About SLEEP - You will be shocked.

[epipez]

good thread
i have this question: i feel the urge to nap every afternoon and when i do it's for about 1-2 hours. is this good or bad?

[Agumon]

good thread
i have this question: i feel the urge to nap every afternoon and when i do it's for about 1-2 hours. is this good or bad?

I read about this being a genetic thing, I don't know if that's true but I have it too.

It's OK to sleep for those 2 hours, if you wanna go for it, go for it. However I find that it's unnecessary because after a while this urge disappears even if I don't sleep.

[Aussie5]

Good read.

[Agumon]

We got a sticky!

Thanks for all your support guys!

[p90mikey]

You said everything correctly until the last part. If you feel energetic in your day with 5 hours of sleep, that means it's all you need. You don't need to "make up" for anything, enjoy your longer day! You can go to bed later so you wake up when you *need* to get up.

Aight cool, that makes sense. Now I just need to break the habit of being lazy and going back to sleep haha!

[Pandoxmax]

Good post

[jamie93]

gratz on the sticky

[mikesalhany]

congratz on sticky man! hey man i took a nap to test your research and i awoke after 2 and a half hours. (150 minutes). i'm lead to believe that each of my cycles are 150 minutes now, correct? i don't think it would be 75 because of the excess amount of sleep i need daily. i usually sleep for about 12 hours. when school starts, how can i set my alarm to accomadate my sleep patterns if i were to go to bed at 10 in order to wake up at 6? thanks in advance and again way to go on the sticky you deserve it.

[StylesOfBeyond]

Got 8/9 hours sleep two nights in a row, no fatigue or anything. Looks like that's my needed amount, cheers.

[Agumon]

Aight cool, that makes sense. Now I just need to break the habit of being lazy and going back to sleep haha!

Best of luck man!

gratz on the sticky

Thanks .

congratz on sticky man! hey man i took a nap to test your research and i awoke after 2 and a half hours. (150 minutes). i'm lead to believe that each of my cycles are 150 minutes now, correct? i don't think it would be 75 because of the excess amount of sleep i need daily. i usually sleep for about 12 hours. when school starts, how can i set my alarm to accomadate my sleep patterns if i were to go to bed at 10 in order to wake up at 6? thanks in advance and again way to go on the sticky you deserve it.

Thanks! I think it's highly unlikely that you need 150. 75 will be it for sure; it's also unlikely that you need 12 hours of sleep, in my opinion you're just sleeping through extra cycles on empty (on empty means your body doesn't need the extra sleep).

I have worked it out; your sleep cycle ends at 5:30 if you go to sleep at 10. Set your alarm to that time and let me know how it goes. If you go to bed at 10:30, you will be able to wake up at exactly 6AM. Or, if you go to bed at 9:15, you can wake up at 6AM also but you'll get an extra sleep cycle in. Depends on what your body needs, try them both out. Best of luck .

Got 8/9 hours sleep two nights in a row, no fatigue or anything. Looks like that's my needed amount, cheers.

Keep it up bro.

[batmanman]

you took freshman psychology didnt you?

[Toronto_BBer]

Nice post man. I have a question, If you wake up full of energy but you are tired in the afternoon is it because you didn't finish all your cycles?

[b1tsn1ff3r]

nice post, i read everything. I too am very interested in sleep, ands its science. Its amazing what our bodies do during sleep! anyways nice post =)

[Maxwell1995]

I remember you answering a question similar to this for me the other month. GJDM. Repped.

EDIT: Will rep on recharge

[jryager2]

is wikipedia the only source?

[msru]

Good info, thanks, and repped!

[NewYorkGiants24]

Congrats on sticky, repped

[.Excalibur]

Congrats on sticky, repped

Sweet, and i repped you if i didnt earlier, OP

[Agumon]

you took freshman psychology didnt you?

Nope, researched it on my own.

Nice post man. I have a question, If you wake up full of energy but you are tired in the afternoon is it because you didn't finish all your cycles?

No, that will be because you didn't get enough hours of sleep. Like someone who posted a similar post before you, it could also be a genetic thing where people randomly get tired in the afternoon but after a while the feeling goes away. I sometimes get it too; depends on what I'm doing.

nice post, i read everything. I too am very interested in sleep, ands its science. Its amazing what our bodies do during sleep! anyways nice post =)

Thanks for taking the time to read everything. And yes, it really is amazing! I wish I knew this stuff earlier.

I remember you answering a question similar to this for me the other month. GJDM. Repped.

EDIT: Will rep on recharge

Yes, I remember too, you were actually the first person who started my rant about sleep, thank you for that!

is wikipedia the only source?

I used a little help from it while creating this thread but when I did my research a while ago, I used many different sites; I'd just browse through anything all day.

Good info, thanks, and repped!

Congrats on sticky, repped

Sweet, and i repped you if i didnt earlier, OP

Thank you very much guys, I appreciate it !

[totetsu]

Okay so first of all, this is a long thread but please take your time reading this as it took me hours to write and edit; you won't regret it, I promise you.

So I have recently stumbled upon lots of people here who say "Even though I sleep 8-9 hours, I'm still tired." and a lot of others who just generally believe that more sleep = more energy + better well-being.

This is NOT TRUE.

When you go to sleep, your body enters different "stages" of sleep. There are 5 overall stages and together they count as 1 "cycle". During the night, these cycles keep repeating until you wake up. 1 cycle lasts approximately 90 minutes but it varies from person to person. You might think this is nonsense but keep reading, you will benefit greatly.

