[Daf]

Martin made a very good point on one of his podcasts that most people “out there” who are not insomnia sufferers do not really sleep eight hours.

If you ask someone who s not a sufferer from insomnia, “How long do you sleep?” They may say 8 hours.

But the fact is, if they are over 25, they probably don’t.

They have probably never thought much about it.
They say 8 hours because that’s how long they are in bed for,
They don’t count the time in bed listening to radio for a bit. The middle night awakenings when they needed to use the loos and it took them 1/2 hour to fall back asleep. They don’t count the hour it took them to fall asleep at the beginning of the night.
But us insomnia sufferers – being hard on ourselves and being intensely focussed on sleep amounts do.

Martin said in one of his emails that he has no idea where this “8 hours is normal” comes from.

From my research it seems to be that the average is between 5.5hrs and 7 hrs of actual sleep with some folks only needing much less and some, much more. It’s like shoes size – it is different for different people.

[Dazzio]

So true David. For some bizzare reason, during one of my sleepless nights sitting on the couch, i googled ‘famous people who only sleep 4hrs’ it is amazing to see how many CEO’s of big companys and successful people only sleep 4hrs! It actually gave me a huge positive boost when i read it. As my insomnia really developed out of my fear that i couldnt perform to my optimum without sleep. However seeing what these people achieve on such little sleep, gives me alot of reassurance on the nights where i get zero sleep

[Daf]

Exactamondo! There is a research piece waiting to be done on this.

[Davy]

8 hours i only slept that when i was a child
what i want give for a couple of hours every night
but instead we get the total sleepless ones
i think the say 8 hours because insomnia is also a money grabbing machine
if you give people the illusion the have insomnia the spent a lot of money

[Daf]

That’s a good point Davey.

[jazzcat22]

I agree that not everyone does get/need 8 hours. But for a long time, my not being able to sleep for 8 hours made me feel unhealthy. I viewed it in both ways—that a healthy person had the sleep ability to sleep wonderfully for eight hours and that 8 hours sleep led to goo health. But recently I stumbled upon an article about Dave Asprey, the biohacking guy who views his body as a scientific experiment to tweak and prevent aging and ensure maximum functioning. I don’t agree with what he does/promotes, whether it’s freezing his body or drinking bulletproof coffee full of butter. He tried to see if he could function on only three hours sleep, doing polyphasic stuff, and wasn’t successful. Then he thought he needed to sleep 8 hours, but didn’t want to continue to devote that much time to sleep. And he saw a research study that said people who sleep 6.5 hours a night have much lower mortality than people who sleep 8+.

He concluded that: The people who lived longest required less sleep, “because they didn’t need as much time to recover from chronic illness, inflammation, and/or everyday stress. If aging is ‘death by a thousand cuts,’ sleep equals recovery from many of those ‘cuts.’ The fewer cuts you need to recover from, the less sleep you need,” he says.

Based on that realization, here’s what he did (and you can, too):

“I started using my sleep length and corresponding energy levels to measure whether I was doing things during the day that made me older. I knew that if I jumped out of bed ready to bring it after six hours of sleep, I was on the right track. But if I felt groggy after a solid eight hours of sleep, that meant I was probably doing something that made me sick and inflamed. This explains why I needed less sleep when I started following the Bulletproof Diet. I was taking fewer hits from the foods I ate, so I didn’t need as much recovery time. ”

And I have to wonder if he has a point. I strive for a healthy life in terms of exercise, stress management, and diet—so is it possible that by not having the chronic illness, inflammation, abuse to the body that others have I honestly don’t need as much sleep since there isn’t that much to repair? I do get out of bed, even after 5 hours, raring to go and yet I know people who sleep 8, 9, and 10 hours whop aren’t.

What do you think?

[jazzcat22]

Here’s the article about Dave Asprey:

https://www.menshealth.com/health/a29502116/dave-asprey-super-human-book-sleep/

[Daf]

Yes, good links. I have read it too in stuff from Martin, that folks who sleep 6.5hrs seem to have lower mortality than those who get 8 hours. Of course, other factors are at play, but it is a point well made.

In fact, when you think about it, the dearth of research about insomnia kind of suggests that maybe its not being studied much because, well it does not kill anyone nor is there much strong evidence it leads to other illness. So, maybe we can all relax and know we get the sleep amounts that our body needs!

[Martin Reed]

It’s quite remarkable what we can do after very little sleep. This is made all the more interesting when we consider just how much those of us with insomnia worry about how we’ll get through the day after nights of no (or very little) sleep.

Related video: If you have chronic insomnia, you have an incredible ability!

Just recently I had someone email me and they were very concerned about their sleep because they had an upcoming multi-day fitness competition and knew that it was more important than ever that they slept well. Well, this concern led to even worse sleep in the week before the competition and during the three days of the competition.

This person ended up coming second in a grueling and intense competition. A remarkable feat if you ask me — and evidence that we are capable of great achievements even after very little sleep.

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If you are ready to stop struggling with insomnia you can enroll in the online insomnia coaching course right now! If you would prefer ongoing phone or video coaching calls as part of a powerful three month program that will help you reclaim your life from insomnia, consider applying for the Insomnia Mastery program.

The content of this post is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. All content is provided “as is” and without warranties, either express or implied.

[Davy]

i am writing this at 3h 30 at night yep another sleepless one my second this week

@daf i hate it when people don’t believe us i like to invite them to life a week with me our days never seems to end as night turns into day and back again the only thing we ask is for a basic human function some sleep so we can reset

@martin there is a world of difference between little sleep and no sleep at all but you have a point ok we feel sick from exhaustion and we complain a lot ,at least we are safe

what about soldiers and civilians living in a war zone thinking every second i can get killed and the horror the see and encounter ,our the homeless that life on our street
for those people is not like will i sleep tonight but will i be alive tomorrow

[Author]

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