Sleep

[Ramona Flowers]

http://i33.tinypic.com/2i6lx5t.png

Why do we sleep?

The human body needs sleep for various reasons, the obvious one is to recover from the activities of the day and to restore any energy lost in the day (obviously food is needed aswell). Sleep is needed so that all of the basic human skills, such as speech and memory remain strong. The brain cannot develop without sleep. Shown by the fact no human has ever gone more than 11 days without sleep, it is just not possible.

If you decide to skip sleep you will suffer notable concentration loss, tiredness and probably will starty slurring words, I'm sure we've all pulled an all-nighter once in our lifes and the effects the next day aren't something you'd want all the time. According to research lack of sleep for long periods of time and then driving, is just as dangerous, if not more dangerous than drink driving is. It's a natural process that we must keep strong.

Lack of sleep can result in high blood pressure, stress and depression, just more reasons why it's important, it would be difficult to make a successful career out of something that requires you to skip sleep, obviously some people are better at adapting to sleep than others though.


How much sleep is required?

There is obviously no set amount, as different people react differently to lack of sleep. But it is recommended for us to sleep between 5-11 hours though the best option is to sleep for a certain amount of time and test it out until you find yourself not feeling sleepy in the day time. Sleeping too much can also cause problems, though they aren't as bad as lack of sleep.

To get a good amount of sleep make sure that your room is comfortable, both your bed and the general atmosphere. You won't get a good rest if you don't sleep all night, a deep sleep is needed to correctly recover your senses.

So after reading this do you think you get enough sleep a day? Do you think your sleep pattern is good enough to complete your daily life at an optimum level? Or do you think that you just don't sleep enough.

If you don't think you sleep well enough are you going to try and change this?

I would recommend trying to improve your sleep, I used to have a bad pattern buit more recently make sure I get enough sleep so that I am refreshed the next day, even if I'm at a party I will get an appropriate amount of sleep the next day. I value sleep very highly.

I know some people have difficulty sleeping, I have never had this problem. If you do have problems I would recommend trying something different in your daily schedule, try to get out a bit more, fresh air will often help.

[Smoke]

I haven't been able to sleep well in over 2 years.


My sleep cycle consists of 2 sleep periods per day. The firsy one consisting of 3 to 4 hrs and the 2nd one usually gets me 1 to 2 hours.

[sel]

During the week I get about 5-6 hours of sleep per day, and the weekend I aim to get 10+ (Including the lie-in) but depends, sometimes I can get less than a weekday's worth.

[Mider T]

I don't sleep much because I've never, ever been able to just fall asleep. I have twist and turn and get extremely hot to force myself to go to sleep. I once looked up how to force REM in hopes of solving my problem without using drugs.

[LittleBlondePunk]

Meh. My sleeping patterns have always been super fucked up. Im usually very tired at night, so ill lay down to go to bed. The problem is my body is tired but my mind is completely awake, so i end up watching tv or playing on the computer. And before i know it, its 5 am and i have to be up at 9. But, im so used to this, my body has just gotten used to the lack of sleep.

[kunoichi_doctor22]

well i'm insomniac and the worst thing about it is that it's an episodic insomnia. I will only turn insomnia when i've got university. In the summer and other vacations, i sometimes turn into a sleeping monster. Even though it sounds like it's making my body recover, it actually isn't. The pattern drains my body far more than when i am insomniac and i can't really get anything done.

[Toby]

I thought my sleep-pattern was unnatural, but it turned out that I just lacked discipline. Once I started to train and was genuinely tired at the end of the day, I began to develop a sleep-pattern where I'd go to bed between midnight and 2AM. I try to catch up to 8 hours of sleep because I've heard that this is an optimal standard. Unfortunately classes start at 10 AM so I don't always get my sleep. ;.;

But sleep is definitely awesome.

