First post. On sleeping enough.
Hello.
This is my first post on this new blog. I'm feeling genuinely happy to take a step into writing again. Anyway, let me get into the subject of this premiere: sleep.
Earlier today I read a blog post from Dostoynikov, a blogger I found in the feed here on bearblog. Let me quote:
I'm trying to sleep around 8 hours right now as I'm obsessed with sleep health but what happens if I sleep 6 hours for a year everyday? So that I can have two hours more each day. It is probably not a good idea, right?
I will give my two cents on this. For a long time I was obsessed with the 8 hour sleep as well. It was very stressful as I often failed to go to sleep early enough as a working (young) adult. Much like Dostoy I wanted more out of every day and thus stayed up to late.
Then, maybe 15 years ago, a friend told me that he just gave up on the idea of 8 hours of sleep and decided that 7 hours would be his new goal. Since that decision he had much less stress about sleeping enough and his evening routine became so much more harmonius and he even slept better.
His idea was too tempting to not try. Ever since then I followed his example and have not regretted it for a single day. I experienced the exact same effects of less stress and obsession, and also got another hour of fun every day. So my answer to Dostoys questions is: don't go for 6 hours without having tried 7 first. :) Since I became a father in 2020 I've had more experience of 6 hours of sleep (or less) than I wanted to, and I cannot recommend it. Not for extended periods of time (unless a small child give you no choice of course ;).
This will do for a first post. Thank you for reading.