Sleep efficiency.

[OutlanderParticipant 27]

I’ve some experience in sleeping little, by choice – not necessity, I wanted to share some tricks I employ, and general tips. This isn’t necessarily about sleeping better, but rather about sleeping less whilst maintaining your physical composure and focus as if you slept enough. Feel free to add anything you think is helpful. The purpose of sleep efficiency as I see, is to reduce the amount to sleep to the bare minimum required to stay in top physical condition because any amount on top of that is a potential waste of time. I speak from personal experience, so whenever I say “do this – this happens”, understand that I am speaking of myself, may not necessarily apply to you.

 

– Going early, go to sleep between 2200 and 2330, the later you go to sleep after that point – the more sleep your body will require to rest as opposed to when you go to sleep earlier. I can sleep for 4.5 hours while maintaining clarity for several days at a time, but there’s no way I can feel rested if I try that at 0200.

 

– Make a not-to-do-list. As opposed to doing specific things before going to sleep, I find it better to make a list of things to avoid – these are much easier to compile and don’t force you into routine. As an example, if I play guitar for at least 10 minutes before bed – there’s no way I am waking up properly. Just keep some things in mind to avoid doing.

 

– When you lie down for the first time – find a position you can maintain indefinitely so that you do not move. Simply lying on the back seems to work well for me, moving around in bed whilst trying to find a temporary comfortable spot will waste time in aggregate, exercise discipline by laying still.

 

– Avoid thinking. Whatever you have in your mind, if it’s important – you will recall it on the morrow. To avoid thought, practice focused meditation. It is difficult to maintain none in your thought especially when going to bed – focus your mind on something repetitive and always present, this can be simply the feeling of the weight of your body or breath. Personally I prefer to focus on the sound of my inner ear – a very quiet tone that is only noticeable with focus in absolute quiet. Direct your mind towards mere observation of the sensation as if you’re listening to instrumental music. Although it may feel that you will not fall asleep by keeping focus – you will find yourself thinking “OK, I’m doing this – when exactly do I get to sleep”, but it’s an illusion. Falling asleep is a bit of a transient process, maintain the disposition of resolve and do not doubt that you are already resting even if still awake.

 

– For the alarm bell, make it loud enough for you to wake up and place the item that wakes you up at a distance where you can’t reach it from the bed. Otherwise you may find yourself autonomously turning the alarm off if your sleep wasn’t particularly well only to wake hours later and have no recollection of the event.

 

– Make sure the room is as dark as you can get it to be, a bit obvious but still relevant.

 

That covers the part of falling asleep, now for the waking.

 

– Consider documenting the amount of time that you can handle well. Humans’ sleeping cycle is on average 1.5 hours, from my basic understanding and I didn’t really bother to research anything in depth, if you wake up while interrupting your sleeping cycle – you feel like s~~~, if you wake up in between sleeping cycles or right after one has finished – you’ll feel fine, for the most part. I don’t know whether to trust this, but I have found that I can sleep and wake up relatively well with 3h and 4.5h, this will probably be varied for different individuals.

 

– Do some stretching, a warm up for the body.

 

– If you are the type of a person to shower every day, consider cold showers – this will easily give you a boost.

 

– Find a good reason for why you have to be awake so much, if your mind is not engaged and you don’t have things to do – you will only exhaust your body.

 

– Do not nap during the day, but I would recommend short meditation sessions. What I do is a I lie down with some river sounds in the background and “cleanse” my mind as I consider what I will do next and how. Lie comfortably for a few minutes, then resume your work.

 

– Document which things give you a boost in focus, sometimes you will have the physical strength but you will lack the mental focus or motivation to do a thing – you can overcome this with some external stimulation. Personally, listening to an inspiring song or eating an orange does it for me.

 

– Document things that reduce your mental clarity and focus. Working out is tiring physically – but it’s invigorating for the mind. For me, if I eat too much or eat some artificial sweets – the day seems to go to waste.

 

That I would consider the general advice,  now I want to elaborate on what I do personally and may not at all work for other people. I sleep for 4.5h for several days continuously with other days reserved for 6h or sleeping with no alarm at all to “restore” to the state of normalcy. I have been doing this for months and by far I do not feel any particular difference in my physiology.

 

Instead of tea or coffee – I drink hot boiled water, things that provide a momentary boost of energy seem to wear me down in the long-term. Just the temperature of the water provides me with enough focus and energy to work, you also save time.