[Cirus]

I am one of those people who can easily change my sleep paterns on a daily basis. Some days I can go to bed at 10 pm and get 8 hours of sleep then go until the next night and go to sleep at 3 in the morning and get 6 hours of sleep and still be good. I don't know why, but an actuall regular sleeping schedule is very hard for me. I just end up going to bed when ever I get tired. Though I would like to get on a regular schedule for sleep.

[Byakkö]

I have trouble sleeping a lot lately :-(

[Koi]

I tend to have difficulty falling asleep, and have since I was young. It kinda sucks, unless I'm really tired and I just pass out within a few minutes.

I tend to be able to function on as litle as four or so hours, but I tend to get around seven a night.

[kunoichi_doctor22]

it's 3:30am and i'm still not asleep. Tired but not sleepy -_-

[Koi]

It's only 11:30 here, heh. I've worked the past three days so I'm kinda tired, but not too tired. I do have to leave for class around nine tomorrow though, booo..

[choco bao bao]

I always feel tired no matter how much I sleep. :(

[Chemistry]

I sleep good amounts but my schedule is all over the place. Thanks college.

[martryn]

What is frightening really is sleep deprivation. That shit doesn't go away. If you need eight hours of sleep and then you go for four months with only six hours of sleep, that means you now need four months of ten hours of sleep, regardless if your body can force itself to get that much or not.

When I got back from Basic Training I slept like fucking crazy for a month.

I've read, though, that the only real sleep your body needs is REM sleep, and that, if you can train your body to go instantly into REM sleep mode you can sorta get by on two hours a day, taken in small 20 minute nap sessions every four hours or so. From what I've read it takes about a week to get used to the schedule, and that week is fucking tough because your body is exhausted from not being used to it.

While I was in college I tried a system where I pulled an all-nighter every other night, and then slept longer on the other days. I made it two weeks (7 cycles) before my body crashed and the system went to hell.

The longest I've gone without sleep is about two and a half days. 50 something hours. I can't remember the exact numbers. It was during the last week of Basic, though. The M-16's weren't clean enough to turn back in so we were forced to stay up all night cleaning them, and then the next night my flight out of there was around 2 AM or something, so I was up preparing for that, and then trying to sleep at the airport didn't work at all. When I finally got home I fell asleep in the shower and only woke up when my body temperature starting falling from the cold water. Then I slept for 14 hours in a real bed, with real blankets, wearing real clothes.

[nyo_nyo43]

Weekdays I wake up at 6:30. I got to bed at 10:30-11:30 usually.
Weekends I sleep till 9:00.

[Ramona Flowers]

it's 3:30am and i'm still not asleep. Tired but not sleepy -_-

I can tell you know that being on a computer will NOT helpyou in anyway, if you want to get sleep get of the computer.

[Zaru]

I had horrible sleeping patterns during highschool. Went to sleep at 2 AM and woke up at 5:30 AM. You can imagine how tired I was throughout the day and that I had to take short naps after school to be able to work on ANYthing.

I can't bring myself to go to sleep earlier than after midnight, unless a job calls for it, which I had already.

Nowadays I mostly sleep TOO MUCH :apathy

[adee]

I usually survive on 5-6 hours of sleep daily. I need that much though since I exercise daily.
I used to sleep like 9 hours a day till I was 12 and then I started thinking sleep deprivation was a cool thing to do and started staying up a lot. Lasted till I was like 18.

[SP]

I don't have much trouble sleeping. Actually, I tend to fall asleep in really inapporpriate places. :hurr I love sleep though. <3

[Zaru]

I don't have much trouble sleeping. Actually, I tend to fall asleep in really inapporpriate places. :hurr I love sleep though. <3
During train/bus rides and in class, I guess? :sag

[SP]

^ Especially in class. xD I literally can't keep awake. Maybe because they're so boring. :hurr

[GsG]

Sometimes the type of bed you sleep on can make a difference to how well you sleep at night. The back of your body in accordance to your skull, spine, and other bones aren't perfectly flat, so you need something to accommodate for that. A better bed isn't necessary, but it sure does help a lot.

