How many hours of sleep do you get per 24 hours, on average?

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AuthorTopic: How many hours of sleep do you get per 24 hours, on average?
Triad Mage
Member # 7
Profile Homepage #25
quote:
Originally written by Thuryl:

Since it was an official world record attempt, I'm not entirely sure he would have been allowed caffeine, and certainly not anything stronger. There's an encyclopaedia at my university's biomedical library that gave a great rundown of the record attempt, including details of the various methods he used to stay awake, but I won't have access to it until I go back to uni in a couple of weeks. If anyone else happens to have a copy of the Encyclopedia of Sleep and Dreaming, take a look at the entry on sleep deprivation for me.
Astoundingly, he did not suffer from hallucinations or psychotic symptoms. And he was only a high-schooler!

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Posts: 9436 | Registered: Wednesday, September 19 2001 07:00
Agent
Member # 5814
Profile #26
I get about ten hours, then make a desperate rush to recover the lost time without disrupting any other part of my day. It doesn't work.

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Posts: 1115 | Registered: Sunday, May 15 2005 07:00
Lifecrafter
Member # 4682
Profile #27
One or less. I don't use caffeine, I just don't get tired normally. Usually I only go to sleep out of boredom.

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Posts: 834 | Registered: Thursday, July 8 2004 07:00
Infiltrator
Member # 5806
Profile Homepage #28
On school days I sleep 9 hours, 10 in the week-end and only 7-8 on summer holidays due to the screaming magpies just outside my window. I feel like shooting them in the morning but in the meanwhile I managed to save a little magpie-baby from my cat, double-moral in other words.

Alorael, do you mind if I borrow your sniper rifle so I can kill a couple of magpies and then shoot the cat to prevent it from eating the cadavers?

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Posts: 437 | Registered: Friday, May 13 2005 07:00
Law Bringer
Member # 335
Profile Homepage #29
If I get less than 6 hours of sleep, I have no trouble waking up but tend to have some trouble in the afternoon. By the evening I'm fine again. If I get more than 6 hours of sleep, I have a great deal of trouble waking up but no trouble at all once I'm actually ambulatory.

No matter how much sleep I have or haven't gotten, I always have a great deal of trouble falling asleep. I begrudge myself the wasted hours of not sleeping and not doing anything either.

—Alorael, who usually gets between five and seven hours of sleep per night. He tries to alternate, more or less, because too many days with only five hours become very unpleasant.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Master
Member # 1046
Profile Homepage #30
Usually 6 to 10, but I need at least 3 hours to function.

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Posts: 3323 | Registered: Thursday, April 25 2002 07:00
Agent
Member # 2820
Profile #31
When I have to get up at 7:00am, I usually go to bed at 1:00am. That would be 6 hours of sleep, and I try to make up for the slightly low amount of sleep on the weekends. Unfortunately, I go to bed much later on Friday and Saturday because there are much fewer restrictions on the time when I wake up the next day, and I put myself to sleep at around 3:00am. I usually have to do things by 10:00am on any given day, so I then only get 7 hours of unsound sleep.

On vacations when I travel, I occasionally have difficulty sleeping because the environments are always foreign and the activities of the day are more exciting than those of everyday life. I can rest at home, so I pack many activities into vacations, and therefore I still do not get much sleep then.

Seriously, it is not a good habit to have less sleep than necessary for your body to easily move out of bed. That type of cramping or unwillingness to move usually means that your body needs more rest. Even if the brain is alert, the needs of the bodily muscles are still independent of that.

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-Garrison
Posts: 1415 | Registered: Thursday, March 27 2003 08:00
Apprentice
Member # 4119
Profile #32
quote:
I recall a story about a 63 year-old Ukrainian who hasn't slept in 20 years.
Aaaah, the Ukrainian tabloids hey, can never trust them.

It is documented medical fact, that total sleep deprevation will result in death, quicker than and just as surely as starvation.

However it is perfectable possible to sleep without having any recollection of having done so, just as some people 'never dream', although everyone does.

[ Wednesday, July 13, 2005 17:14: Message edited by: Eldritch_Cadillac ]
Posts: 23 | Registered: Thursday, March 18 2004 08:00
Mongolian Barbeque
Member # 1528
Profile #33
I usually get ten hours. That seems to be my body's natural requirement. Maybe I'm part feline.

Over four years ago I had an onset of several health problems, one of which was extreme difficulty in falling asleep. Nasty. Very, very nasty. Especially when you're at college and it goes untreated for, like, four months. For most of that time I was getting maybe 2-3 hours of sleep per night. While that may have been fine for some of you "Hey, yeah, I slept last week" Tipp Tucker weirdos, I need at least 8 to function at all. So this was like being run over by a truck every night for four months. Pure Oucharama® in Technicolor®.

