardless of whats happening. No brain damage or trauma or nutin'.
Thank you to the friends doing Psych...
And my interest into the reason I can't sleep at night! ARGH! There is no effective cure!

Eventually if you are somehow forced to stay awake (stimulants or even just under 4 hours a night for a prolonged period) you will die from exhaustion.

The US military has done a ton of studies to see how little sleep a person can get and still physically function indefinitely, and the number they came up with as an average was 4 hours. Your mind needs more than that in most cases though.

I once went a little over 72 hours without sleeping, I started seeing things some time around hour 50. The effects of staying up like that occasionally are minimal, but if you do it consistently it can have some really nasty effects on your health.

 

[Beefcakes]

Snip

Eventually if you are somehow forced to stay awake (stimulants or even just under 4 hours a night for a prolonged period) you will die from exhaustion.

No thats just it, you don't die from exhaustion if you stay awake too long. You will always just, fall asleep, even if theres a giant sword in your spine (bad example)

 

[asinann]

Snip

Eventually if you are somehow forced to stay awake (stimulants or even just under 4 hours a night for a prolonged period) you will die from exhaustion.

No thats just it, you don't die from exhaustion if you stay awake too long. You will always just, fall asleep, even if theres a giant sword in your spine (bad example)

Not last I checked, but I'm sure whatever you've been told is far more true than what a sleep pathologist told me. You know, someone that specializes in sleep, the lack thereof and the effects of it.

 

[MagnetoHydroDynamics]

I haven't slept since 1 PM yesterday (GMT +1) and I usually make do with 5-6 hours, but I can easily hit 12-13... 8 is the best for when you need you brain to function the best every day.

 

[ExodusinFlames]

Everyone always says that the human body only needs 6-8 hours of sleep a night to function. Am I the only one who wakes up tired after the full ocho?

I average 2-4, but I'm a unique case. I'm a functional insomniac. I don't drink coffee, but green tea instead. I eat healthy blah blah. But 2-4 hours is plenty

 

[Woem]

I created a poll a while back to see how much sleep [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.118454] the Escapists were getting, and most people do get between 6 and 8 hours of sleep. I'm 27 and I currently go with 5 or 6 hours of sleep, and it doesn't seem to have an effect on my vital functions or my ability to write wonderful code.

 

[teh.arkhon]

Everyone always says that the human body only needs 6-8 hours of sleep a night to function. Am I the only one who wakes up tired after the full ocho?

lolol dont worry i slept for 19 hours straight once and i woke up and was fucking tired ><

 

[SplattererRoss]

I can run on very little to no sleep for some reason, and sometimes go 8 hours after waking up without being hungry. I recently decided not to sleep for one night to see what happened, and I just continued on the next day fine.

 

[shadowstriker86]

i usually get about 4 cause time for me passes so quickly during the day. WoW will do that to you