Sleep? Try some medicinal marijuana. And if you grow your own you will get the added benefit of the exercise.
4
It's true we need to sleep 7 to 8 hrs.
The article makes a false assumption that rising early means not getting enough sleep.
The author assumes that people go to bed at midnight?
There are plenty of people, who go to bed early at 9 and wake up around 4.30 and have wonderful productive days
22
The rich bragging to us normals about their bad sleep habits might actually be even duller than the ones who bang on about their exercise routines or being gluten free/dair free/paleo/keto/beto/boopo/boppo. And that's really saying something.
21
What about people on shift work--when the shift changes every week. One week of days; the next week of nights. Don't say, "Get a different job." Is it possible to ever get enough sleep?
5
Gotta laugh. There are no physiological norms about struggling to schedule our lives around arbitrary clock times.
For all of our evolutionary history sunrise was the time to wake up and it was impossible to do anything after sunset except sit around the campfire, unless it was a very moonlit night.
As a single retiree and rural hermit, I enjoy the hours before sunrise and go to sleep when I'm tired.
13
UCSD conducted one of the largest sleep studies and found that we function well on 5 to 6.5 hours of sleep. The study looked at 1.1 million people's sleep patterns over the course of 6 years and the major finding was that sleeping as little as 5 hours per night can be better for you than sleeping 8 hours.
That means going to bed between 10 and 11 and getting up at 4 am still gives you enough sleep.
Maybe those CEOs are on to something?
2
Inane;
I get up at 4:00 am, go to sleep before 8:30 PM. work days.
Don't have to be sleep deprived and be an early riser.
Benjamin Franklin in Poor Richards almanac said. "Early To Bed, early to rise...
Get my reading done and don't do the TV thing.
10
I admit that I read this article quickly and might have missed it ... but the article seemed to overlook the fact that, if you want to get up earlier, you should go to bed earlier. If your goal is a 4:00am wakeup, then be asleep by 8:00pm the previous evening. There you have it: your full eight hours and a fresh new day that hasn't been "breathed on" by anyone else yet.
9
Donald Trump, Steve Harvey, a Klueless Kardashian? If that’s the definition of success, I’ll pass and enjoy a nice sleep each night!
57
I can think of no greater punishment in the afterlife than being awakened at 4:00 am by a loud noise, for eternity. There is no other living thing on Earth that has its sleep disturbed in such a matter.
24
What is with our obsession and media's obsession with what rich folks do in their personal lives?
20
@V
Because it is a sad part of our culture that relates wealth to worthiness
13
If you can't get your job done in 40-50 hours, then you have not built the correct management structure and/or you don't understand your job. If you get up at 4:30 AM, you should be home be 2:30 - 3:00 PM (assuming some travel time). If you cannot do that, something is wrong. And, really, you are just not that special!
23
My favorite part about being self employed is getting the sleep I need. I don't use an alarm and it's the greatest luxury of all. I typically wake up between 7 and 8 am but the last two weeks or so, I've been sleeping til 10. My body and brain obviously need it.
15
I practice what we preach to our medical students: I get up at 4:30 every morning; however, I also get seven hours of sleep per night. i also exercise in the mornings. While I cannot tease out if it is early rising, exercise, or both that provide better focus and energy during the day, there is evidence to support all three. I love rising early so I can read and exercise without interruption from others. I suggest you give it a try; some of our medical students have and they report it's changed their lives.
5
I find all the judgmentalness in these comments rather discouraging. So many people insist that all the successful people who claim to get up early and get by on little sleep must be lying. It seems to me that there really are some people who are both natural larks and who need relatively less sleep, sometimes even very little, and some of them--not all, but some--will be found among the highly successful. It helps for them that our world is, for the most part, structured around work schedules that begin early. Larks have an advantage and night owls a disadvantage.
I also wonder why so many people insist that everyone needs X amount of sleep. Yeah, I know that's what the article claims and that it points out some of the hazards of too little sleep. But what if only a small percentage of the population naturally needs less sleep--does that mean something is wrong with them? And if there are negative consequences to too little sleep, is that something experienced by most of the larger percentage that needs the generally considered optimum amount of sleep but are prevented from getting it while others are fine.
I have to wonder, too, why napping is somehow considered cheating. Studies have shown that naps can restore alertness, enhance performance, and reduce mistakes and accidents. Many famous and successful people were nappers.
4
If you go to sleep at 10pm and wakes up at 4- it's still 6 hours.
If you wake up at 4 and 6 rather 8 hours of sleep and use that 2 hours to slowly get into the groove of things, that's probably better than waking up two hours later and rushing your way to get out the door.
3
Rem sleep is the most valuable and you simply plan for the least distractions.Once adrenaline subsides you must obtain this deep sleep for usually about 4 to six hrs ,without dreaming or having semi concious thoughts.full rest can be achieved within an 8 hr. cycle with continuous REM depth of sleep. Also if necessary supplemental sleep of an hour to two in REM mode will completely refresh so that one may continue in working mode for many more hrs.
3
@Alan Einstoss - Actually, dreaming is characteristic of REM sleep. And only about 20% of sleep for adults is REM.
5
At age 62, I’ve concluded that everyone is different and that doesn’t make for better or worse or richer or poorer people. End of story.
On my end, I generally go to bed at about 11Pm or so and wake at 5-5;30 AM. I feel completely rested and ready to take on the day.
Let’s please stop trying to extrapolate deep meaning from all this.
21
Duke Ellington, arguably the greatest composer in the history of the United States, famously never went to sleep before 4 AM and arose around two in the afternoon. Same goes for arguably our country’s greatest popular singer, Frank Sinatra. The tyranny and sanctimony of the early birds continues unabated, despite the thin gruel of so many of them Trumpeting their own success.
35
The A-Train runs all night but I recommend NOT taking it @ 4AM.
2
The tyranny of the morning person. They think that's the way to rule the world, or at least lord their Puritan morality over others with different body clocks. Left to my own devices I'd go to bed at 4 am. I just feel better at night.
So hurray for Donald, Tim, Jennifer, and David. They are very impressed with themselves. I am not.
40
I wonder if it's equally bad to sleep more than 8 hours. Since I hit my 60s and retired, I can easily sleep 10 hours a night. Good, solid, only get up to pee sleep. I wake up when I feel like it, and go back to sleep if I feel like it. I like it. Is it bad for me? I don't think so else it would not feel so good.
23
Inducing sleep deprivation is the bread & butter of interrogation and mind-control. That is why they want kids exhausted at school— to induct them into the military-industrial-rat race-complex. Sleep-deprived workers are more compliant. Sleep deprived cult-members have less ability to reason.
12
@Ananda to the best of my knowledge, and from personal experience teaching at the college level, no teacher wants to teach exhausted children, adolescents or adults. I do not find sleep deprived students more compliant - I find them more disengaged, sometimes more disruptive, more stressed and unhappy.
19
All these Rich People and Celebrities , Have Assistants and Helpers , of other many titles , that help them function and help them to achieve. So on top of being able to lower their stressors , financially , they also lower them physically , I cannot speak to individuals emotional stressers. Bragging about sleeping less ? To each his own. Sleeping less is no guarantee of success , as far as I can see ,except in maybe the mind !
16
That’s why many expats live overseas our standard of living is considerably higher and our costs are very much lower.
Our full-time live-in maid is paid 300USD a month.
try it, perhaps, in retirement
3
Waking up early is not the same thing as not sleeping enough
18
is there anyone else like me out there? Whenever I get overtired, I become nauseous. I have to get a minimum of six straight hours of solid sleep or I’ll spend the next day stomach flu-level sick.
11
People lie to themselves and then to us.
