How Much Sleep Do You Really Need?steemCreated with Sketch.

in #life6 years ago (edited)

A Few Words From Trafalgar

I'm alive. I wish I could be more active on here, but I have a lot of things to attend to in real life lately. Typing up one of these articles is more time consuming than it looks, aside from the research, I have to come up with 15-20 punchlines all on the same topic while still offering a coherent narrative.

Therefore, I've made another account @traf which will be dedicated to frequent (5+ a day), short one liners and memes. If you think you'll like it, please check it out and give it a follow. I made a separate account because I didn't feel that it was fair to exploit the curation trail I've amassed here. I don't intend to quit writing longer articles mind you, when I have more time, this account will have more frequent updates.

Thank you all for reading my stuff since I joined, really appreciate it, hope to do this for a long time yet.

How Much Sleep Do You Really Need?

'So how much sleep do I really need?' is a question I've lost plenty of sleep over when I'm grossly exaggerating. Truth be told, I was going to go with a more exciting topic to explore following a rather long hiatus, but after discovering every second post on here is already covering 'What your horoscope can tell you about the color of your boogers', I decided to go with this instead. I figured that while the subject matter may be a bit dull, I could at least post a scantily clad blond girl in bed and click bait the fuck out of this thing; as long as I remember to do so when picture searching for this article after finishing the write up.

fat.jpg
Finally finished writing this thing! Now, I was meant to do something here...can't quite recall what...oh well

What's The Optimal Amount of Sleep?

While the average person spends roughly 24 years of their life asleep, some of us spend a further 24 years watching other people sleep through a pair of binoculars generally held one handed and the remaining 24 years behind bars. Considering we spend so much of our lives in this state, what does sleep actually do for our minds at a neurological level? And why did so many species evolve such a necessity when it doesn't seem to confer any survival or reproductive advantage? These are the types of questions I would be answering here had I bothered doing more research than I could be assed. So for now, lets just stick to the simple shit.

The National Sleep Foundation recommends adults get 7-9 hours of sleep per night. Well damn, if only there was a number between 7 and 9, the brilliant scientists over at the National Sleep Foundation could have used that instead. This result is consistent with the finding that people should be awake roughly 15-17 hours a day made by The National Staying Awake Foundation, as well as with a paper concluding that the number of hours in a day remains to be approximately 24 in a report released by The National How Many Hours Are There In A Day Again? Foundation.

But what happens when you don't get the right amount of sleep?

What are the Effects of Sleep Deprivation?


catsleep.jpeg
Me leave you gift in litter box, me is sleep now, me leave gift in you bed later

Studies have shown that for most of us, getting even a slight shortage of sleep can greatly reduce cognitive functioning. For example, getting only 6 hours of sleep a day for 2 weeks lowers your reaction time and attention span to that of someone with a blood alcohol level of 0.1% (which is roughly a third of the way between tipsy and shitfaced). This is perhaps why White House staff worry about Trump's late night tweeting tendencies, as the President is likely to suffer the same mental impairments caused by sleep deprivation as the rest of us, but from a significantly lower natural starting position to begin with.

Additionally, a shortage of sleep is linked to heart disease, obesity, diabetes and a plethora of other health problems. Surprisingly, research has shown that too much sleep tend to share these exact health risks; in fact, over sleeping can be more detrimental to your well being than under sleeping. I mean, if you know someone who's been asleep 24 hours a day for some time now, and has started to smell a little funny, well...do draw a mustache/glasses/cock and balls on their face, I'm sure they'd appreciate the joke when they finally wake up.

Mutants Who Walk Among Us

So far, I've only been talking about mere mortals like you and I, but there are some among us who are gifted in this realm. Scientists have isolated a gene only found in 1% of people that allows them to operate at peak mental capacity with less than 6 hours of sleep a day. Experts believe that this is evolution's answer to Bill Cosby.

I'm not one of the chosen ones and wouldn't exactly call myself a morning person either. Whenever my alarm goes off, I pick up the clock and hurl it at the crying baby, thereby, am able to buy myself another hour of snoozing if my aim is true.

How about you? Do you get enough sleep? I find the best place to catch up on some sleep is at church, although the rest of the congregation tend to get a little judgmental as I finish masturbating so my body is relaxed enough to doze off.


Sources
How Much Sleep Do We Really Need?
How Much Sleep Do You Actually Need?
The Science of Sleep: A Brief Guide to How to Sleep Better Every Night


Image Sources
1,2


If you enjoyed this piece, please Upvote, Resteem and follow me @trafalgar, especially if you believe non steemit/crypto related articles are good for the platform. Also, check out my new account @traf for short one liners and memes.

