All of us are different, in so many ways. For me, sleep is one of these areas where my own uniqueness is evidenced.
Beginning in the mid-90s, regardless of what time I would go to bed, I would normally awake 3-4 hours later. For a few years I would battle this, as though it were some kind of curse. This is because I listened to the “8 hours a night” advice that is always offered.
I would lay in bed awake for hours every night trying to fall back asleep. After all, it was what I should do for my health. Staying in bed when I was awake, because I was supposed to, became a great prison to me.
After a while, I just learned to get up when I was awake. For the last 25 years or so, my sleep norm is 3-4 hours most nights – with perhaps an occasional 5-to-15-minute power nap somewhere in the late afternoon, or early evening. After multiple nights of this short sleep schedule, I will usually sleep 5-6 hours one night, occasionally longer, then right back to my norm.
What I had viewed in the beginning as a “curse,” I eventually came to see as my special “blessing.” I am usually up somewhere between 1:00-3:00 most mornings. I am up wide awake, and I aggressively begin my studies and writing. While others are asleep in the house it allows for many hours of very quiet productive time. Over time I have come to relish my early morning time. I would not be the person that I am today without my norm of 3-4 hours a night.
I sleep when I am sleepy, and am up working when I am awake, regardless of the advice of the experts. Interestingly, for me, on the nights that I get 3-4 hours of sleep I am usually the most awake and productive for the day. On the nights that I sleep longer, not only do I have less working time, but I am more typically sluggish.
Thomas Edison wrote,
I never found need of more than four or five hours sleep in twenty-four hours. I never dream. It’s real sleep. When by chance I have taken in more [sleep], I wake up dull and indolent [disinclined to work]).
Winston Churchill averaged 5-6 hours of sleep per day (which included a full-blown daily 2-hour nap during the day). “You get two days in one – well, at least one and a half.”
Leonardo De Vinci followed the “Uberman sleep cycle” – an extreme form of polyphasic sleep (or segmented sleep). This is the practice of sleeping multiple times in a 24-hour period. The Uberman method involves 20-minute naps every 4 hours – about 1-½ hours of sleep a day. Nikola Tesla followed this same sleep pattern.
I am well aware that my sleep patterns are not “normal,” and I do not recommend them. They are not something that I try to do, neither do I suggest anyone else trying them. Each of us are very uniquely made, and we must not fight the design of God for us.
Note:
Cf. “Some People Have a Superhuman Strength: Only Needing 4 Hours of Sleep,” Manasee Wagh, Popular Mechanics, June 27, 2022:
These “short sleepers” don’t necessarily do it by choice – they’re genetically programmed to require less. Short sleepers are people who do well with about half of the shut-eye that the rest of us require to function. Researchers have discovered particular mutations in three genes that control short sleepers’ resting needs. Their super-efficient sleep helps maintain better health and greater resilience to stress.
The Great Adventure of Faith 