6
Getting up early is not the same as sleeping an inadequate number of hours. My ideal situation is bed at 9 and wake at 4:30. There is still time to do some Type-A activities while getting enough rest.
5
My profession (surgeon) has always been associated with lack of sleep. I get up at 3:30AM to run (clears my mind and gets my blood moving) and generally hit my rack around 10:00 PM. On call days, I tend to nap in between evening and night cases. In residency, I adapted and adjusted to my sleep pattern which has served me well. I haven't had even a cold in the last 10 years and enjoy vigorous health. I also eat a very sound diet of lean protein and fresh fruits and vegetables. I maintain a very slim body weight too. In short, my sleep needs are set and work well for me. I don't watch the telly and I am not hooked to electronic devices.
9
All this is great advice, but how do you deal with the reality of everyday family life? Teenagers with a midnight curfew keep you up way past your bedtime. Teenagers who break curfew keep you up even later. Making lunches, getting ready for the next day, spending time with your loved ones, cleaning the kitchen, others in the house who stay up later; all these keep regular people up well past the time they should be getting into this perfect quiet place just for sleep. I get up at 5:30 every day to exercise, since otherwise there just isn't time my working-full-time- and parenting-at-night routine. I would sleep great if I didn't have a partner and three teenagers, but how do I sleep well with them?
156
@Saidy Jackson, We changed things in our household for this reason. Teenagers need to sleep, too, and learn good sleep hygiene. There were real consequences in our house for breaking curfew (no car for a week or two, for example), and there was only a midnight curfew on the weekends in the summer, for the older ones (like graduating seniors, and the summer after junior year.) We had a ten p.m. bedtime for the family - at 9:45 the phones had to go in a basket that got put away. This will sound drastic but the kids actually all started to get happier after the initial protests, during which my husband and I had to stick to our guns. As for our own exercise, my husband and I would try to meet at the gym after work twice a week as sort of "our" time - once the kids were old enough, we could do that before dinner. And we exercised on Sat or Sunday. It's a relatively short time of life though it feels so long! But the teenagers really need their sleep and those boundaries around time and phones. Good luck but I promise you it is worth it!
188
I relate completely to your post! Thank you for helping see I’m not alone in this craziness.
13
You announce you’re going to bed. You expect them to respect living with another person and to keep quiet and then you go to bed. Teenager or not they need to respect the people they live with. What’s that midnight curfew? What time do they need to get to bed to get their correct amount of sleep? I can’t imagine it’s midnight...
39
I remember that several years ago The Times ran an obit on a successful businessman who was noted for only needing to sleep 4 hours a night. He died as he was driving back to NYC from his vacation home and fell asleep at the wheel.
Lack of sleep can not only cause diabetes and hypertension but also chronic pain. So maybe many of those people who end up on opioids might not need them if they didn't try to cheat the sandman.
178
What does it say about our society when we scoff at the notion that “Rich people don’t sleep eight hours a day” but then sentence millions of low-income workers to precisely that fate because they're forced to take on two (or more) jobs to keep food on the table?
354
Trump thinks he only needs four hours sleep? That explains a lot. No one does well on that little sleep, I don't care who you are. It's not about when you get up-it's how long and how well you sleep. If you get up at 4 you'd better be in bed at 8 or 9. I have a friend who stays up until 3 or 4 am but sleeps until at least noon, so he still gets his 8 hours. I keep normal hours-asleep by 11, up around 7 or 8 and I protect my schedule as much as possible. The world would be a safer place if everyone got enough sleep.
7
I think the 4 am wake-up braggarts are either lying or going to sleep at 9 pm. If you go to sleep at a normal hour (11 pm- midnight) and wake up at 4 am it means that you have severe jet lag or generalized anxiety disorder- not that you're an A-List captain of industry.
12
Obviously we'd all be a lot better off if Trump reversed his claimed sleep pattern- that is if he slept for 20 hours per day and stayed awake for 4.
68
Rising early does not necessarily mean too little sleep. Remember who said “Early to bed, early to rise . . .”?
5
If you go to sleep at 8pm, then getting up at 4am isn't that big an achievement. Those who think they are really effective on 4 hours of sleep should try 8 and see how their world changes and how much more likable they are.
18
I imagine that there are people, like me, who love to get up early in the morning. We are the ones who took over for the "night owls" on a rotational watch on the savannah many, many years ago. We evolved this way to keep our group safe. Seems pretty simple to me.
4
This article jumped straight from early rising to sleep deprivation. They are not the same. The article doesn't address the differences between larks and night owls. Just because you get up early doesn't mean you're sleep deprived. You may also be going to bed early. The same with the late risers, they may not be getting adequate sleep because they stay up too late.
17
@Anita Yes, that's the assumption. But if we're just talking about people who go to bed at 8:30pm and get up at 4am, who cares? that's the same as going to bed at 11 and getting up at 6:30. I think we are all marveling that these people seem to only sleep 4-5 hours a day. Otherwise, just going to bed early and getting up early isn't that interesting.
3
@Anita It isn't clear but I believe they mean people who go to bed at an average time and wake up early as opposed to going to bed early and rising early. e.g. Tim Cook gets 4 hours a night.
Some of us really are early birds. I get up at 4 am most days, and go to sleep at 9:30. I probably could stand for more sleep, but my body wants all its sleep early. "Sleeping late" for me is still early next to most people (6 or 7 am). And that is how my body clock has always been. I like the early hours of the day as my me time, but I don't get up to do anything special. (Will add that as an observant Jew, I attend morning services every day, and being able to get up in time for those is a good, too.)
4
It's nearly 8a.m. in the morning in New Zealand and the temperature in Christchurch is minus one degrees! Just been all around the house wiping condensation off the windows from boiling the jug and cooking tea last evening. Even have some frost on the inside of the windows! Feeling great - cold not a problem as I eat well and dress sensibly for the cold conditions. Plus have pure wool blankets on my bed and a mohair rug on top of the bed for the cat to sit on.
I'm feeling healthy, no colds or flu living in my not insulated house and think I'm healthier because of it.
You need to eat well and eat healthy foods to stay healthy. If you don't have any financial or psychological added stress in your lives you stay healthy as it's a holistic view on life. Your health is your wealth. Lack of sleep is only one part of what makes people ill. What causes most people not to sleep? Stress or environmental conditions such as noise or not enough blankets on your bed or too many blankets on your bed. So many variables.
2
You do have to wonder if trump's bankruptcies had anything to do with his lack of sleep. I live in a small town and couldn't count the entire town's bankruptcies on one hand yet trump has at least six. Can you think of anyone else that many? Didn't think so.
4
I go to sleep at 9:30 and wake up before dawn. I'm not sure why this article focuses on sleep deprivation. Like several other people who commented, I've been an early riser my whole life. For a long time I thought there was something wrong with me, but I finally figured out in my twenties that I'm not an insomniac. I just operate on a different clock than people who stay up late. I'm retired now, but my schedule is the same as when I worked: I wake up at 4:30 to get to the gym at 6. I walk the dog before I head out. It's a wonderful quiet time in an otherwise noisy neighborhood. I see the moon. I don't have to deal with other dogs (although I live near a river and sometimes have to side-step a skunk or a raccoon). I get my workout done early (and I'm not all alone in the gym). I've been sufficiently successful, I'm not sleep deprived and thank you but there's nothing wrong with me. This article is based on a deficit model, and obviously written by somebody who can't get their butt out of bed.
3
Come on. The obvious answer is drugs. People use a lot of drugs to be this productive and awake. I don't know why we collectively pretend this isn't the case and assume they're just more productive and better than the rest of us. Many of the less sleep/more productive people in grad school I knew used them and so do many other professionals.