[Zaru]

^ Especially in class. xD I literally can't keep awake. Maybe because they're so boring. :hurr
You should drink more coffee then or sleep more, unless your teachers are fine with you sleeping through their lessons :lmao
Sometimes the type of bed you sleep on can make a difference to how well you sleep at night. The back of your body in accordance to your skull, spine, and other bones aren't perfectly flat, so you need something to accommodate for that. A better bed isn't necessary, but it sure does help a lot.
Oh god yes. My back always hurts if I sleep on flat surfaces.

[Cirus]

You should drink more coffee then or sleep more, unless your teachers are fine with you sleeping through their lessons :lmao

Oh god yes. My back always hurts if I sleep on flat surfaces.

I don't really agree with the coffee drinking thing. Though it will give a boost of energy for a short while, but the person will only crash harder at the end of the day once he/she stops drinking it. The body then will also become accustomed to the coffee, and the person will always feel like they are out of energy unless they have coffee to drink. In my opinion the best answer I can give is to just get a good nights sleep, and take naps when you have the chance.

[Kamishiro Yuki]

I have trouble with sleeping lately :lmao. But at least i get 5 hours of sleep, even though i feel extremly tired -__-

[Auraya]

I am one of those people who needs at least 8 hours sleep or I cannot get through the day without having an argument or falling asleep in a really random place.

Because of that I have a pretty normal sleeping pattern

[Hibari Kyoya]

Uni days i get about 5-6 hours sleep

other times 10-12 :awesome

I've pulled off 2 all nighters in a row and then slept for like 18 hours or so after.

[Cirus]

Uni days i get about 5-6 hours sleep

other times 10-12 :awesome

I've pulled off 2 all nighters in a row and then slept for like 18 hours or so after.
That is actually not good on your body. It harms it more then you posibley know.

The odd fact about sleep is that the human body develops a bank of needing sleep when it does not get enough, but does not bank sleep when you get more then enough. So eventually you will have to find a way to catch up on sleep.

[Kyasurin Yakuto]

I fall asleep easily when I go to bed, thank god. Seriously. I know so many people have problems sleeping. On most days, I will fall asleep within the first 15 minutes of going to bed. I have the odd day where I seriously can't sleep for whatever reason and it's annoying but thankfully it rarely happens.

I usually get my full 8 hours or so too unless I stayed up too late and it's a school day or something.

[Lullaby]

ugh it takes me ages to actually fall asleep
i kinda just lay there for how many hours before i drift off

i usually get enough hours but sometimes i like to do all nighters >: heh

[Yakushi Kabuto]

Unless I'm really tired I take a very long time falling asleep. I just end up thinking about a lot of stupid things. Sometimes having too little sleep makes it so that I do concentrate on things better though...before I crash for the rest of the day. >.>

[Vault]

havent been sleepin much for the last month :jackal

[mrhatnklogs]

i usually get to bed by 12 on week days and at latest 3 on weekends i love your sig Yakushi Kabuto

[Aishiteru]

This is actually kind of cool to mention because, lately, I've been getting 8+ hours of sleep for the past week. It's been awesome. But my eating habits have been failing lately, so I don't feel as much energy. But that's all going to change!

:hurr

During the summer, I would sleep A LOT, but I'd be going to bed at 4 AM at the latest. Other than that, on school nights, I go to bed at 10:30 PM -12:00 AM and wake up at 8:00 AM.

[Idun]

I don't really sleep enough, ever. But it's not because I can't I love sleeping. I just don't take the time to sleep enough. I have so much other things going on xD

[TheYellowFlash10]

My sleep-pattern is usually so fucked up... xD
But lately I have been able to sleep 7 or 8 hours, so I am ok right now : D

[Cochise]

My sleeping pattern is good I think, get the neccessary hours, up early to run (except this morning). Sometimes I let myself stay up a bit late, but my body ends up punishing me for it later so I correct my schedule.

