Sleeping 5 hours a day

[Marinus]

So I saw a video about sleep. A professor from my country claims that people only need 4,5 to 5 hours of sleep. Here is the video, it has English subtitles:

I was wondering if there are people here that are able to function with only 5 hours of sleep. How did you do it?

[BlackMaze]

Not true don't believe it. Maybe true for very few people. I did it for years because of work and i was functioning only because of stress hormones. It's the worst thing you can do to your health.

[Rilles]

Your body knows how much sleep you need, not a professor.

[BlackMaze]

15 minutes ago, Rilles said:

Your body knows how much sleep you need, not a professor.

Exactly. The best you can do is to go to sleep early enough to have enough time to wake up without an alarm. This way you let your body decide how much sleep is necessary. 

[Marinus]

Are you guys taking in account modern life, not just jumping to conclusions and watching the video? Sleep is this man his bread and butter, so why would he be wrong? Sleep is still a subject we don't know a lot about. @Rilles my body is also subject to stimulation it isn't designed for so how can my body be sure? @BlackMaze it seems you didn't watch the video, he says that you need to be relaxed in order to do this, not stressed. Sadhguru also has video's about this subject and he basically says the same without being a professor that studies this subject.

I'm not saying that these men are right, but I'm also aware that you guys have beliefs about sleep and are pretty sure that you know the truth about sleep which I think isn't really helping here.

[BlackMaze]

@Marinus it's true i didn't watch the video but i did now, sorry for responding without watching it. However nothing really changed. I don't say that i disagree with him about the quality of sleep being more important. By all means exercise and build up your sleep presure. What he proposes doesn't work for me. Sleep deprivation will come and bite you in the ass. I had for many years all the sleep presure in the world sleeping only 5-6 hours. If i sleep 6 hours now i'm not able not to nap until the night. I shut off. This has nothing to do about my beliefs i always try to talk from my experience. Experiences between people differ and not everybody has the same body. There is not always a solution right for everybody. What is right for everybody from what i found is to let your body decide how much sleep it needs. Waking up with an alarm is not healthy. Another factor that is very important is when you go to bed. I've found that when i go to sleep before midnight i am able to sleep more deeply and usually need less sleep. By all means sleep only 5 hours, but to do that change your body somehow to crave only 5 hours of sleep without forcing it with an alarm clock. I don't believe that sadhguru sets an alarm after 3 hours. If he really needs only that much sleep he just wakes up refreshed after 3 hours without an alarm clock. 

Edited April 10, 2021 by BlackMaze

[Raphael]

I remember Sadhguru saying that he only slept 2-3 hours/day for more than 20 years, but now becoming lazy and sleeping 4 hours lol. I think that this is a possibility for extremely advanced yogis, but not for me and not for most people. Personally, if I sleep less than 8 hours, I feel deprived, stressed, unmotivated, and cannot work properly. My ideal is between 8 to 9 hours/day.

Edit: I didn't watch the video too, but I don't think that my opinion would change.

Edited April 10, 2021 by Raphael

[Michal__]

If you get serious about your health, you can.

It takes a few years of constantly studying & experimenting on yourself.

Try out both alternative medicine, classical medicine and the stuff in between.

Try taking multiple adaptogens per day. (For example rhodiola in the morning, ashwagandha before sleep, gotu kola & Brahmi during the day).

Try mega dosing vitamin d3.

Try bee pollen.

Try different kinds of detoxes.

There's a lot of things outside conventional medicine.

[Michael569]

Deliberately cutting down on your sleep destroys your neuroplasticity, slows down metabolism, decreases BDNF, raises inflammatory markers and increases cancer risk later in life. I wouldn't believe any biohacker or youtuber (not even professor) who says they can get away with 5 hours of sleep while they are on cocktail of 50 supplements, adaptogens, nootropics and 300 mg of caffeine per day to prevent them from collapsing. 

Sleep is something we cannot cheat or shortcut, you just gotta allow yourself to have it. Otherwise your life candle will burn from both ends 

That being said I do believe that maybe...maybe you can get to a level of spiritual & energetic development that somehow you can get away with less. Maybe Sadguru can but most of us aren't at that level and never will be so best to stick with what is known 

[Marinus]

@Michal__ thx. It's something of interest. My experience tells me that at this moment I function the best with 6-7 hours of sleep. When I exercised a lot this becomes 9 hours. This man wrote a book about this, I haven't read it yet, but it's something to consider. I'm surprised not many people are open to this idea, I thought perspectives was one of the core concepts of this forum. Sticking to what is known makes one blind to possibilities. Science discovers a lot of things and also throws away old "truths". 

If this really works then there is a whole lot of time available that people waste sleeping. My guess is that modern life witch all it's distraction such as artificial lights and job stress result in longer sleeping. Not sure about it, but I would be surprised that people who live in harmony with nature require less sleep, hence yogis not needing as much since they are at harmony with reality.

[Username]

I think it might be possible to sleep les but I would suggest to listen to your body how much sleep you need. Maybe polyphasic sleep would be effective. Not having enough sleep might be very damaging for your body so be carful.

You can cut down your sleep quota with meditation:

Quote

Meditation appears to provide at least a short term improvement in reaction time performance, and may also provide a longer term reduction in sleep need roughly equal to the time spent in meditation.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2919439/

[mandyjw]

10 minutes ago, Michael569 said:

That being said I do believe that maybe...maybe you can get to a level of spiritual & energetic development that somehow you can get away with less. Maybe Sadguru can but most of us aren't at that level and never will be so best to stick with what is known 

Yes, if you abide in/as awareness (which is what deep sleep is) and stop unecessary thought loops by tapping into inspiration, appreciation and joy you waste less energy in thought and needless action. Sleeping less can be a possible side effect of doing that. Fasting or eating less can be too. I don't think I'd recommend going about it backwards though. 

[Michal__]

4 hours ago, Marinus said:

@Michal__ thx. It's something of interest. My experience tells me that at this moment I function the best with 6-7 hours of sleep. When I exercised a lot this becomes 9 hours. This man wrote a book about this, I haven't read it yet, but it's something to consider. I'm surprised not many people are open to this idea, I thought perspectives was one of the core concepts of this forum. Sticking to what is known makes one blind to possibilities. Science discovers a lot of things and also throws away old "truths". 

If this really works then there is a whole lot of time available that people waste sleeping. My guess is that modern life witch all it's distraction such as artificial lights and job stress result in longer sleeping. Not sure about it, but I would be surprised that people who live in harmony with nature require less sleep, hence yogis not needing as much since they are at harmony with reality.

Frank Yang says his sleep need dramatically reduced after stream entry (first level of classical enlightenment), so that might be something worth looking into.