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[Mimitchi]

What a strange topic I know..

I was always told 8 hours was the typical adult requirement for sleep at night. One would expect that would be satisfactory right?

I've noticed that I feel quite differently in the morning depending upon how I sleep and it's not what I'd expect at all.

If I sleep like 3 hours I have so much energy it's crazy, but I'm still a little tired and will need to sleep later for like 4 more hours to make it through the day.

If I sleep 4-5 hours I feel pretty good, more so closer to 4. I can often go through a day and not nap or anything. I usually feel a bit out of it though.

If I sleep 6-8 hours I wake up completely exhausted, feeling terrible. I feel like I could sleep another 8 hours if I lay back down and sometimes I have to even nap during the day to enable myself to stay awake the rest of the day.

Last night I got 9 hours.. I'm so dead.. I could sleep all day. I'm sitting here after 30 minutes and feeling a bit more awake and alright, but I got a headache from sleeping that long and I think if I closed my eyes I would fall back to sleep instantly.

I go to bed super late just to try and get less hours on purpose. It's really bothersome to me how fewer hours makes me feel better, but I'm still a bit blahish all day. I really don't like taking naps, ruins part of the day, but I'll fall asleep and be unable to control my need to take a nap.

I can't seem to find the perfect amount of hours and I end up feeling exhausted all of the time. It's like sleep rules my life sometimes..

Is this just me? Anyone else have/had this problem?

[K-StateFry]

Yeah, I've always heard that eight hours were good for adults, and nine for young adults. I don't think I've ever really followed those rules either.

Maybe it's your sleeping pattern/routine? I would think if your body gets used to sleeping late hours and not getting much, it might take awhile to adjust going to bed earlier.
I guess there is a lot of things that could be going on here, I've done a little research on the psychological/physiological things that go on when you go to sleep, but it's not like I'm some sort of expert.

I usually only get about 6-7 hours of sleep, and alot of times I wake up pretty tired as well. I think there are a few things you can try to do/not do before you go to bed, I've never tried any of them because I guess I just don't care all that much and don't take how much sleep I get to serious.
But I have heard you can try and get into a 'zen' state(lame I know) and I guess that could make you sleep easier.
I'm not one to drink coffee and I don't know how many people here do, but do you happen to consume a lot of caffeine throughout the day?

Anyways, hope you start sleeping better! It certainly is important for the body and mind.   

[ginjirotchi]

I'm having a similar problem to your's Kat. I've gotten into bad sleeping habits wherein I stay up really late on weekends, and sleep in the next day. I'm an early morning guy, I love getting up early and having the full day ahead of me. Now that I'm waking up at almost 10am, I'm crabby and grumpy when I get up. And normally I'll end up falling asleep again, wasting the better part of my Saturday/Sunday afternoon. (thank goodness for beeping Tamas, or I'd never wake up ).

My plan for this is to get to bed early from now on. Normally I'll be up late because I like chatting with my internet friends, whom have earlier times then me at that point in time. It's gonna be a hard habit to break because I love chatting with them all. Either way I'm gonna have to stop because it's not good for me.

Maybe if you tried going to bed at say 10pm.. And getting up around 6am, that would be a better sleeping time for you. I don't know for sure, just saying stuff that I've thought of. Weird sleeping hours can be frustrating though.

[TigerLily013]

That's really odd how it's one extreme or another.

7-10 hours for me works great, and if I get less than 6 I tend to have a lot of issues concentrating. With working now the latest I've gone to bed during the working part of my week is 11pm, and 2am when I'm not working the next day. As for getting up to get up for work its between 6:15 and 6:30 in the morning and not waking up for work it varies from 8am-10:30am but I haven't slept over that on my days off. Somehow my body has gotten used to this on and off again changing.

Before having a steady job my sleep pattern varied a lot for almost being nocturnal at one point in my life lol. I think working 3 days a week has helped my sleep pattern stay partially normal (that and energy drinks help lol). I find this topic interesting how everyone's sleeping patterns are like. Some people work better on less sleep and more short naps than they do a full rest.

[Bojko]

My sleeping pattern is next to non-existant.

During the semesters, I base my sleep around the lectures/labs... so pretty much I sleep for about 6 hours a night and then nap for a few hours in the afternoon. When on days I have nothing to get up for, I sleep like there's no tomorrow. I can easily sleep for 10 or more hours and wake up feeling the best.

Nowadays, because of the holidays I can sleep however I prefer, usually I get many many decent hours but because of social activites, I sometimes run on next to nothing. (example: I've only got about 2 hours sleep in me since yesterday morning... and no time to nap for work is soon).

So, I can work either way, any amount of sleep I can handle... as long as I can sneak in catnaps throughout the afternoon when I'm feeling a bit dozy, it's all good.

Hope you find a good pattern to get yourself into Kat, or buy a coffee machine with a time to set up a nice pot for when you wake up. ^__^

[i luv tamas!!!!!!]