As for me, I'm happy with my work output without performance enhancement drugs and getting a good night's sleep. I'll probably never be very wealthy but I'll enjoy the time I spend awake.
26
many years ago when i was working full time, involved in a not for profit theatre company, writing a book, and doing artwork projects, i decided to do a sleep experiment. i had always thought that sleep was a waste of my time, so i started cutting back about an hour a week... no drugs involved at all. for the first few weeks everything went fine, but by the week where i was only getting 4 hours a night things started to slide out of control. i had mild paranoia and hallucinations... things that were small would suddenly look big, or vice versa. i would hear people whispering in the hallway (i was alone) or feel that on the street people were deliberately pushing me, one night when working late in my office i was sure i was seeing things crawling along the floor or looking at me from doorways. i turned off the computer, went home and slept for 10 hours. i do try to slide by with only 7 hours a night but would never try that craziness again.
7
@bronxbee - But you do realize that it's not that way for everyone, right?
The early morning is flat-out the best time of day (sunrise, bird calls, cool, less internal combustion noise, no [usually] junk phone calls, first coffee, etc.). You have to be up to be there.
14
@Kirk Cornwell Shush. It's a secret. If the riff raff catch on it's spoiled.
3
@Robert David South
Just don't bang around too much, I will be asleep for 6 more hours!
4
I kind of hate these articles. They just make me feel like something is wrong with me. It's hard for me to get to sleep before 10pm and my body just starts waking up at 4:30am. I'm probably getting about 6 hours of sleep each night. I love sleep, but I just can't do it. The tone of many of these articles is just admonishing us to, "Sleep more!". It's not that simple for many of us.
I've been much happier just letting my body do what it needs to do, take a nap when I have a day off, and appreciate the beautiful gift of getting up before dawn.
14
I only need 4 hours of sleep a night, but i go to bed at 8 in the morning.
1
As soon as Trump gets back he has one more lawsuit to deal with.
The Panamanian government is suing The Trump Organization
for millions of dollars in back taxes.
That should cause Trump to loose a little more sleep.
9
I never want to go to bed and i never want to wake up. I was born that way. I would bet money I get as much out of my waking hours as anyone and the smugness of early birds is so annoying. I’m fortunate I don’t have to accommodate anyone else’s schedule, like kids. I might have to be an earlier person and then I’d probably be smug about it too
16
Not to get too cynical but.... A certain percentage of self-proclaimed 4 hr sleepers are lying through their teeth, and another chunk of them are using cocaine or amphetamines. I knew one woman who apparently drank 20 diet cokes a day to achieve this exalted status. As for Trump- when has he ever not lied about himself? It is indeed a rare phenomenon for someone to sustainably sleep only 4 hours nightly without naps.
45
Being able to go through life while getting as much sleep as you desire is a much better marker of success.
24
If Trump is an example of what less sleep does to a person, then by all means get more sleep.
31
@Fred Rodgers - I'm not at all sure that you can blame Trump's sleep habits for the disaster that he is. It's possible that there's some relationship between his sleep habits and his behavior but it could go either way. Or there may be no relationship at all.
2
@Annie, I was being somewhat facetious, as I was a little surprised that anyone would use Trump as an example of someone who can get away with hardly sleeping. Are there still any "serious" people who think he is, or has ever been, anything but a complete failure at successfully running a business? When you look in detail at his past dealings, all that comes to my mind is what a train wreck. You could have given the hundreds of millions of dollars his daddy gave him, to any random person on the street, and they would have outperformed "the donald".
7
If the get up at 4 a.m. then what time do they go to bed?
1
I understand Jeff Bezos tries to get 8 hours of sleep each night and you will not find him up at 4:00 a.m. as he is also supposedly a late riser.
7
I need to awake early for my 6 am yoga!!!!!
1
@Rob
Why? It is still yoga at 10 am or 2 pm, is it not?
1
I am operating today on 3 hours of sleep due to work stress resulting from a really uncollaborative team member/direct report (who also happens to be a friend - or was) and fretting all night. Going from 8 to 3 hours is so disruptive and damaging that I can't believe that anyone regularly gets by on 4 hours.
6
No matter what time I get in bed, I wake up about 4:30 to 5. I cannot sleep past that, so I just get up. I wish I could sleep in.
4
On the matter of sleep, I think the best advice is not trying to emulate “the successful and rich people”. I feel the most energetic and happy when I am giving my body what it wants in terms of sleep. It’s usually around 9 hours. I once tried sleeping 4h per night to see what would happen and I ended up really sick after a few weeks. So nope. So sad I won’t become a billionaire, but to me, waking up from a good night sleep is worth all the money in the world.
6
@Sophie very likely the "rich and successful" also have someone to handle all the maintenance work (housecleaning, laundry, shopping, cooking) that keeps one from having a creative life and cuts into your sleep. i never believe anyone who says they do it all and with almost no sleep...
6
To be honest I envy people who can function on a 4h night sleep. My evenings are super short. Come back home from work, cook, eat, then I roughly have two hours before going to bed if I want to have my full night sleep. The 4h sleeper basically enjoys 5h per day of extra wake time compared to me. That’s 1825h per year, the equivalent of... 76 days?! If they get to live to 70 they will have had the equivalent of 14 years of extra wake time... That’s something!
2
Knowing yourself matters. I am able to turn off the alarm clock right now and I get up between 6 -7. It is nice to know that. But the most sensible advice I heard is to get up at the same time, even on the weekend and go to sleep when you are ready. It is easier to gauge this if you turn off the electronics and alcohol/food early.
3
Waking up early (sunrise) is beneficial. Waking up too* early (before sunrise) is detrimental to health. The reason being that our body's hormonal fluctuations favor sleep around sunset and waking up around sunrise (our bodies respond to sunlight, that's why we get sleepy in a dark room).
Waking up before sunrise is a bad idea as the body's circadian rhythm is being thrown out of balance.
1
@Fred
I wake up every morning between 5 and 6. Sometimes, it's raining, so there is no sunrise to wreak havoc on my health. What should I do when that happens? :-)
@Fred - What does one do if they live in a place like Seattle where we go months without seeing a sunrise?
@tom harrison
Or Iceland, in deep winter, or high summer with 2 hours of sun or 2 hours of dark?
One of the things that bothers me every time I read these things is that it comes across like a choice for everyone. There are hundreds of thousands of us that literally can't live without multiple jobs and often they are far away or at really difficult times. Our health is tossed away regularly because we can't pay our bills otherwise. I mean, this is good information to know overall but we live in a society where even people with full time jobs are homeless. Can't this information be used for some kind of... I don't know, good? To protect people? I don't have any idea how, but someone should be able to figure it out.
42
REM sleep, the sleep that is deepest and most essential for feeling rested, doesn’t begin until 4 a.m. or so. If you are depriving yourself of this most beneficial rest, you probably are not at your best.
Everyone is different but in my opinion, no one needs to rise before 6 a.m.
25
@Cecelie Berry I don't know if you're correct but I want to believe you are!!
3
@Cecelie Berry
I find this a bit of a stretch. I have been one of those who rises just about 4am EVERY DAY and have done so for a very long time. I also go to bed quite early and seldom get less than 8 hours of sleep. I would love to be part of a sleep study as I have been this way nearly all of my life - I am 73 years old.
4
@Cecelie Berry
We go through multiple REM cycles during sleep. The deepest cycle would begin at around 4 AM if you sleep at say 10 PM, but if you sleep later the timing of REM would change... You can still experience REM sleep even if you sleep during the day actually (if you've ever woken up from a long nap in the day feeling cranky, it's probably because you were in a deeper stage of sleep).