Fortunately I eventually received treatment for this from a sleep specialist, and am still on the medication since I still have severe difficulty in getting to sleep without it. It's not a sleeping pill, but apparently supplies a chemical that the brain needs to fall asleep that my body isn't producing in sufficient quantities anymore. I don't know why it happened or what it is—it's all pretty strange, and my doctor had heard of only a handful of cases like mine. I've also started experiencing sleep paralysis since the onset of my sleeping difficulties, which is another huge boatload of no fun, I can tell you.

So with problems like these, I treasure every golden moment of sweet slumber that comes my way and have difficulty understanding how some people can willfully deprive themselves of sleep on a regular basis.

[ Wednesday, July 13, 2005 18:05: Message edited by: Icshi ]

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Posts: 907 | Registered: Monday, July 15 2002 07:00
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Member # 869
Profile Homepage #34
quote:
Originally written by Eldritch_Cadillac:

It is documented medical fact, that total sleep deprevation will result in death, quicker than and just as surely as starvation.
Can you actually find me a case written up in a reputable medical journal of a human who's died as a direct result of prolonged sleep deprivation? It's well-known that you can kill rats by sleep deprivation, but as far as I know nobody's ever proven the point in humans. A PubMed search didn't turn up anything particularly informative.

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Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
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In college, with the help of some fast, I managed to stay awake from Friday AM until Wed PM. That of course was when fast was acceptable and coke was frowned upon. I did miserably on the test I was studying for, and fell asleep on a plane. I knew that staying awake for that long was an error when it took the flight crew so long to wake me that the cleaning crew was already done with everything but my row.

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Posts: 4114 | Registered: Monday, April 25 2005 07:00
Nuke and Pave
Member # 24
Profile Homepage #36
I usually need 8 hours of sleep. It doesn't matter whether it's from 10pm to 6am or from 5am to 1pm as long as I get my 8 hours. (Although 5am to 1 pm extreme might not be quite as restful.)

However, during the workweek I usually get between 5 and 7 hours. (Hopefully closer to 7.) Since it's 12:30 now and I am not even close to being asleep, it will probably be about 6 hours tonight.

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Posts: 2649 | Registered: Wednesday, October 3 2001 07:00
Shaper
Member # 3442
Profile Homepage #37
quote:
Originally written by Icshi:

It's not a sleeping pill, but apparently supplies a chemical that the brain needs to fall asleep that my body isn't producing in sufficient quantities anymore.
I think you're talking about Melatonin... I might be wrong though.

We've just finished the sleep module of our A level Psychology course, and the longest someone has ever gone without sleep was around 11 days. After that, "mild hallucinations and slight paranoid tendancies" were seen to exist. After a deep REM session, lasting 6 hours, the guy was fine.

That's pretty impressive- after 11 days, he could still do mental and physical tasks without much difference from somebody who slept. The only real noticeable problem was that he sometimes lost his train of thought when speaking. So, for instance, he might stop mid-sentance.

I've read a lot of books on the matter - a couple of years ago when it first started I was quite worried, and so I tried to learn all I could about it. It seems that as long as I have enough SWS (slow wave sleep) and REM, I'll be okay. And I seem to have enough for my requirements. Psychologists will know of experiments that try to prove we need REM and/or sleep (There's a flowerpot one, with a cat that I fail to remember the name of...), but in the end, there was a major confounding variable - stress. There is no hard eveidence of anyone ever dying due to a lack of sleep.

And, somebody mentioned lucid dreams are bad. Well, Native Americans trained themselves to have them, believeing that the dream world was inhabited by spirits. I won't pretend I know more than that, but if it can be taught, then surely it is not a psychological abnormality...

And, Thuryl, Ash Lael, I'm pretty sure I don't have any identifiable brain anomalies!

[ Wednesday, July 13, 2005 23:27: Message edited by: SupaNik ]

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Posts: 2864 | Registered: Monday, September 8 2003 07:00
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Profile Homepage #38
Sounds about right. Most of the research I've seen indicates that total sleep deprivation causes a steady loss of functioning at first, but after the first couple of days people generally adapt and improve to levels of functioning that are almost normal. (Of course, the same pattern is seen in long-term starvation, so it doesn't prove that you wouldn't do yourself serious harm if you went completely without any sleep at all for long enough, but it's still interesting.)