 

Usually I go to sleep at 2200, so waking up at 0230 is normal for me – for the first hour I do the stretching, checking email and other “softcore” activities whilst I regain full clarity of the mind, then I’m ready for the work. I do not eat until at least 0800 of the morning and usually I do my daily work out routine before that. This is all I can recall for the moment. As I have more to share – I will, leave your own recommendations too.

 

 

[OutlanderParticipant 27]

Gentlemen, add your own recommendations and input – I will at a later date update the OP with all relevant information.

[Beware the LamiaeSpectator 89]

Interesting, thanks for the post

I like how you nailed the sleep cycle and agree on its significance. When the subject arrives, many people seem to be terrible observers of their own experience and swear that 90 min sleep cycles don’t apply to them. It’s really dumb.

In 90 minute intervals, that’s how it works. Young people need more sleep, old people need less. I assume you’re older seeing how you’re able to go more than a few night getting only three consecutive sleep cycles; 4.5 hours.

The reason you always see 8 hours as recommended is because that’s 5 sleep cycles with a 1/2 hour cushion for falling asleep. You also got it right that you will feel more rested if you wake up at those intervals. I wont go into REM and NREM sleep since it also confuses people.

 

Infants need more than 8 hours. Teens and people in their twenties, on average require the 8 most nights. My guess is that in your 30’s and going forward, you tend to be able to get by on 6 (4 cycles). You seem to be hell bent on not sleeping your life away and try your hardest to get by with 3 sleep cycles a night, and then you crash hard on Sunday to “catch up.” You may find more clarity and presence if you just allow 4 sleep cycles nightly (6 hours). But hey, go your own way bro. I liked the read and the advice.

My personal sleep has been a peculiar enterprise. I quit drinking two years ago at age 27. Because of my previous drinking, the sleep experience is irrelevant. But in the 2 years since, I find that if I sleep a full 8-10 hours one night, I will only require 6 hours the next few nights, but that catches up to me and Ill need another 8. Diet and activity of course have a lot to do with sleep. Sugar will really mess up waking hours and sleep. Rarely if ever exercising will also being sleepless nights.

I will sometimes sleep 2 cycles after work from 8pm to 11pm because of fatigue. This may be due to work or diet. Then I’ll be up till 4 in the morning before sleeping 3 more cycles. This is not a good way to structure your life. The more consecutive cycles the better rest your body will get. I dont have a source but its fact, the cycles need to be in a row if it can be helped.

I sleep on my side with a pillow between my knees, clutching another pillow to chest and head laying on another 2. I guess I’m weird like that. When on my back, I require a pillow under left knee.

 

I drink coffee and listen to prog rock so I’m pretty different than you sir lol.

[Just a DoormanParticipant 33]

Excellent topic! I have done a lot of personal research into my own sleep cycle. I need anywhere from 4.5-6 hours of sleep, but can get by on 3 if necessary.

 

One thing I didn’t see that I consider very important is, your bedroom should be used for two things: sleeping and f~~~ing. Anything else you do in your bedroom(TV, reading, eating, etc.) causes you to be less tired, less able to actually sleep once you get into bed.

 

Another trick I’ve tried for waking up, in the afternoon on a day off, I go through my bedtime ritual: undress, “brush teeth”, set out clothes for the morning and then get into bed. I set my alarm for 2 mins later and when it goes off, I jump out of bed, dress, “brush teeth” and act as if it’s morning.

I repeated this a few times(and in the future, when needed) and boom, I have developed a habit.

 

Don’t trust your 6am self to listen to the things your 11pm promised to do!

[OutlanderParticipant 27]

I am 22 years of age right now and I am indeed bent on reducing my sleep, as little as I can do without sacrificing health is where I want to be. I’ve been going steady with 6h for a large period of time, 4.5h is a recent development for me. I have heard reports of people who do not sleep at night at all – instead they take prolonged naps every 6 hours or so. I am skeptical about such claims.

 

The topic is largely relevant because of how much we sleep throughout life, MGTOW I find is largely about optimization of existence – in all aspects. Sleep, while carrying a lot of individual preference, has overbearing generalities that can apply to all humans, – we should explore both.

 

Having a separate room just for the bed – that is probably a good psychological device to encourage more efficient sleep, that is outside of what I can currently exercise though.

[peterfaParticipant 833]

Don’t screw with your sleep. There’s a thing called, “Sleep Hacking,” but it has it’s horror stories. You can end up screwed up for a while, you could hallucinate or so.

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