9
I’m a night owl. I’ve never in 50 years been able to wake up bright and chipper, I’m usually mean whenever I awake. About 20 years ago I stopped napping. Feeling that OMG I've got to get up again just was not worth it.But that decision also made me sleep better. I do get sleepy but not mean I work through it. I’ve napped a few times since that but never more than 20 minutes at a time. That is what has worked for me.
15
The healthiest habit is to awaken at sunrise and go to sleep shortly after sunset.
7
@Discerning and so you go to sleep and wake up a different time every month and sleep more in the winter than in the summer
8
@Discerning - So, around Christmas that would mean getting up around 7:55 a.m. and going to be at 4:20 p.m. around these parts.
9
@Discerning
Is that a moral judgement, or simply your personal habits?
My mileage varies...
2
Rich people don't have to cook, or clean, or take care of their kids while juggling a job that doesn't pay well to cover food, rent, hospital bills, etc.
97
How about we build the economy around this knowledge, because as it stands I don't wake up at 4:30 am b/c I want to, I do it because I have to. None of this means anything to those of us with jobs that provide us with the money and security we need to live but alternatively deprive us of sleep.
15
Dear Adam/NYT,
Stop trying to make yourself feel better by rationalizing that getting more sleep is "ok". If you don't have big goals, and you don't want to maintain a high level of fitness, and you don't want to get as much out of life as possible - that fine by us - keep on sleeping.
You can gather as much research as you want to make yourself feel better! Its great these researcher have been able to support your hypothesis.
In the meantime, the rest of us who know the difference can keep on experiencing the difference. We know its a better way to live, and you don't have to agree. The fact is, we benefit from your belief system. Thank you!
1
Surely how we use the hours we are awake, if we have the luxury of deciding how many that might be, matters more than the quantity? Although we aren't the same as most animals, the apex predetor, the lion, sleeps for around 20 out of 24 hours, because they don't need to exert themselves for more. Perhaps the fact that we debate how long to do something as basic as how long to sleep, hints that we are out of kilter with ourselves and the world in which we live?
6
As a teenager, I and most of my friends considered ourselves night owls, and 3 or 4 AM was not all that unusual (at least 3 nights a week) to go to sleep.
In my early 20s, I trained myself to get up just before 5 AM to meditate, and have been doing so daily for over four decades.
By my 30s, it was clearly a problem, as I was taking too long to fall asleep. I learned a yoga exercise called "61" points and got it down from 1 hour to about 5 minutes.
I've used (and taught) 61 points for about 30 years for insomnia, severe physical pain of all kinds, for quick energizing naps during the day, and for developing lucid dreaming skills.
https://beyondthematrixnow.wordpress.com/61-points/
(no, it's not a commercial site - it just contains the instructions and some music I composed to help with the exercise - if you don't like it that's fine - there's dozens of other free guided 61 points practices on YouTube and numerous other places on the net)
4
@don salmon - I have never had a problem falling asleep. I grow a great nighttime strain of cannabis that I developed over the years and my doctors say its right for me!
Without such a handy herb to assist, my other night time habit is to think of 5 things I am grateful for. Those are the last thoughts I have laying in bed, not the stress of tomorrow or the disappointment of today, simply things I am grateful for.
Even when I was homeless, I could always start out with, "I'm thankful I'm not in Syria right now!".
My other trick is that if I lay in bed more than 15 minutes and I'm still awake, I get back up and do anything rather than stare at the ceiling which is just wasted time. One year, I knit a scarf for a friend:)
2
@tom harrison
Hey Tom, yeah, there’s probably endless ways. Gratitude is not only good for going to sleep, it’s a powerful means of reducing depression, anxiety, and even physical pain and high blood pressure.
Knitting - that’s a great one too! Thanks.
1
These Masters of the Universe get up early and workout, read, email, meditate, etc.....Uh, they must have someone else shopping, feeding the kids, cooking and walking the dog. They are not stressed by driving to work, must have a parking space, pay a cleaning person.....When I wake up early its because I must. I am tired cause I need to drive to work, unload the dishwasher, oh yeah the dog!, etc. All these folks bragging about how little sleep they need. That is really not something you brag about or anyone else cares about. It is not an attribute that garners praise and good will - no one really cares. You are on the right track when people think you look rested, are happy and you are so nice! That is the real goal.
65
Do rich people take more naps than other people?
5
Those who are proud of sleeping 4h a night or who advocate minimal sleep make fools of themselves and should not be taken seriously. As for the present president, his short sleep, if there is any truth in this, abundantly shows in all things he does, which indicate his brain is irrevocably lost.
Every individual should follows her/his own cycle without paying any attention to what others are doing, save for the general guidelines by the medical institutions.
24
It all depends on when you go to bed. Shut the TV off. Shut the computer down and turn off your phone. And slide into bed at 8:30 PM and you will wake ready to go at 4:30 AM.
10
@Oliver
OR how about this: go to sleep when you're sleepy and wake up when your body tells you to.
I'm not going to bed at dusk so I can get up in the dark.
I don't want to. I'm an Owl and have been all of my life.
HOOT!
14
@Oliver - At this time of year, the sun doesn't set till close to 10 p.m. At 8 p.m. its still bright out and I am usually working in the yard and thinking its about time to eat some breakfast.
Come November, I flip and I usually stay up all night and go to bed around 3-4 a.m.
If I get up around 4 a.m., everyone is still sleeping in the building so I have to be quiet, no stores are opened yet to get a jump on errands, and if I'm lucky, the new edition of the Times has hit and on the west coast I can read it. But little goes on at 4 a.m.
2
@Oliver - Sounds like a life full of torture to me.
2
Bob apparently doesnt have young children in his life.
5
Ben Franklin famously slept four hours a night. Then he would sit naked by his window for fifteen minutes, in all weathers. He called it his "air bath."
8
Why ANYONE would listen to anything a moron like Steve Harvey has to say is beyond comprehension.
23
With all do respect, so what. Big deal.
Why is waking up very early in the mornings like around 4 am a litmus test for success, or as something to brag about?
There are many hardworking people who wake up during hours that many others would not — such as workers in the service industry (hotels, restaurants, fast foods), labourers, farmers, nurses, doctors, law enforcement, paramedics, and so on. Many of them are not fairly paid according to the excessively high cost of living.
25
I know several of these 4-hours-of-sleep, high-achieving types. And I often catch them cat-napping between meetings or while their drivers shuttle them to their next appointments. Don't believe any of it.
45
@C Kelly - Sorry, don't get this kind of criticism. Perhaps sleeping only 4 hours and then having regular catnaps during the day is what works for them better than an 8-hour block of sleep.
@Annie Sure, but the problem is it gets presented to the rest of us as if this was in any way some kind of valid general prescription, and leaves out the part about the cat-napping and the driver.
11
My take away- rarely believe what CEOs, celebrities, high-profile achievers and politicians (especially Trump) have to say.
55
What time you wake up doesn't matter if you've gotten enough restorative sleep before you wake up. I get hydrated and hit the gym and/or track between 2 and 4 in the morning at least five times a week. So far, so good for an old-timer in his 60s! In fact, I get a bunch of stuff done early on those mornings and it balances my day nicely (except during the winter months). No bragging here, this routine works for me and I stick with it.
3
@Bob - "...this routine works for me and I stick with it."
That is the key to anything. It works for you and you can stick with it.
1
I think the article misses the point by a large margin. For me, waking up early makes me happy and productive and I do indeed go to bed early so I get enough sleep. Waking up at 4am or getting 4 hours of sleep a night is not a good idea and people who claim to do it are likely bragging or overly competitive. Getting a good night's sleep and waking at 5 or 5:30 is probably a very good thing for people to do and this article implies otherwise.