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Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
Warrior
Member # 5935
Profile #39
Most days I get around 6 hours a night. When I do try to take a nap, I usually wake up sweating with a headache (even a 10 minute nap does this). Thus, I rarely take naps...
Posts: 69 | Registered: Friday, June 10 2005 07:00
Law Bringer
Member # 2984
Profile Homepage #40
The most stressful times of my life (and the ones with the least sleep) are usually marked by extremely vivid dreams that I can remember in clear detail after waking. It's a very fascinating experience - once I've tried sleep deprivation simply to see if I could get interesting dreams. Unfortunately, while it worked, sort of, I was in a very bad shape at the end of the week.

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Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00
Law Bringer
Member # 335
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The difference between sleep deprivation and starvation is that enough time without sleep and you'll just start dozing. You need either a very special constitution or helpful pokers to stay awake, or so I would guess.

—Alorael, who will now ruminate on the proven longevity benefits of near-starvation and consider what similar effects near-sleep-deprivation might have.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Master
Member # 4614
Profile Homepage #42
If I go to bed and wake up like I'm supposed to on school days, I'll get 9 hours of sleep, from about 9:30 to 6:30. Weekends and sleep-in days will go on average from 11 or so until 8:30. So that's still over 9.

Anyway, I voted 9. I'm not particularly fond of feeling tired constantly, so I try to stay caught up on sleep, especially since I hardly ever drink caffeine.

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Posts: 3360 | Registered: Friday, June 25 2004 07:00
Agent
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Profile #43
Even with very little sleep, I can function pretty normally. But there are just some activities that require an alert and exacting mind. In particular, playing basketball without sleep, or any sport, will be embarrassing and can put you at risk for accidents. Most actions will just take much more time to do.

I do not think that sleep deprivation will kill a person because I doubt that the vital autonomic functions of the brain need sleep to function. All the same, it cannot be healthy to go without sleep. If practically every mammal and many other vertebrates have to sleep, there must be a reason for it. Can you imagine how much more we could have accomplished as a race if we did not need to become dormant for a third of our lives? Albeit that a person is capable of less work during the night, I can only dream of how much a brilliant mind can discover if it was able to think practically constantly.

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-Garrison
Posts: 1415 | Registered: Thursday, March 27 2003 08:00
...b10010b...
Member # 869
Profile Homepage #44
quote:
Originally written by Garrison:

I do not think that sleep deprivation will kill a person because I doubt that the vital autonomic functions of the brain need sleep to function.
Well, when you deprive rats of sleep, they lose the ability to regulate their body temperature and develop hypothermia, which is what kills them. Temperature regulation is easier in larger mammals such as humans, so it's at least plausible that a human could survive total sleep deprivation indefinitely.

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Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
Mongolian Barbeque
Member # 1528
Profile #45
quote:
Originally written by Gummy Wyrm:

The difference between sleep deprivation and starvation is that enough time without sleep and you'll just start dozing.
That guy in Treasure of the Sierra Madre tried to stay awake to keep the crazy greedy guy from killing him in his sleep as they traveled into town, but eventually he couldn't hold off sleep any more and it overcame him.

Thud. He go sleepy-bye. His body knew it wasn't getting enough sleep, so it did a forced shut-down. Sleep deprivation problem solved.

[ Thursday, July 14, 2005 17:54: Message edited by: Icshi ]

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Posts: 907 | Registered: Monday, July 15 2002 07:00
Master
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Even though, many of us would prefer to play basketball to our full ability whenever we want. Honestly, what do these people who stay up all night all the time do during the dark hours? I s'pose checking message boards is excusable, but watching TV is likely less mind-stimluating than dreaming.

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Posts: 3360 | Registered: Friday, June 25 2004 07:00
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As I age it seems I need more sleep to sustain the level of activity to which I've become accustomed. I left home at 3am on Tuesday to go ocean fishing, which meant no sleep Monday night as I tend to sleep 8-9 hours at a stretch. This mean I stayed awake from 9am Monday until midnite Tuesday. According to reliable sources, I was slightly incoherent Tuesday night while watching the baseball game (all-star.) But after 9 hours of sleep I was back to normal on Wednesday. Plenty of sleep deficit in my life, but it seems that as long as I get in a good night, I am ready once again to play.

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Posts: 4114 | Registered: Monday, April 25 2005 07:00
Shaper
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10 hours.

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Polaris
Posts: 2396 | Registered: Saturday, January 29 2005 08:00
Shaper
Member # 3442
Profile Homepage #49
When not sleeping in the early hours, I listen to music, compose songs, go for long walks and occasionally watch a movie. I also play computer games and talk on the phone to my insomniac friend.

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Thus endeth this post.
Posts: 2864 | Registered: Monday, September 8 2003 07:00

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