Poll

How many hours do you sleep, most nights?

8+
10 (11.5%)
7+
28 (32.2%)
6+
30 (34.5%)
5+
15 (17.2%)
4+
3 (3.4%)
Under 4
1 (1.1%)

Total Members Voted: 82

Voting closed: 30 June, 2014, 02:39:24 pm

Author Topic: A poll about sleeping hours  (Read 3376 times)

A poll about sleeping hours
« on: 20 June, 2014, 02:39:24 pm »
Reading articles about lack of sleep made me wonder. How much sleep (realistically) do most of us get?

I don't mean the weekend night where you catch up, but the normal working week nights.
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hellymedic

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Re: A poll about sleeping hours
« Reply #1 on: 20 June, 2014, 02:42:34 pm »
There's a difference between the hours spent in bed and sleep.

I'm happy with anything over 5½ hours but partner seems to need, and usually get, 3 hours more than I do.

Re: A poll about sleeping hours
« Reply #2 on: 20 June, 2014, 02:44:49 pm »
There's a difference between the hours spent in bed and sleep.
Um yes - I mean actual sleep.

I try to be in bed by midnight, but due to noise from night-owls in my household seldom actually get to sleep before 12:30 and commonly not until 1am. Unfortunately my body clock always wakes me about 6am.
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Kim

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Re: A poll about sleeping hours
« Reply #3 on: 20 June, 2014, 03:33:49 pm »
Why stop at 8?

I function best with 8-10 hours of sleep (which usually means about 12 hours in bed, though less so now I'm not being woken by my bladder every couple of hours).  I usually get by with a few nights of 6 or so, but have to make up the deficit at some point, otherwise my brain stops working properly.  Nights with no sleep (either deliberately, or due to illness/insomnia) are doable, but I'll be unsafe around the 10am lull, and will need to catch up the following night.

I'm finding it harder as I get older.  Unless actually exhausted, my body still doesn't want to sleep until at least 1am (and going to bed earlier just means I thrash around, get less comfortable and fall asleep later), but has decided that being awake at 6am is a good idea.  I either spend a couple of hours reading to get through it and go back to sleep for a bit, or get up and spend the rest of the morning in a zombie stupor - depending on whether physical presence or mental performance is more important for the task in hand.

It's harder in the summer.  I try to be as nocturnal as possible to avoid the morning pollen peak, but waking up at 6am and having the change-in-blood-pressure sneezing fit and optional nosebleed, then the east-facing bedroom getting stupidly hot isn't helpful with that.


Barakta needs more sleep than I do, which isn't surprising given that she had the additional demands of dodgy balance and intense concentration to hear.  She'll not infrequently come home and crash out for a few hours, and spends most of her days off sleeping until the afternoon.

Re: A poll about sleeping hours
« Reply #4 on: 20 June, 2014, 03:36:49 pm »
Having now retired I am amazed to find myself sleeping like a log for 8 hours each night. That was most certainly not the case when working. (Well known phenomena apparently).
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Re: A poll about sleeping hours
« Reply #5 on: 20 June, 2014, 03:41:19 pm »
Kim, you are a teenager!
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T42

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Re: A poll about sleeping hours
« Reply #6 on: 20 June, 2014, 03:42:32 pm »
... and how many do you sleep most afternoons? ;)
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Pancho

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Re: A poll about sleeping hours
« Reply #7 on: 20 June, 2014, 03:51:58 pm »
... and how many do you sleep most afternoons? ;)

Afraid not "most". I can claim "occasional". Just make it a long lunch and go back to the office around three-ish.

Re: A poll about sleeping hours
« Reply #8 on: 20 June, 2014, 04:01:35 pm »
... and how many do you sleep most afternoons? ;)

Strange you should say that ........ ::-)
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Wowbagger

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Re: A poll about sleeping hours
« Reply #9 on: 20 June, 2014, 04:05:53 pm »
I almost invariably sleep in the afternoon when I have the chance. This sometimes includes one afternoon a week when I am behind the wheel of a car... :facepalm:

I worry enormously for the poor sods that this vindictive government has forced to work until they drop. For the past 8 years my sleeping patterns have been such that I would have been completely incapable of working a full week. I suspect that is the case for many over 50. When I first started teaching in the 1970s there was a whole geriatric ward's worth of older teachers who all used to get a few zzzzs in the staff room if ever they had a free period.
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Kim

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Re: A poll about sleeping hours
« Reply #10 on: 20 June, 2014, 04:06:38 pm »
Kim, you are a teenager!

Like most people, my sleep phase was far more lagged when I was a teenager.  Not sleeping until 3am was typical (unless I got sucked into a book, in which case the timeout was dawn or the last page, whichever happened first), which combined with having to get up at about 7:45 for school meant I was running on a sleep defect most of the time.  It annoys me that teenagers are stereotyped as lazy, when they're just out of sync with the people who set the rules (usually with no regard for others' body clocks).

