Sleep, or lack thereof
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Every time someone posts on the boards about how they can't get up early enough to exercise, I wonder "why not?"
I simply do not believe that 8 hours of sleep, like the 8 cups of water, is the be all and end all of good health. I believe that you can train yourself to function on less sleep.
I've worked 6-11am and then 3-9pm since 2006 now. I don't get home from my evening job until 9:30, then dinner and some decompression time means I don't get to bed until 11 at the VERY earliest. Then I get up at 4:30 and do it all again. I do nap every afternoon for 1-3 hours and I guard my naptime religiously.
Sometimes, due to various issues, I won't get to bed until 1 am. When my son was a few months old, I had terrible insomnia. Often I'd toss and turn until 3 am. Still, when my alarm went off at 4:30, I got up. Didn't matter if I'd only gotten an hour of sleep. I don't feel more rested if I sleep 4-5 hours than if I sleep 1-2. Getting up at 4:30 sucks, and an extra hour of sleep makes no difference.
On the very rare occasion that I've slept 8 hours - I would say it's been at least 3 years since I've slept that long - I wake up feeling absolutely terrible, and certainly not rested. In my previous unhealthy life, I used to sleep 12+ hours.
The naysayers claim you can't lose weight with little sleep. I reached maintenance with my sleep schedule. "You'll make bad food choices." Haven't found that to be true either. "I NEED 8 hours of sleep!" Guess what, every parent of young children is sleep deprived and most manage to do quite well. If it was natural for everyone to get 8 hours, children would be born with the ability to sleep through the night.
The point of this blog? I don't need more sleep. I don't WANT more sleep! Stop predicting dire outcomes if I don't sleep more.