Why you should sleep less.

We're always told how we need to get a good nights sleep and how all these scientific studies have shown that not getting enough sleep can effect reaction times, cognitive ability and lower your life expectancy among many other things. Now i dunno if this is just me but i quite regularly only get 5 hours sleep a night with exceptions on the weekend and ive never found a noticeable drop in any of my abilities. I do a physically demanding job but my muscles are never sore, im not lethargic or sleepy during the day unless my energy content is low and i get so much more done by sleeping less.

Our breakdown of time is supposedly 8 hours sleep, 8 hours work, 8 hours play. Problem is when you break this down it doesnt really work. 8 hours of work is easily stretched to 9-10 and necessities like cooking cleaning showering often take up large chunks of our "relaxation/play" time.

example: i start work at 6.30 am, my work day would be 6.30-3.30 which is already 9 hours. to be ready for work at 6.30 i get up at 5.00, eat breakfast, get dressed, make lunch for the day and then commute to work, i then finish work at 3.30 and commute home, arriving home around 4.30. My work day has now been extended to 11.5 hours. I would then feed my pets, have a shower get my stuff ready for the next day and prepare dinner. all this being completed by around 6.30. So now ive used up my 8 hours of work plus an extra 5.5 hours that is supposedly meant for me time, totaling 13.5 hours. if i wanted to get 8 hours sleep im then sitting at 21.5 hours leaving me a measly 2.5 hours for things i actively want to do. Not much hey.

All these things are necessities and take away the precious amount of time we actually have in life. now its all well and good to say that isn't how things should be and maybe we need a change in the system, less work hours etc but the reality is some people especially in today's economy have to work much longer than myself just to survive, just to have a roof over their heads and food on their table. '

So to me the only real thing that can be cut down on is sleep. Yes it may be unhealthy and it may well kill me 10 years earlier than if i got 8 hours a night. However given the life expectancy here is around 86 all that sleep has increased my life expecancy from 76-86.

Doing the math if i slept 8 hours a night until 86 i will of slept for 28.6 years ( 8 hrs x 365 days x 86 years / 24 hrs / 365 days)
That means i've only actually lived 57 years of consciousness.
If i was to sleep say 5 hours a night instead ( 5 hrs x 365 days x 86 years / 24 hrs / 365 days ) i will only spend 17.9 (lets say 18 for arguments sake) asleep. giving me 68 years of consciousness. that's already a whole year of life i've gained just by not sleeping.
Then take into account the quality of the life you're receiving. those 10 years you're getting are from the age of 76-86 whereas sleeping less spreads those 11 years out over your childhood youth and middle age. i think everyone can agree they'd prefer an extra 10 years of youth than 10 years of being elderly.

Now add in the fact an accident or some other tragedy could kill you far younger than the average life expectancy do you really want to of spent that much of your short life asleep?

I also like to spend some of the extra time im not sleeping working on things like a passive income or growing the business im already involved in. as well as educating myself on things that interest me, doing this im hoping to be able to build my income to a point where i can retire far earlier than most people and all that no sleep in my youth will pay off when i don't have to work any hours a day :)

Sure some people will require more sleep but over the last decade ive trained my body to function at almost 100% on between 4-5 hours sleep a night and if i do feel a bit down in the arvo have a cheeky nap. Some of the most famous inventors and scientific minds in history are known to of gotten very little sleep and they still achieved amazing things. There are also methods to train your body into R.E.M sleep in a much shorter timeframe than would usually be required but i have not done enough research or tried it personally to confidently attest to its effectiveness.

In my opinion if you can sleep a little less and do a little more without feeling crappy you should but always listen to your own body and do what works for you, after all this is just my opinion but its worked for me and i have no intention of going back to 8 hours a night anytime soon :)