7
I usually sleep between 5 and 6 hours a night. After that I naturally wake up. I'm not trying to game my body, it's how my body works. I think people who brag about how little sleep they need are just bragging (it could be about anything). If I sleep more than about 7 hours I feel groggy. Different people need different amounts of sleep.
13
Read the first chapter of volume one of Capital by Karl Marx. In a world that has been reduced to the buyers (the capitalists) and the sellers (the working class) of labor power - the ability of the buyer to control the two primary dimensions of that relationship (the duration and intensity of effort) determines the amount of value created by the worker for the benefit of the capitalist.
The labor theory of value (meaning exchange value - as opposed to use value) did not originate with Marx. Marx credits that insight to Aristotle and its subsequent development by the pioneers of British classical economy, Adam Smith and David Ricardo.
Price is not value. It oscillates in the vicinity of value. Price is a value derivative. As Marx explained, the Earth is value's mother and socially necessary labor is the father.
If you wonder where the drive to increase the length of the "productive" working day comes from the pressure originates in the headlong competition to create value in the pursuit of market share, market advantage, and profits.
The system (the capitalist system) is driving humanity and not the other way around. It's now a historically doomed system that creates bad people and not the other way around. Given the related drive to war and environmental degradation in the heedless quest for profit driven by the market imperatives of survive or perish there are multiple, interconnected reasons why people are losing sleep at night. Socialism's the necessary answer.
14
I only get up at 4am to go fishing - and while it is always the best day - i feel so sick and nauseous waking up at that time. no matter what time i went to bed the night before. Always wondered why!
12
I get about 4 hours sleep, am poor, retired, happy, alert and wiser and sharp minded; more so than when I used to get twice the amount of sleep when I didn't live on a noisy highway that has noisy rattling trucks going pass 24 hours a day.
Honestly! Most psychological research is a waste of taxpayers money as you'll always find some people who prove the research wrong.
In my opinion, stress is the killer that breaks down humans health and you have to protect yourself from other people trying to pile all their problems onto you. Get a little bit more selfish and put yourself first. Some people just go out looking for trouble and because they're miserable, they try to transfer all their misery and anger onto you. Antagonists, gossips, and troublemakers are the greatest causes of stress, not lack of sleep.
I also do the spelling bee crossword and get 'amazing' or genius most days but then again it's probably set at a kids level. lol!
10
Oh and I understand a lack of sleep also results in you being awake for too long.
7
If you’re getting 8 hrs of sleep and waking at 4:00am that means you are getting ready to go to bed at what, 7:00pm? Like a child?
26
@C. M. Jones well no, 8pm.
5
@C. M. Jones … "Like a child?" You seem to want readers to infer that going to bed like a child is a bad thing. Why? For most people staying up at night means watching television. Why? I've not seen much on TV that warrants my attention; moreover, I can stream whatever is worth my time whenever I want. No need to stay up late. Eat early. Go to be early. Staying up to watch Carson in so 20th century. : )
7
@C. M. Jones when I was working I got up anywhere between 3:30 and 5:30 - depending on when I had to start. I went to bed well before sunset for most of my career - that meant I was sleeping at 8 p.m. on weekday nights.
When I was working I needed 8-9 hours a night and a nap during the day. Now I need 7 hours a day and a nap in the afternoon.
I never watch late night shows.
2
Maybe it’s the 4 hours of sleep a night that makes our lovely president unable to speak without lying! Aha! I figured it out!
41
I wonder if these sleep specialists and researchers lead normal lives like those of most folks who are affected by work, travel, family and stress.
The way they describe ideal sleep pattern is for folks - born with a silver spoon.
I recently crossed 70 and am finding that my sleep pattern is very different from decades past.
I still sleep very well - and fall asleep fast and deep.
I still have interesting dreams from which I wake up with a start sometimes.
But unlike in younger age - where I could easily sleep on weekends till noon - it's now impossible.
I have always been an early riser as we in the oil patch start early.
But now, I routinely wake up a couple of times during night though fall back sleep - yet can rarely stay in bed past 5:00 am
So, I am not persuaded by all this advice of following rigid sleep patterns.
To be honest - these researchers make it like it is work.
4
@Neil Relax. These scientists haven't researched sleep and related health matters to castigate people (frankly, they have a lot better things to do); they're just talking science. It really is as simple as that.
A little knowledge goes a long way; it helps us to make decisions that are in our power to make, and plan the future. This isn't about silver spoons or other nonsense. These researchers have done all this work to point out both cognitive disorders and health dangers of too little sleep and disrupted circadian rhythms. Silly them; they want people to live better lives and not die too soon. What Narcissists! Imagine trying to help people to live better lives. For shame!
13
Everyone is conflating getting up early with not getting enough sleep. Those things are not the same. And even though the article’s writer gives passing reference to distinguish the two, really, the thrust of the article (and of virtually all the comments) is: you need to get sleep.
No question. We need sleep. But why dump on people that rise early? All my adult life I have gotten up at either 3:30 or 4:00 am. I don’t do it for brownie points. I do it because early morning presents a time window when I can get a lot done. My brain and body are rested and there are no distractions. I go to bed around 8:00 or 8:30; 9:00 at the latest. If something happens and I can’t get to bed on time, then I adjust. But, even on weekends, “sleeping in” for me is sleeping till 5:00. It’s what I do and what I am. I’ve been that way since high school, which was a long time ago. Not bragging. Not suggesting it’s best for everyone. But it’s what works for me.
31
I spent most of the last year getting up at 4:30 AM to practice jazz bass before I started my day as a high school English teacher and a dad. It was the only time I could find where I could put in a solid hour and was not too fried to get anything done. That ended a couple of months ago because I just kept getting sick. Once this school year is done I'll likely go back to early rising in the fall because jazz is not for the faint of heart... and the music isn't going to learn itself. And I'll probably keep going until I can't.
People talk about making sacrifices for their goals. That's what it looks like.
2
"Early to bed, early to rise, makes a [person] healthy, wealthy and wise"
"The early bird gets the worm"
'Late sleepers are lazy'
'Meetings scheduled for 8 AM are fine, but not those scheduled for 6 PM'
'Opening high schools at 7 AM'
These are all examples of 'clock-ism', i.e., the prejudices and biases against people who tend to be 'night owls'.
In addition, they're inaccurate and in some cases counterproductive.
74
When I was new in my career I worked in an environment where it was considered a badge of honor not to sleep. I had no choice but to endure years of sleep deprivation. I still remember the horror of it. Some mornings I had to fling myself to the floor to wake up.
I left that job and since then have made sure I get sufficient sleep. And the people who worked at that old job? Most of them have died in their 60s and 70s, or have had severe illnesses.
These people endured years of misery and consigned themselves to early deaths--just so that they could brag about how hard working they were.
73
@Claire Same here! I was sleeping around 4 hours/night regularly. Not only does it make your brain slower, I started gaining weight rapidly, and honestly I was not emotionally stable. Lots of crying/anxiety/panic attacks. I finally realized this was not how to live and when I started sleeping I started feeling like myself again!
Additionally, I bet if they did statistics on car crashes by people who got too little sleep they'd see that they are disportionately more likely to get in a major accident too. I knew so many coworkers who had major car accidents and totaled their cars and even had major injuries like broken ribs.
10
I have heard That less sleep can predispose you to Alzheimer’s. Sleep is when your body cleans out all of the days detritus out of your brain.
