Insomnia
 

Now i realize that insomnia is a terrible affliction that affects the lives of thousands everywhere who have trouble sleeping, but the trouble is that i want it.

In any given day i have about 13 hours of things i need to do not counting 20 min for each meal, 3-6 hours of class a day, transit time to/from school and messhall and talk to my gf who lives very far away. i've tried coffee, redbull, monster, and none of it seems to help (maybe being half-colombian makes me caffeine resistant?) but i want to cut down the amount of sleep i need from 6-7 hours down to about 3-4. i've heard its possible, but i just want to know how.

does TFP think this is a bad idea? unhealthy? any advice on how to accomplish my goals of 3-4 hours of solid REM sleep with none of the other sleep stages?

you do not want insomnia, trust me

Unhealthy.

Don't do it.

Get this instead:

maybe i misspoke. what i meant to say is that i want to function on a day to day basis on as little sleep as possible

Improve the quality of your sleep.

• Zero caffeine. No exceptions.
• Exercise up to 30 minutes per day (walking is fine).
• Go to bed and rise at the same time Sunday to Saturday.
• Don't eat or drink late in the day.
• Eat a balanced diet 4 or 5 meals per day, and stay hydrated.
• No electronics or other stimulating activities just before going to bed.
• Keep work and television out of the bedroom---bedrooms are for sleeping.

This will also generally ensure higher energy levels throughout the day.

In my opinion, I don't think you should go below 6 hours of sleep. Try to get more energy in your day, and try to be more organized and productive.

3-4 hours is unhealthy. insomnia is being super tired all the time and not being able to sleep, it's not that you don't need the sleep, you just can't get it, you are still groggy and irritable and slow.

instead of trying to sleep less, how about you work on time management throughout your day and become more efficient at doing all the things you have to do. make a list and triage it, determine what is most important, down to what can be put off, see if you can combine tasks, etc.

For the record, I think this is physiologically impossible. At least naturally. I don't even know if this could be accomplished in a lab.

Besides, I think you need more than REM sleep for health reasons. I'm sure I've ready somewhere that deep stage-4 sleep is when the body performs much of its healing and maintenance.

Insomnia sucks.
I wouldn't advise anything that would simulate the issue. People crash cars, hallucinate, etc. when they don't get enough sleep. Your body should tell you how many hours it needs. Many people can function on 3-4 hours, most cannot. I crash by the first week of less than five hours a night. And by the second week of less than six hours, I'm a non-productive mess. I have fibromyalgia and get more REM sleep than the average person, and let me tell you it SUCKS. I literally CRAVE deep sleep. I cry, can't function, curl up in a ball. Listen to these people and work on time management and quality of sleep...

i read up a little bit and apparently N3 (regenerative) sleep and REM is the stuff i want to maximize. there might be a chicken vs. egg argument about whether the delta brainwaves occurring in these stages are what cause the sleep or if the sleep is causing the brainwaves. are there any experts out there who can help me out?