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Nice to read you again after quite a while! :)

I'm not one of the chosen ones and wouldn't exactly call myself a morning person either.

Same here ... or better to say: I am an extreme 'night owl' (just now at this moment it's past 3 a. m., and I am still awake commenting your article). :-)

In one of my old articles I focus on the genetical reasons for the phenomenon, that some people tend to be 'morning larks', while others prefer going to bed very late.

thanks a lot jaki, glad to be back :)

Scientists have isolated a gene only found in 1% of people that allows them to operate at peak mental capacity with less than 6 hours of sleep a day. Experts believe that this is evolution's answer to Bill Cosby.

Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan! That was freaking hilarious for some reasons! It took me 2-3 seconds to process this shit.

And the one about losing sleep over wondering how much sleep you need was pretty freaking awesome too.

4-5 Hours Maximum

when your food is correct, anyway. ;) The more "off" my food choices are, the more hours of sleep I need. When I eat the correct foods, I'm tapping my foot after 4hrs. It's impossible for me to "sleep in" and feels better to get up and do something. lol

thanks a lot teamsteem, glad you enjoyed it :)

For some reason, I had totally forgot to vote.

I still don't get the Cosby joke.

Sleep is for those not awake

Thank You Kindly.

Bro Nice seein u at the top of the #1 post according to this steem ratings site!
http://rating.mysteemit.xyz/en/steem/rating?date=2017-10-28

And yeah man I need to take advantage of no needing sleep and just start posting on steemit more.

We need a club here on steemit that keeps track of your sleep... a system where we can input when we woke up and went to bed... maybe we can map out our sleep and find out some useful data

OH and the first Line of this post by @trafalgar reminds me of this "I am Alive" remix from Rick and Morty

I'm insomnia monster! I can't even imagine 5 hours for sleep!

gotta learn to count sheep!

I need 9 h sleep :))

You're lucky! I'm sleeping in parts of 2 or 3 ours :(

Thank you!! I hope I am lucky :)

I'm definitely not one of the chosen ones either. In fact, I may flirt with too much sleep...can sleep 9-10 hours any night.

haha well you're not a cat for nothing :)

If price of Steem < $1 Then SLEEP

haha that would be a pretty dumb approach from me considering I've powered up every Steem I've earned
I believe in Steem, I could be wrong in that belief, but I act on it

Yes it would.

I have a plan I'm mind to give the opportunity for a larger account to do something awesome, feel warm in their heart, and receive a pretty chart or three each week to see their generosity in action.

I'll will add to this post later. 😁

Haha! That is very true :)

@traf doesn't get out of bed for less than $2 a Steem though 🤑

For me it's the exact oposite. I have all of my steem powerup to my account.

So it's painfull to watch Steem fall lower and lower.

This is the best place for it!

Worry not, just keep it there and see what happens next March.

Word, March 14th is when I can retire.

What is happening next March?

So what happens next march then?

Hoping there will be a go-live with Smart Media Tokens. Check out @ned (CEO) for more info

very good vd

I love your writing - witty and interesting. Of course any article with Trump in it is definitely going to be upvoted by me.

thanks a lot for checking it out :)

your posts is really helpful for me because my parents complain about my sleep and i too think i oversleep sometime and through your article i finally got the value which i wanted..thank you @trafalgar for such qualitative content..

upvoted and resteemed

Great article. I've spent long periods without decent sleep, 3-4 hours per night at most sometimes. The effects for me, are feeling like I am in a fog, distant, other Worldly. After a while it becomes the norm but it takes a long time to get back into the swing of sleeping normally.

PS - loved the Cosby joke.

I think that takes a toil in the long term

thanks for checking it out

It did. It also becomes a habit too. Where you body gets so used to little sleep, that when you get the chance to sleep, sleep then fails you.

If I go to sleep before 12 I need only 6 hours. If I go to bed after 12 I need 8 hours. I don't know if it's my grandmothers brainwashing of this idea that makes me convinced it is true and thus my body follow this train of thought, or if there is some kind of logic in this fact hehe

haha maybe you have the mutant X gene that allows you to sleep less

Maybe so ! To not have to sleep would be a pretty badass superpower. I could be active on steemit 24 hours of the day ! Also if I have any archenemies I can irritate them to death by keeping them up all night

I wish I could sleep from 10 P.M. till 5 A.M. But most often it starts at 5 A.M. :(
Following @traf
Cheers.

haha
thank a lot :)

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