35
the CEO-types humble-bragging is nothing but their overly competitive egos in denial of reality.
its same as iif I bored you with how many mountains I climbed or two times when I got stuck in middle of nowhere in winter and I was lucky to get out in one piece. yea me! look at me! I'm cool and you're not! nobody but family and a very few close friends know these stories. anyone else its b/c they see pics on my wall and want to know the story behind them esp a couple taken when I doubted I'd get out alive and thought they'd find em on my camera afterward.
and yea, like Steve Harvey knows what its like to be rich.
I now realize 7-8 hrs is best for me esp as hard as I work out. now I sleep well, never use an alarm clock, my body consistently wakes me literally within a 15 minute window almost every day, I'm never sick and wonder if the 4 hour sleep I made myself do in college/grad school as I worked 40 hours and took a full load, was permanently detrimental to my long term health. but I'll never know.
7
Once I had the seniority to bid evening shift when working the airlines I stayed there, working 2pm to 11 pm. That is my rhythm. What is so great about being up at 4 am? Do you want a badge for it? Unless you’re a farmer it’s absolutely pointless.
60
I remember when I was in high school, I think it was my freshman or sophomore year, so I would have been around 15 - the homeroom teacher went around the room asking us what time we go to sleep. I was about to say "10:15" when all around me each kid was saying "midnight". I was too embarrassed to tell the truth so I lied and said midnight too. This was 30 years ago but I doubt much has changed. Kids weren't getting enough sleep then, and surely not now.
15
@C
And society still has not caught on: start teen years school day at 9 am, not 7:30. Little kids get up on their own at 6, didya notice???
And if there are a few "larks" among the teens? Great they get to exercise, meditate, house chores!
9
@SmartenUp - absolutely. And the terrible thing for me, regarding my little story - I started to think I was a "loser" for going to bed at 10:15 and decided to start staying up till midnight too - talk about negative peer pressure!
4
A sleep doc diagnosed me with DSPD - delayed sleep-phase disorder. My clock is five hours ahead of the normal person. I’ve been like this since a child, cannot sleep until 4-5 am. I wake up around noon.
Luckily I’m a musician and the hours work for me. I could never have a 9-5 job.
39
@Taxpayer - Why is it called a "disorder"? Simply seems like a variation of normal to me.
8
Waking up early at 4:30 am doesn’t mean you go sleep at midnight. If you wake up at 4:30 am, go to sleep by 10 pm!
I use sleep to be productive.
3
@haroon said No, if you wake up at 4:30am go to sleep at 8:30pm. 6.5 hours is not enough.
4
What's scary is that a number of professions that require excellent thinking skills and reflexes allow or demand that people do them overnight (pilots, ER docs, nuclear power/bomb plants, etc.). I can't see any way around that, but...
11
@truthNo kidding. I fly 747 freighters for a major express cargo company. We constantly shift our schedule all around the clock flying around the world. Typical layover is 24 hr. Go to bed at 0200 tonight and go to work at 0200 tomorrow. Repeat for 12 -14 days.
10
I work afternoons/evenings because I have NEVER been a morning person. Even school was torture as a kid. If I get up before noon I simply can't function. I just walk around in a daze and feel like I haven't slept at all. Yet if I get up in the afternoon, my normal time, I'm bright-eyed and bushy tailed and ready to go. I know a lot of people who are the same. I work with most people who are the same. 4AM? That's when I'm going to bed.
22
Same here. Working days would kill me.
4
Who cares how many hours Steve Harvey or Tim cook sleep? I'd rather be poor and well rested than rich and sleepy.
39
Are we hardwired for this? Is there a gene marker for "you will get up earlier than others"? I wonder. When I retired and let my body tell me when to sleep and when to rise, the autoimmune condition I had for over 10 years went into complete remission. We think we are ok with less sleep and hours dictated by norms, but I think not. Note - I have always been a night owl.
26
@K Shields
Yes, there is a genetic component to circadian rhythms.
1
I wish the schedule-makers of the world would respect two facts: adequate sleep is necessary and some people are "night owls." I have always gotten a burst of energy just when others are settling down. My best and most creative work is usually done after midnight. Yet, I am forced to constantly re-set my inner clock to accommodate the norm. Why? Because, like sleeping fewer than 8 hours, being awake at 4 a.m. and asleep by 8 p.m. is considered virtuous. The more one deviates from this schedule, the more suspect s/he becomes. Not to mention that most employers require an early-morning start time. It is this kind of unquestioned absurdity that holds our entire species back.
49
@♀️ - Maybe we should blame it on Benjamin Franklin who told us way back when that "Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise." Apparently, however, it's a saying that goes back at least to Aristotle: "It is well to be up before daybreak, for such habits contribute to health, wealth, and wisdom."
Unfortunately, I've always been a night owl, so I guess I'll never be any of those things. I can think of few things more depressing than getting up while it's still dark outside. And trying to function in the early morning hours? Almost impossible. Unfortunately, the modern world is not set up to indulge my preferred sleep pattern.
9
I remain incredulous that with all the research that has been.done on the importance of sleep, people still wear their self-imposed sleep deprivation like a badge of honor. These same individuals are also in complete denial about the negative effects they experience because of it. What do you think Trump might be like if he regularly got 8 hours of sleep? OK. Bad example.
35
@Arthur
Bad example? That's the point : )
1
@Deborah Frost I think the implication was that Trump is just irredeemable, sufficient sleep or not!
17
My husband is 70 and worked revolving 12-16 hr shifts for more than 30 years. He is a short sleeper, needing only 4 hours of sleep per night. He is very healthy and at a normal weight. I envy him as he reads after he wakes and can get through half a book or more a night. I'm 69, formerly morbidly obese now at a nomral weight but have high bp and diabetes. I sleep a circadian type sleep schedule falling asleep when the sun goes down and getting up when it rises. This means 6-8 hours a night in the summer but 9-10 or more in winter. Last night I went to sleep at 9pm and woke at 5am. My husband went to sleep at the same time, but woke at 1am . We've adjusted to each other's schedule and, because we are both retired, we don't have to set alarm clocks.
6
I wake up every morning at 4 a.m. I'm 76. Also at 2 a.m.
7
I used to be impressed with this one woman who was very successful and bragged how she was up at four am every day. But once I had to drop off some project at her house and found out she went to bed at 6:30pm.
I would have been more impressed if she went to bed at 11pm
33
These researchers could have saved themselves a lot of time and money -- they should have just taken care of an infant for a few weeks! Any new parent reading this article is probably thinking, "Well duh, I could have told you that."
16
The wealth brought on by success allows these celebrity sparse sleepers to outsource many of life’s regulars tasks and reduce the amount of stress their sleepy brains have to endure. Children are managed by nannies, chauffeurs, and tutors. Maid service clean the homes and do laundry. Cooks prepare the food. Personal drivers and private jets allow them to relax in the back seats (and even nap). Personal assistants and secretaries to follow through on requests and keep them from making sleep deprived mistakes. Vacations at exclusive destinations where all is taken care.
Now compare that with the typical routine of a regular commuting working stiff with a family. We would soon malfunction without a good nights rest.
102
@Peter
Exactly! Reduced stress may make it much easier to fall and stay asleep, thus resulting in more efficient sleep. Additionally, if one can outsources the mundane tasks that are energy suckers-laundry, grocery shopping, cooking, housekeeping etc, that frees up a great deal of time and energy.
16
@Peter also the rich have near total control over their schedules. They can get a bunch of work done early, then spend hours having a nice lunch and hitting the gym or golf course, then work some more if they like. Most of us are expected to arrive at work and stay there being productive with only short meal breaks until the workday is done.
18
I have to wonder why so many people have no greater aspiration than to be rich. From down here among the merely comfortable, it often appears that the rich are miserable and also physically and emotionally ill. Just watch Billions. Are there any characters you would like to trade places with? As for Turnip, he seems to exist on a near constant plane of rage, resentment and insecurity.