Ive inherited it from my dads side, and as soon as we open our eyes in bed, and move a bit, we cant get back to sleep.
We just have to go on with our day.
I have a weird habit where I try and sleep in on school days but get up early on weekends.

[mixedtape]

I think it greatly depends on your REM patterns.  If you wake up during REM, you'll feel much more tired than if you wake up in another part of the cycle.  Say you go into REM during the 2nd, 4th, 6th, etc hours of your sleep...  If you've slept an odd number of hours, you'll feel good, but if you've slept an even number you'll feel exhausted.

It could also depend on what your body is used to.  If you're used to sleeping 6-7 hours and suddenly sleep for 8, you might feel like you've overslept.  My theory on waking up 3-4hrs later though, honestly, is that you're just overtired which generally can manifest itself in energy or a second-wind.  That's how it is for me.

I used to have awful sleeping patterns when I was in college.  I would stay awake for 40hrs in a row and then sleep for 5hrs, stay awake again for another 35-40...  Part of it was because I was extremely busy with schoolwork, but also because it would take me so long to actually fall asleep (we're talking 3-4hrs, 5 at most) I would dread going to bed.  Some days I would sleep for 30 minutes here and there if I could afford it.  I don't miss those days at all!  Now I have to sleep properly otherwise I'm falling asleep at my desk at work, and I get nothing done during my day.

[K-StateFry]

Good point, Sheena.

I think REM sleep takes up about 1/4th of the total amount you sleep, which I guess is fortunate considering it isn't the most restful phase of sleep, even though your body is paralyzed during it.
I think there is like 4-5 cycles of sleep and the one right before REM sleep is the one that is most refreshing, I believe. I wonder if it's ever possible that you don't get to the cycle that refreshes you because there is something keeping you in those early cycle stages and you don't realize it?

[mixedtape]

I wonder if it's ever possible that you don't get to the cycle that refreshes you because there is something keeping you in those early cycle stages and you don't realize it?

I think it is possible... I'm not 100% sure about this but I do think that some sleeping pills will keep you from going into certain cycles.  It's like drinking alcohol to fall asleep; you won't get the same type of sleep you would if it were natural.  I think other things like small noises that don't wake you up, but disrupt your sleep can affect that too.

[Mimitchi]

Fry: Thank you   This erratic routine of mine has been going on for many years, but it seems to have gotten progressively worse. I most likely make very bad choices such as staying up super late and getting up early and drinking a good amount of caffeine during the day. Perhaps this is mostly self inflicted 

Ginji: I dunno if I've gone to bed before midnight in many years. In the past months I've felt much the way you do.. I don't like the day to pass by so I like getting up a bit early (though not 6am, more so 8-9am). The problem is I love the late night too, so I try to have it both ways, guess that's not working. I understand staying up for a reason, it's hard to miss friends in other timezones. I hope you can get back to your schedule, it sounds like you felt better when you were on it.  

TL: Sounds like your schedule is way crazier then mine. See and right now I don't have a steady job, so that might be part of the insanity that has me out of a routine. And of course not having a job is worrysome enough to keep me from not sleeping.  I used to rely on energy drinks at one of my jobs too, until one of my coworkers told me that his heart beats out of control when he drinks them.. scared me enough to put me back on coffee. Paranoia I am sure hehe. ^.^

Yes, it is rather interesting to see such varied responses. I was worried it would be just me whining hehe. Instead it's come about very interesting conversation.

Bojko: Now that sounds a whole lot like my old job schedule. I used to work crazy hours, not sleep much at all and then crash on the weekend. It's great to know I'm not the only one who needs naps (though I don't like myself when I nap so much).  I appreciate the good wishes and you know you remind me that my coffee machine does have a timer on it, I should make use of it and try some new routine ^.^

ILT: Haha too funny about sleeping in on school days but not weekends. Maybe it because your more interested in your life outside of school then what's in school? Some things are just more worth getting up for in the morning then others.

Sheena: I'm happy you were able to fix things once you got into a job, that sounds like it was crazy there for a while. It makes complete sense what you say about REM sleep and waking up during the wrong cycle. I feel like I wake up during REM everyday, but I still force myself up thinking if I can get up everyday at the same time, maybe I can force myself into a routine. It just hasn't worked yet hehe.

Fry & Sheena: I so wish I could obtain that cycle only before REM sleep hehe, I need about 390283083290832 approximate hours of that peaceful fulfilling sleep. I can't take pills or anything like that, I've heard too many scary stories unfortunately.


Sounds like the conclusion is a lot of what most of you say.. problem with routine. And my hubby says the same thing. I just need to set times and stick with them. It's those first days that are the absolute worst ones.

Thank you everyone for all the help and advice


Edit: Tried to quickly spell check so you can't all see how terrible my typos are because I posted too fast LOL