I got a lot of flack from parents for not doing homework, because I usually did it late at night when my concentration was sharpest and there were fewer distractions (read: "nothing better to do").  Eventually they realised that I must be doing it if I was handing it in..

Re: A poll about sleeping hours
« Reply #11 on: 20 June, 2014, 04:10:06 pm »
My household runs on that pattern.

I don't.

When I was a teenager, weekdays meant out of the house by 730am to catch the school bus. Weekends meant up by 6:30am to work for 1.5hrs before breakfast. Normal for the children of farmers, I think.
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Kim

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Re: A poll about sleeping hours
« Reply #12 on: 20 June, 2014, 04:15:17 pm »
How well someone can cope with hours that clash with their natural sleep rhythm is going to very from person to person, of course.  It's just that as a general rule, adults have it easier.

What it comes down to isn't so much how easily you wake up at the right time (anyone can wake up with sufficiently annoying wake-up devices and motivation - I recommend hungry cats), but how well you can get to sleep hours before your natural sleep time.  Some people just aren't cut out for shift work, while others manage fine.

Re: A poll about sleeping hours
« Reply #13 on: 20 June, 2014, 04:19:21 pm »
True.

It's years since I did shift work, but I think that such major disruption to 'normal' sleep patterns is only cope-able  with if you can do a 'reset' long sleep now and then.
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Kim

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Re: A poll about sleeping hours
« Reply #14 on: 20 June, 2014, 04:22:28 pm »
I think the other thing with disruption is that it's far easier to change phase in the lag direction than the lead direction.

Re: A poll about sleeping hours
« Reply #15 on: 20 June, 2014, 04:42:17 pm »
I've put 7+ for most nights - asleep by 11 and awake soon after 6. But given the opportunity I'll take 12 hours without having to stay up late or engage in any book reading to doze off again.

Re: A poll about sleeping hours
« Reply #16 on: 20 June, 2014, 05:02:02 pm »
Ha, shift work really does affect the amount of sleep I get!
Sometimes I can have 10hrs but mainly it's about 5hrs! Night shift is the one I get less on! Esp in the summer... Even with black out curtains there are folk cutting grass and the bin lorries etc! So I'm lucky if it's 5hrs!
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Psychler

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Re: A poll about sleeping hours
« Reply #17 on: 20 June, 2014, 05:03:43 pm »
Ha, shift work really does affect the amount of sleep I get!
Sometimes I can have 10hrs but mainly it's about 5hrs! Night shift is the one I get less on! Esp in the summer... Even with black out curtains there are folk cutting grass and the bin lorries etc! So I'm lucky if it's 5hrs!

This is me!  Usually less than four hours with a major catch up at some stage.
I'm gonna limp to the pub and drink 'til the rest of me is as numb as my arse.

Re: A poll about sleeping hours
« Reply #18 on: 20 June, 2014, 05:48:00 pm »
I find if I can  avoid the need to pee during the night, I get a much better quality of sleep.

I find the most enjoyable sleeps are when I just randomly fall asleep and I wake up not knowing the time of day, or even if it's day or night. I guess that's when I'm most tired,  which is why I enjoy the sleep, and the "out of it" feeling I get when I wake.

Biggsy

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Re: A poll about sleeping hours
« Reply #19 on: 20 June, 2014, 06:24:50 pm »
Medication side effects allow me to sleep for 8+ hours.  :thumbsup:

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jogler

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Re: A poll about sleeping hours
« Reply #20 on: 20 June, 2014, 07:07:23 pm »
Typically 6 hours.
Two or three times a year I skip sleep completely for one night without trying or having the dozies the following day.Despite doing this all my adult life I've never sussed the whyfor's & there is no pattern.

Jakob

Re: A poll about sleeping hours
« Reply #21 on: 20 June, 2014, 07:20:35 pm »
Medication side effects currently gives me less than 6 hours :(

Re: A poll about sleeping hours
« Reply #22 on: 20 June, 2014, 08:24:43 pm »
I get about 5 1/2 or 6 hrs sleep. Its about the same at the weekend. I am very much a early riser, I don't like to lay in bed, once I'm awake I get up.
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CommuteTooFar

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Re: A poll about sleeping hours
« Reply #23 on: 20 June, 2014, 10:28:00 pm »
I try to goto bed at 22:00 Sunday to Thursday. I am usually asleep by 22:30. I get up at 6:30 everyday. Friday and Saturday nights are less regular. I feel I should be in bed now (Friday 22:30).
 

Dave_C

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Re: A poll about sleeping hours
« Reply #24 on: 20 June, 2014, 11:35:06 pm »
I have increased my sleeping hours now I have upped my commute by bike from 3 - 5 days a week. In bed by 9 if possible and asleep by 10. Alarm goes off at 06:45 but my bladder usually wakes me around 5:30 - 6am. Happily its not at 4 am like a couple of years ago when I upped my cycling from occasional to 3 days a week. I'd remain awake until 6 then fall into deep sleep only to be woken by the alarm feeling like I'd had 45 mins all night!
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