38
@Chuck Burton Billions is a TV show that isolates harmful character flaws and presents these flaws in an outrageous manner.
I like the show but take it for what it is - entertainment.
lots of people get up early and never talk about it as anything special.
28
When o go fishing I wake up a 4 am or thereabouts...otherwise will sleep in to 6:30 or so
I am am happy ... maybe not a tech start up ceo, but I’m happy, healthy and successful enough
4
What's missing from this article is any investigation of the widespread use in the tech industry of Modafinil, Adderral and/or other nootropics to work longer hours.
13
I’d rather stay up all night than wake at 4. I am a night owl. My prime work hours are between 4 in the afternoon and midnight. When left to my own devices, I go to bed at 2-3 and wake at 10. The working world is incompatible with this, as is my kids’ school schedule. I wake at 6:15 and go to bed around 10:30-11 because that is when the work is done, the dishes washed, the homework done, and the children to bed. I feel awful most of the time. No energy and sleepy. My work productivity suffers along with my mood.
33
@Heather
Exactly my preference. I work in my art studio at night. Always have. No need to interrupt my work. I work until I am too tired to do more, or I keep reading the engaging book I started when I got home from work.
Sadly, I need to be at work around 8 a.m.
I have a good friend who brags about how early she gets up and feels that "sleeping late" is less virtuous. Yet she goes to bed by 7:30 or 8, when I'm warmed up and working.
16
I was never an early riser. I hate getting up before 7 am. And I am absolutely useless at 4 am. I am not a napper. I can't make myself sleep for 30 minutes in the middle of the day and then wake up. First, I would need to take my contact lenses out and then put them back in. Then I'd need an hour to unwind and then another hour to wind back up. Napping is just a hassle for me. But I was always able to stay up late - since I was a little kid. So, I got my share of not enough sleep through that, and I noticed I always got sick if I did not sleep enough for a couple of weeks. My wife is the opposite, she just wakes up in what for me is the middle of the night and gets up and starts doing things around the house. Then she crashes at 8 pm with a phone in her hands...
8
Yes, loss of sleep is a net minus game. And it is especially dangerous for people with bipolar disorder. Disruption of circadian rhythm is associated with loss of mood regulation at the gene level, leading to mania followed by depression.
4
I woke up at 5am every day for a period when I had two kids under 2 and was finishing a dissertation while working full time as well. It lasted about 8 months. During that time I was literally passing out by 9:30pm every night. So I'm not sure how anyone can really wake at those hours for a sustained time without going to bed very early, and not feel awful every day.
19
I have five kids, ranging in age from 11 to 20. All five are always at the top of their classes academically and regularly win all sorts of behavior awards at their schools. Whenever people ask what our parenting secret is, I always say SLEEP! From the time they were tiny, we have put a very structured sleep schedule at the top of the priority list. (And yes, I recognize that we are lucky to be in a position where we have regular job schedules, etc. that allows us to do this). If a certain activity would require late nights, we did not do it. I really believe that this has had a huge impact on our family's development and happiness. (And yes, now that the oldest is away at college-- he regularly jokes about all those years of not knowing about the "real world" where everyone stays up to all hours of the night).
45
My brother a combat veteran in the Korean war campaign after his discharge from the army slept 4 hours a night and did well on that regimen.
His son works in the motion picture tv production business where the first shoot is at 6 am ,and inherited the need from his dad for four hours of sleep at night or during the day.
For me I awake at 4 am ,missing my wife so strongly after putting her in a nursing home as I could no longer care for her where now everyday is like a funeral w/o a body as I miss her so by my side the loneliness unbearable as only one going through this can know.
23
@Carlyle T.
Sorry to hear that. You should look into NYC's senior home sharing program if you don't want to live alone. There's also many public events around that you can easily search if you're feeling lonely. Wish you well.
3
@Carlyle T.
Go over to that nursing home whenever you can and snuggle with her. She will love it and benefit as much as you will.
4
@Fred
I am not lonely as a person, I have many friends and
family I am lonely because my best friend is away.
I work as an artist since 1953 so art becomes absorbing.
I am at the nursing home everyday to make sure she gets the best care ,the staff like me as I can change her diapers ,take her around the unit and
keep her engaged as much as possible in life and away from the TV.
I have heard from other couples where one is mentally compromised due to disease (in my case Parkinson's) that at a point where they are so disabled it is like being married to a corpse ,sad as this may be and sort of cold ,I find that to be true.
The person is a shell of a former self.
4
If I go to bed at 10:30 pm I can't stay awake past 4, but I crash badly every day at 10:30 pm. I think my body has created a routine.
1
I recognize only one 4 o'clock each day, and this isnt it. Never seems to have gotten in the way of my career success.
Is it possible that all the 4am bragging is, gasp, just social media posturing? Perish the thought!
92
There are a lot of successful people who get up at a normal time and get a full night’s sleep, or close to it. We only hear about the ones who don’t, because they’re the only ones who tell us about it.
Like fasting and “cleansing” and other medically unsound behaviors, sleep deprivation is not a good idea, no matter which celebrity claims it works for them. We should listen to doctors and researchers and data, not celebrity anecdotes.
32
@Ian
Actually, controlled fasting under medical supervision has extensive research showing significant benefits (individuals who research the valid research carefully and are very cautious as well as attentive to the physiological effects have been shown to benefit as well).
But if you're talking about the various bizarre assortment of fasting fads, then I agree with your assessment (also agree regarding cleansing and sleep deprivation).
2
"if you’re not wired for rising at the hour of the wolf, and most of us aren’t, according to many sleep specialists, messing with that normal rhythm is still detrimental. "
No cite for this claim. National Sleep Foundation suggests that we can change circadian rhythms to suit our schedule, contradicting idea that we are "wired". Very sloppy contrarian journalism here https://www.sleepfoundation.org/articles/can-you-change-your-circadian-rhythm
1
I fell asleep in the middle of reading the article....
4
@Robert Perez
my hero !
1
Real success and happiness is getting up whenever you want to.
266
Most successful people have to be good managers of time. That is, they do what is important first and if they run out of time before taking on a task it probably isn't important!
Tim Cook and other CEOs have long days and they may get up early to have some time for themselves to work out, read, or email friends/relatives. IMHO we all need adequate sleep but that will vary by person. My whole life I have gone to bed around 11 pm and wake up ready to go 6ish each morning. When I had projects at work, I would rise at 4-5 am and put intense hours into the job before heading to the university. And, yes, I do take a 30 minute power nap every afternoon!
Perhaps a general rule is that successful people get enough, but not too much, sleep. That said, I return to my original statement: time management is the key!
42
I have always been an early riser, and get up most days at 5.00. I am usually awake before the alarm goes off. I love the early morning; I have a big breakfast and enjoy the newspaper, and get on the train at 6.15 to go to work. Of course, I go to bed at about 8.30, but all I am missing is idiocy on the TV.
251
@Sally How do you know what you're missing, if you're asleep?
20
@js Sally knows what she is missing (as do I) from overhearing all the inane conversations at work in the morning about whatever dreck was on TV the previous night.
38
@js It is an amazing new technology called a recorder. You can even capture 2 shows that are on at the same time.
19
My 18 year old cat wakes me up between 4:30 and 5:00 a.m. I implored him to read this article. He refused. Any advice?
189
@susan
Ha! Thank you for the laugh.
Maybe you should tell him, gently, that this is the 'hour of the wolf' according to the article. Maybe that will give him something to think about (or dream on).
27
@susan Feed your cat @ 10 pm, or right before you go to bed, and he should sleep til 6:30. That’s what I do with mine (4 small meals a day as her stomach gets upset on 2 large meals a day). Give it a try, your sleep is worth it!