[Spinoza]

Needing 8 hrs sleep everyday is a common misconception.

4-7 hrs is all that is necessary:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2007/sep/25/7-hours-of-sleep-no-more-no-less/

The above link doesn't completely agree with me, but its close enough. (I can't find my original source.)

My sleeping habits generally fluctuate; average is about 7 hrs, but it ranges from about 3-12, yesterday I slept roughly 8 hrs; a decent night; it shortened my lifespan, but oh well.

[Xgamer245]

Sorry if this was already posted but I didn't see it :/.

How important is sleep?
How much sleep is recommended?
Pros?
Cons?

My sleeping schedule is chaotic, it can be from 1-4 am to 6:30 am....
I know that I'm crazy and all but I just can't seem to sleep (mostly due to me using my laptop all the time)
I want to get more sleep and I know the benefits but I can't stop NOT sleeping :/

Any advice?

[martryn]

Sleep longer.

Get a better sleeping schedule.

Try this for a week:
Every four hours take a 20 minute nap. Don't sleep any more or any less. Within the week you're body will learn to go to straight REM. Perfect for little bitches like you who whine about sleep.

I slept for 13 hours today. I'd have slept more, but I had things to do.

[animebutterfly]

Sleep is very good. :)

You really need your sleep be able to work productively weither it's at work or school. Me, I make sure that I turn off my computer to not get tempted cause that was so me staying up all night at times. I decided to become very organized to schedule time to sleep.

[Yakushi Kabuto]

I smiled at the first question. Sleep is as important as food, the body and mind can't function without it. My sleep schedule blows as well, but I make myself stay around in the bed until I get bored enough to fall asleep. Eventually it works and...stop using your laptop all the time. :mad

[Creator]

Sleep is awesome. :X3

Do it when your bored. 2 hours just fly by. :X3

My sleep schedule hasnt been good since i was 10. So its a right mess. I sleep late and get up early, so my body is adapted to it.

The pros is rest. The cons is, if you sleep too much, bed sores. :(

[narutokungames]

i normal y sleep 6 hours a day

[fightoffyourdemons]

I'm never tired so I end up only getting about two hours of sleep a night and maybe one hour during the day if I get really run down. I don't know why I'm like that, I wish I could sleep more but I just can't.
I'm never sick or anything, infact, I'm healthier than most. Which is strange considering how long I've kept this sleep pattern.

[SilverCross]

bah, i can operate on very little or no sleep for a couple days, at least as long as i have something to do.

generally when at school i get anywhere from 4-6 hours of sleep a night, some times i take naps in the after noon if its closer to the lower end....

i dont have a set sleep schedule really, i sleep when im tired, thats about it.

[Xgamer245]

Thanks for the help, I'll try out those methods tomorrow and see how it goes....it's 1 am where I am and I got work tomorrow ;_;.

martryn does that method really work? I'm thinking of actually trying that but I'm a little cautious of it, 20 mins nap every 4 hours O.o?

[Soul Assassin]

Eat complex carbohydrates. This will raise the amount of tryptophan aminos in your blood. More tryptophan = more serotonin production. Serotonin begets melatonin...

Just make sure you're eating a good amount of complex carbohydrates. Your body will do the rest.

[Xgamer245]

In what foods are complex CHOs are in?

[LouDAgreat]

Well, as much as I know sleep is important, my sleeping schedule is super erratic. During school days, on nights with no hw papers, or presentations due the next day, I could go to bed from :12:00am to 3:00am and wake up at 7:45am-8:15am.

When there was a paper due, , I'd go to bed,maybe 5:00am and wake up three hours later, or not go to bed at all. And days like these I'd take mini naps on the ferry or train goin to Manhattan, sleep between classes, or during class. Actually I do that even on a good nights sleep, but I'd rest a lot longer with no good nights sleep.

One time I had no sleep for like 36 hours, that I went to bed at 6:00pm, skipped dinner, and woke up like 4:00pm. I had to force myself to sleep for another 2 hours.

