"The myth of the eight-hour sleep"

[Woodstock]

BBC News - The myth of the eight-hour sleep I thought it was interesting.

[Iokheira]

Interesting idea! I had never heard of that before. It reminds me of siestas. Though I do wonder, what about those of us who sleep longer than eight hours in a chunk? Is that worse for us? I've been known to sleep up to 18 hours in a stretch. Maybe during the summer I will try this out.

[citruspsyche]

Saw this before. It is interesting. It should be read by people who think something's wrong with them for waking up in the middle of the night.

[dutchraptor]

I don't really believe there is much "myth" to the eight hour sleep. What almost every sleep pattern except for polyphasic sleep has in common is that it adds up to generally between 6 and 8-9 houts of sleep. I think the real problem lies with stress, bad diet and insufficient exercise. We can see the trend particularily in america where over 30% of the population are on sleeping pills. Which is a crazy amount, but does link up with huge amount of obesity and signs of stress which america is notorious for.

[Woodstock]

I don't really believe there is much "myth" to the eight hour sleep. What almost every sleep pattern except for polyphasic sleep has in common is that it adds up to generally between 6 and 8-9 houts of sleep. Did you read it? The title is misleading, they're still talking about sleeping 8 hours, just not all at once.

[dutchraptor]

Did you read it? The title is misleading, they're still talking about sleeping 8 hours, just not all at once. I know that, my point was that every pattern of sleep seems to suit some people and that neither is truly more effective.

[Woodstock]

I know that, my point was that every pattern of sleep seems to suit some people and that neither is truly more effective. I agree with that, but it was more about history than "this is how everyone should sleep".

[Dreams4free]

sleep is definitely variable relative to the amount of both physical and psychological stress you are receiving. If you are overweight, and can barely make it through the day, have a really stressful job on top of that, most likely your body will compensate with more sleep. One of the biggest if not greatest benefit of exercise is that it significantly reduces stress and promotes good mood, as well as higher energy levels. The funny thing is that people say they don't have enough time for exercise, when in reality exercise and good diet will them a lot more time to do things they would otherwise check out early for being too tired for. Not to mention live many years longer.

[Mancon]

Interesting idea! I had never heard of that before. It reminds me of siestas. Though I do wonder, what about those of us who sleep longer than eight hours in a chunk? Is that worse for us? I've been known to sleep up to 18 hours in a stretch. Maybe during the summer I will try this out. I'm not entirely sure if sleeping longer is bad for us. There have been studies that link oversleeping to diabetes, headaches, and obesity. I am not sure how accurate these studies are and if it has any reliable scientific proof. From personal experience, I find that sleeping longer leaves me feeling more tired than sleeping less than I should. Yet I still do it xD. Does anyone else feel the same as me?

[dutchraptor]

Yes I get tired if I sleep more than ten hours long, I heard that both polyphasic sleep and oversleeping can be bad for your health because, with polyphasic sleep you are not given your spine the amount of rest it needs, and with oversleeping your back is reclined in one position for two long. I wouldn't say this would apply for 10 or 11 hours but I think 18 hours is definetely way to much.

[Woodstock]

There have been studies that link oversleeping to diabetes, headaches, and obesity. There have also been studies that link not enough sleep to all of that. You can "prove" almost anything, it's hard to know what's really the truth.

[Mancon]

There have also been studies that link not enough sleep to all of that. You can "prove" almost anything, it's hard to know what's really the truth. Yeah, true. :/ I think you just have to find the right amount of sleep for you and stick with it. Some people can run fine off of 5 hours of sleep while others need a lot more.