9
@susan,
I concur with Coco. 13 years ago I adopted two 4-month-old littermate rescues and one would wake me up every morning at 5 am because he was hungry. I tried shutting the door at night but he dug a big chunk out trying to get in at 5 am. Someone suggested breaking up the meals into three times a day and feeding the last one right before bed. It worked and still does! No more waking me up early. Of course, cats will do whatever they want but it is indeed worth a try. It was such a relief to get my sleep back.
21
That Trump (supposedly) sleeps only 4 hours a night explains a lot.
286
@MDF That's a good one! I actually laughed out loud when I read it!
8
How exactly does the hideous drawing at the top add in any way to the article's contents??
Or is it supposed to represent a nightmare? Yuck.
108
I love these executive profiles from NYT or WSJ or FT where they are bragging about waking up at 4 am, reading 5 newspapers and then working out before getting to their office while mere plebeians dribble in from dropping their kids off and battling a commute barely eating breakfast or applying make up.
The reality is, these executives don’t get up that early all the time or do all the things they say - they may do it 1 day a week, then life gets in the way
It’s a myth and journalism should stop asking or reporting on it - it just serves to make us feel bad about being normal and comparing ourself to these psychopaths
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LOL. Totally agree. Read Chris Bailey for his take on productivity and honoring your metabolism.
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@DMB there really is a small percentage of the population that can do just fine on 4-5 hours of sleep. I would not be surprised if they are over-represented in the executive class.
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Preach it!
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FEWER “than six /seven hours sleep a night,” not “less.
NYT, how many hours of sleep does the editor of “Self-Care” get?
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@Robin Cunningham Wouldn't it actually be "less" given that time isn't a discrete quantity? To me "fewer" would imply that you can only get 5 or 6 or 7 hours on the dot, when in fact you could sleep for any fraction of time in between...
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@Robin Cunningham
Is this even right?
Isn't the number of hours of sleep really a continuous quantity?
Would you say "fewer than six and a half hours sleep", rather than "less than six and a half hours sleep"?
@Hallie
The word "fewer" is used for countable items, and hours are countable; that's esp. true in this article -- 4 hours? 5? 8?
The word "less" is used for a "mass amount."
Cf. https://www.dictionary.com/e/fewer-vs-less/
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I've known about the sleep deprivation / overweight connection since working in the 80s in a field requiring work-shift changes, exhausting physical work, land inadequate pay (hence double shifts or second jobs). Most of my colleagues were overweight. They weren't lacking self -control, as so many suppose - they were exhausted and trying to get more energy.
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With my daughter's early morning start for high school, I've started getting to the gym between 6 and 6:30 every morning. Waking up early isn't as painful as it used to be. Exercising right after I wake up really helps, because if I don't, I drag for the whole day. I am in bed by 8 most nights and on weekends I try to get a nap in. However, once my body got used to early morning workouts and daily exercise, it's become routine and I have to do it every day.
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@Gigismum
wow ! I suffered through nasty " dual sessions " in high school as class size outgrew the building . I remember getting up and out , my parents still asleep in their room.
of course do what you want but Gigi is not in 2nd grade .
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@thostageo when she was in grade & elementary school, she had a much later start time. This year, however, changed everything. I never thought I'd be getting up at 5 on a regular basis, but it's a habit now. Early to bed is one key to success. Also, just me and my daughter in the house helps, too.
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I once read an article in which the author stated that bragging about going without sleep was like bragging about doing without air.
Good sleep is necessary for emotional stability and bodily health. Some people may naturally get by on four hours a night, but most of us need more.
Some people are natural early birds and can't sleep past 4:00 or 5:00, but they are in bed by 9:00PM. I suspect that they're the ones who schedule 7:00AM breakfast meetings for the rest of us--or perhaps as a means of tormenting those of us who are natural night owls.
Everyone who has ever been around small children knows that they get whiny and crabby when they're tired. Adults are more controlled, but an irritable adult may be sleep-deprived, not overworked or stressed out from family problems.
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@Pdxtran Oof. The dreaded 7am breakfast meeting. As a night owl, I've always wanted my revenge: a 9pm pub meeting, where we talk business with the din of the crowd around us and the blanket of night above. See how easily you get up at 4am when you're forced to do those once or twice a week...
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Exactly. I have done more than just fine in my life and have been a night owl my entire existence. I have often proposed to the sanctimonious early birds that we have a meeting at 11 PM or midnight. Somehow they never seem to go for it. All the interesting stuff happens after dark.
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I wake up early 0400-0500 since after 20+ years of active duty, my body clock is pretty much permanently set with that as the default wake up time, alarm clock or not. I do go to bed around 9 PM.
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I'm in bed by 8-8:30, up at four every day. That's how my body works. I fall right to sleep and wake naturally. Cheers!
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@relsek8
Im an artist /musician. At 8pm I'm getting stoned, getting ready to play or see great music, write a song, or a sonnet to a beautiful woman. I see the moon a lot. Occasionally have someone over for late night tea and poetic talk of the universe.
All of this continues to 2-4 a.m. nightly.
I wake up at 11 a.m.
I ain't rich and don't want to be.
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@relsesek8
Im an artist /musician. At 8pm I'm getting stoned, getting ready to play or see great music, write a song, or a sonnet to a beautiful woman.
All of this continues to 2-4 pm nightly.
I wake up at 11.
I ain't rich and don't want to be.
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@Ignatius J. Reilly
except for the sonnet , I am on your team , bro
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I get up (Without an Alarm Clock) at 0400-0430 seven days a week. I do go to bed between 2000-2030.
The period between the time I wake up and the time I have to start getting ready to go to work (0700) is my favorite time of the day.
Calm, peaceful, relaxing. Only sound out there are the birds singing.
It has been this way for decades and I still love it.
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More silliness about sleep. The author of the piece can't seem to grasp the fact that you can sleep for only four hours a night and still get eight hours of sleep each day.
There's this thing called a "nap." Usually about 30-45 minutes long, but they can be longer and naps can be repeated at nearly any time of the day.
I might suggest that people mentioned take naps, but then that would spoil the thesis...
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@Kerry that was mentioned in the article: “Thomas Edison used to say the same thing: Four hours are good enough for me. What he left out of the picture is he was a pretty prolific napper as well.”
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@Kerry
Most workplaces don't allow napping on the job.
About ten years ago I proposed a theory I cheerfully described as "crackpot" to my primary care physician: The apparent explosion of Alzheimer's is related to epidemic sleep deprivation. He thought for a moment, and said, "That may not be so crackpot."
More and more evidence suggests that long-term sleep deprivation may be a contributing factor to age related dementias, in particular Alzheimer's. I have been getting at least 7 hours a night, sometimes 8. (I usually wake up after 7 and some, and hope to extend the some.) I suggest strongly that if you have a parent or other family member who had Alzheimer's, as I have, you try to increase your sleep. May not help, but sure can't hurt.
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Sleep is a struggle for me. Then, I moved to Colorado. I tried an edible and slept so deeply. I was refreshed and raring to go the next morning. It happens every night and I wake up ready for the day. I recommend others give it a try. I love to sleep!
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@EJW What do you mean by an "edible?"
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@Dave B
Cannabis, probably.
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An "edible" is shorthand for a something one can eat, such as brownies, with cannabis added.
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Missing fact...when do they go to sleep?
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@Powderchords
My wife has to get up at 4 every day; (can you say "shift work") but at 8pm she's out like a light. She also shops, cleans, cooks, and does laundry. She ain't rich, but deserves to be.
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@Tom From
Why not help her with that work load?
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@Powderchords
4 PM
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