>A professor I collaborate with at Penn State named Orfeu Buxton says that 8.5 hours of sleep is the new eight hours. In order to get a healthy eight hours of sleep, which is the amount that many people need, you need to be in bed for 8.5 hours.
So, the title is misleading. It means you should lie in bed for 8.5 hours in order to actually be asleep for 8 hours.
That said, this article has plenty of good insight and is well-written.
> I’ve always required television to get to sleep, and I’m not a good sleeper.
These two statements are correlated. Television in your bedroom makes you a worse sleeper, and you can immediately improve your sleep quality by removing it and keeping your room as dark as possible. I was skeptical of this, but after a month of insomnia, I went to a sleep lab for a consult and took all of their advice. I'm still not an amazing sleeper but it's been a huge improvement.
> I get up at 4:30 AM every day and work at something until about 8 PM and then am in bed by 8:30
I do me too (since I was about 30). Not exactly 04:30 though — sometimes I get up at 02:00, sometimes 06:00 ... working 4 - 10 hours, then siesta for about 1 hour.
I find that with a 30 min or 1.5 hours? power-nap/siesta, my brain "resets" and I can stay concentrated 10 - 12 hours a day.
Edit: Now I see that you're in bed 8:30 PM. I first read 8 AM and assumed that that meant a power nap. — Seems I get tired a lot sooner than you.
I think you're tired to start with, just go to sleep. I realized this with myself and others. Some kind of marketing that "unwind and relax" means you have to watch some TV when sleep will actually bring you more enjoyment.
You can always trade those 45 minutes when you wake up for a movie if you actually want to watch one - and you'll enjoy it more.
This is very true for me, much to my surprise. I used to get by on 3 to 4 hours every night but that seems to have really caught up with me. If I don't get 8 hours minimum now I'm woozy the rest of the day.
> I go to bed when I’m completely exhausted at +1am
is that bad? the time of sleep I 'need' seems to correlate with the amount of work I did that day
when i'm truly relaxing/vacationing i can even hit 5 hrs of sleep and wake up without an alarm, but after a particularly difficult work day, i may even need 8 hours to feel like i've slept that night
> You could take this one step further and just say NO devices or TV at night or after 7pm, period.
I've done that before and it didn't make any difference for me. If I read a book on a screen or on paper before bed, it doesn't seem to matter, as long as the light is 1850K.
> They could go to bed at a decent hour but usually stay up late & catnap instead.
My wife (as a Japanese salarywoman) is perpetually tired, but still stays up late watching TV/SNS. Why? "If I went to bed early, my whole life would just be work and sleep"
> But that extra time spent sleeping is time spent not being awake to do things. So the overall number of useful hours is the same either way?
Am I the only person that likes sleeping and dreaming? If I were to suddenly find sleep impossible and unnecessary, I would consider that a reduction in my quality of life.
It means that the TV is in the bedroom.
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