[MueTai]

I have troubles falling asleep and to build on what YK said about lying in bed until you eventually fall asleep, try reading a book. Every night I read in book in bed until I fall asleep, cause it's relaxing and it calms my chaotic mind because I have to focus on the story.

[Jaded Heart]

I would say sleeping is very important, atleast to me it is. Even if I go to bed feeling crappy or, have something on my mind or whatever problem I may have, a good and long night's rest can many times relieve my stress and really do alot of good for me.

Most of the time during the week I get around 8 to 8 and half hours of sleep and on the weekend 9 or more, depending on how late I stay up or to what time I sleep in to.

[Serp]

Oh god, I have one of the most irregular sleeping patterns around :arg

But I love me some sleep :gar on average I get 3.5 hours per night, but make it up with daily naps.

[Auraya]

Sleep is very important

I am one of those people who needs at least 8 hours or I am a bitch for the rest of the day.

I must say for days when you didn't get enough sleep that night, naps are your best friend. I find I can't concentrate when I'm tired so sleep is my best friend :P

Also, turn off your laptop at night and hide it somewhere so you don't see it when you are trying to sleep and get tempted to go back on it

[Quagles]

10hours sleep during weekends, 6 during week days. + I sleep on the bus and before classes start, so adds up to around 7 on weekdays. Not the most healthy schedule. I feel if I don't sleep like 8hrs ill be very tired most of the day and ill try sleeping on the way home 99% of the time too.

Sleep is of course very important :p

[Ramona Flowers]

Oh god, I have one of the most irregular sleeping patterns around :arg

But I love me some sleep :gar on average I get 3.5 hours per night, but make it up with daily naps.

You can never catch up on missed sleep. You might be able to feel less tired, but the effects of having little sleep will stay with you. You should fit yourself into a regular sleeping pattern.

[GsG]

Don't underestimate the importance of sleep. Should you ever in your life stay up for days on end and keep on doing so and ignoring your body's plea to get some sleep, your brain will literally shut down your conscious control over your body. You'll fall down to the ground if you were standing up and you'll go to sleep whether you want to or not.

[Vault]

My sleeping patterns are all messed up

It began with not sleeping for 2 days and then the following week it became 3-5 sleep daily, until now. I sleep around 7 or 8 am and wake up around 4 to 5 pm :facepalm

[ShinigamiBilal]

On average, people sleep 8 hrs a day, this isn;t unhealthy or anything, but if you sleep 6-7hrs a day, you'll live longer, it's a proven fact.

[Kyasurin Yakuto]

Sleep is very important. It's as important as eating.

It's unhealthy to miss out on sleep and it is best to get 8 hours every night if you can....certainly it's not good to get less than 6 for a long period of time.

Obviously all of us end up lacking on sleep at some points but it's best to try to avoid that as much as possible. You are also more alert and get tasks done better if you've had enough sleep.

[Undertaker]

One time I didn`t sleep for 3 days. It was ok. But then at some point I felt like I would die if didn`t take a nap.

Last 5 years I was like fuck sleeping an night :yell

But now I became more sensitive to it. :(

[Petrelli]

The more sleep the better XDD


I read that normal dose of sleep for a person is 6-8 hours. For me that much wasnt ever enough.

[martryn]

martryn does that method really work? I'm thinking of actually trying that but I'm a little cautious of it, 20 mins nap every 4 hours O.o?

It takes about a week for the routine to set in with your body, and yes, after that it works. It'll be tough at first, though, cause the body won't know to go immediately to REM sleep to get it, and you'll go through two or three days of pure hell.

After that, though, when it's time for your nap, you lay down and it hit you immediately. You're asleep, you go straight to REM sleep, your body does whatever it is it needs to do, and then you wake up twenty minutes later good for another set of hours.

The cool thing is it adds six hours to your day you didn't have before. People have trouble finding ways to feel that time. Not me. I've always got something that I can do.