I have a tendency to sleep to much. I only set my alarm when I have an appointment in the morning that I must be on time for, otherwise, I wake up naturally. I’ve got a clock that shines the time on the ceiling, so I can always tell what time it is pretty easily. I noticed that I usually wake up around 6:30am, then I fall back to sleep, and tend to wake up again around 8:00am (unless my cats decide to have a wrestling match on me, which usually wakes me up sooner). As I’ve been thinking about being more productive with my life, the thought occurs that maybe I should get up earlier. I looked into the amount of sleep that you should get, and though most say you should get 8 hours, their doesn’t seem to be much research to back that up. I then saw mention of ’sleep cycles’, and what I read made sense to me. Here’s a small taste:
“Studies show that the length of sleep is not what causes us to be refreshed upon waking. The key factor is the number of complete sleep cycles we enjoy. Each sleep cycle contains five distinct phases, which exhibit different brain- wave patterns. For our purposes, it suffices to say that one sleep cycle lasts an average of 90 minutes: 65 minutes of normal, or non-REM (rapid eye movement), sleep; 20 minutes of REM sleep (in which we dream); and a final 5 minutes of non-REM sleep. The REM sleep phases are shorter during earlier cycles (less than 20 minutes) and longer during later ones (more than 20 minutes). If we were to sleep completely naturally, with no alarm clocks or other sleep disturbances, we would wake up, on the average, after a multiple of 90 minutes–for example, after 4 1/2 hours, 6 hours, 7 1/2 hours, or 9 hours, but not after 7 or 8 hours, which are not multiples of 90 minutes. In the period between cycles we are not actually sleeping: it is a sort of twilight zone from which, if we are not disturbed (by light, cold, a full bladder, noise), we move into another 90-minute cycle. A person who sleeps only four cycles (6 hours) will feel more rested than someone who has slept for 8 to 10 hours but who has not been allowed to complete any one cycle because of being awakened before it was completed…. “
I’ve really noticed this myself, and the 90 minute thing seems to correspond with the times that I wake up naturally as well (I go to bed at midnight usually). I’m going to try getting up at 6:30, when my body naturally wakes up between cycles. I’ll use the extra time to work out and have breakfast before work. I’ve considered that 6.5 hours of sleep may not be enough to keep me happy, so I’ve been looking into naps. It looks like sneaking in a 20-30 minute nap may help refresh me during the early afternoon. If it comes to that, I’ll need to find a couch for my office at work. For now, I’ll try the early wake-up for a week and see how I feel.
Here’s some reading on the topic if you’re interested:
