The 10 Days Test to figure out the perfect amount of sleep you need
Most adults do not in fact need 8 hours of sleep, to function optimally. And yet for the longest time, I had been forcing myself to get 8 hours of sleep, and of course failed most of the time, barely waking up on time before work.
Found this article by Dr. Michael Breus, a clinical psychologist, delving deep into this. It’s a fairly interesting read, and goes into depth about diet, dietary influence of quality sleep as well as the sleep chronology test to figure out your natural chronotype, and adjusting your schedule accordingly, (which ofc not all of us can afford to do, but if you are a remote worker or have the flexibility, then the quiz might help out quite a bit), but here’s the main takeaway.
Decide on a regular time of sleeping and waking up : Fix a time when you go to sleep, and a time when you wake up every single day. Even on weekends. This prevents something called “social jet lag” and there’s a lot of proven research on this already.
No Naps : Just how snacking in the evening kills your appetite for dinner, the same happens with naps. I personally though do suggest power naps, since they are great for memory consolidation, but if you are trying to fix insomnia by taking naps throughout the day, you are simply worsening the problem.
The for the next 10 days,
Subtract 7.5 hours from the time you need to wake up. I would suggest picking the earliest time on which you need to wake up, (so consider your busiest days, or days which require waking up earlier than usual, cause we are trying to prevent any social jet lag).
Set an alarm. Pro tip: But if you are deep sleeper -> use a Volume Booster, make sure it’s compatible with your os), (mine is set at 100%, and still there have been times, when I didn’t wake up without a friend or my dad calling me to wake me up) and if you are someone who keeps on hitting snooze, use something like Wayk.io that only stops when you actually wake up, make your bed, and prove that you woke up.
Go to sleep on the calculated time everyday.
See when you naturally wake up. If you end up waking up earlier, push your bedtime a bit later, and vice versa (but do keep the wake up time fixed, don’t mess with it). Keep on experimenting for a few days, till you find the exact right time.
And that’s basically how many hours of sleep your body needs. If you are a perfectionist, please please, for god’s sake if you end up waking up late on the initial days, do not give up, it does get better as long as you continue to keep it as a habit, and not as something to try out only when you are motivated.