|
Some research done on behalf of solo around the world sailors has shown that some people function better with 20 minute catnaps while others do better with chunck of a couple hours at a time. Obviously this is not ideal for regular joes over the long haul, but it does show that people use sleep diferently.
Also while really overtired your body goes into REM sleep more quickly. I'm not familiar with any research that talks about peoples sleep cycles shortening though.
Form personal experience I know I felt the best when I was unemployed for a while and went nocturnal. I slept from about 4 or 5am (sunup) til about 11 or noon and felt awesome all day. I was still active during the day, just not working.
Stress is a big factor in sleep quality as well. many experts believe that a brief meditation before bed, even for just 10 minutes, allows you to remove stress that would normally disturb quality sleep.
Right now, grad school is my biggest sleep robber, but drinking too much fluid before bed is a close second as I always have to get up to pee during the night, sometimes more than once. (you know you're in trouble when you have those dreams that you're looking for a place to pee...)
__________________
"Religion is the one area of our discourse in which it is considered noble to pretend to be certain about things no human being could possibly be certain about"
--Sam Harris
|