THE IMPORTANT THING: There are 2 ways in which you can wake up. Full of energy and positivity or completely tired with a bad mood. These 2 are NOT a result of either sleeping more or less; they are a result of you either waking up at the end of a particular cycle, or cancelling a cycle by being interrupted by an external source. Read below.

If you finish a cycle successfully and wake up, you will feel brilliant, full of energy and positivity. If your cycle is interrupted by an external source (you wanting to pee, parents/friends waking you up), you will feel terrible / grumpy and you will feel like you need "more sleep". Also, if in some mornings you wake up full of energy (which means you have just finished a cycle), and then force yourself to sleep more, there's a good chance you won't finish that newly entered cycle since you're just lazing about for 10 minutes and that will result in you waking up feeling tired again. And this is not just about waking up tired; this is about how your energy will be used throughout your entire day.

Side note 1: Sometimes you will find yourself lucky in a way that even though someone wakes you up which is an interruption, you will be at the end of a cycle so you'll feel good. Don't bet on it though, the chances of someone waking you up right at the end of a cycle is pretty low.

THE WHOLE POINT: The whole point is that even though most people need a particular number of cycles which add up to 8 hours (hence they say "You need 8 hours of sleep minimum"), it doesn't mean YOU need the 8 hours. Everyone is different and there are a few famous people who only need a small amount of cycles in order to replenish their energy, therefore they only sleep 2-3 hours daily which is phenomenal (imagine all the time saved). A cycle usually lasts 90 minutes, so just remember, if you wake up at the end of one, that's when you'll feel like a king. Your body might need 5, 6, 7 hours... You never know... If you naturally wake up earlier than most people (without interruptions), that will mean you need less cycles than most people. In that case, there's nothing wrong with you, you can just get up and enjoy a longer day .

Side note 2: Even if you woke up after 1 cycle (90 minutes), you would still feel energetic even though your body definitely needs a lot more cycles in order to engage in important activities such as muscle growth. Waking up & feeling good isn't everything.

SO HOW DO I KNOW WHEN I'M SUPPOSED TO WAKE UP?
This is easy. You need to eliminate all possible external sources which can wake you, including the urge to pee, so just drink water slightly earlier in the day so you urinate before bed. If there are no interruptions, your body will automatically wake you up at the end of your very own cycle; that's when you should get up.

For the next part I'll be using wikipedia to slightly help me out with the numbers, read only if you're REALLY interested :

*** More Scientific Part ***

Types & Percentages of Sleep In Stages:

• Stage 1 & 2: Light sleep; together, these two stages account for 50% of all sleeping time.
• Stage 3 & 4: Deep sleep; together, these two stages account for 25% of all sleeping time.
• Stage 5 (REM stage) – this stage represents the remaining 25% of all sleeping time.

Stage Functions:

Stage 1: Our heart rate and breathing become slower. If something wakes you up during this stage, you can easily believe that you haven’t fallen asleep at all as you are still highly aware of your surroundings.

Stage 2: This stage defines the beginning of true sleep. This is also the stage in which most people loose their awareness. The muscles become relaxed and the body stops moving.

Stage 3: Similar to Stage 4.

Stage 4: This is the deepest stage of sleep. Blood pressure drops; heart and breathing rate are decreased and stabilized.

Stage 5 - Rapid Eye Movement (REM): This is a special stage of sleep during which our brains become extremely active. Blood pressure increases, breathing becomes faster and irregular. The eyes start to dart back and forth. Most of our dreaming occurs in this stage. Because we might hurt ourselves while trying to move in response to the content of our dreams, the brain completely blocks our muscles.

The above 5 steps I copied ages ago from a legit site but can't remember which one, now I just edited them and rewrote them so they're more understandable. Don't be surprised if you recognise them. The rest is purely written by me.

I hope you've enjoyed reading this; just thought I'd share some useful information.

Edit: A source that slightly helped me: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep

Edit 2: By the way, interruptions may include vibrations of some kind, scary dreams, erections, people waking you up, wanting to urinate, traffic noise, the "biological clock" etc. I studied and experimented with these things carefully a while back as I was greatly interested in sleep cycles, that is how I know everything.

Edit 3: If a cycle is broken (disturbed) and you go back to sleep, that cycle will NOT continue. A new one will begin.

Questions are welcome!

A sticky would be great. Thank you .

great thread bro.

[Martaaan]

Good thread, bro

[hamworld05]

`No, that will be because you didn't get enough hours of sleep. Like someone who posted a similar post before you, it could also be a genetic thing where people randomly get tired in the afternoon but after a while the feeling goes away. I sometimes get it too; depends on what I'm doing.``

If people get fatigued in the afternoon, they were probably inactive or just feeling the time of fatigue. It`s a circadian rhythm thing. Everyone has highs and lows at different times but nothing is more energy-boosting then moving a lot for like, 10 minutes. That and hanging out in the sun, also a test-booster.

[Agumon]

`No, that will be because you didn't get enough hours of sleep. Like someone who posted a similar post before you, it could also be a genetic thing where people randomly get tired in the afternoon but after a while the feeling goes away. I sometimes get it too; depends on what I'm doing.``

If people get fatigued in the afternoon, they were probably inactive or just feeling the time of fatigue. It`s a circadian rhythm thing. Everyone has highs and lows at different times but nothing is more energy-boosting then moving a lot for like, 10 minutes. That and hanging out in the sun, also a test-booster.

I'm not sure about your first sentence as some people don't get fatigue in the afternoon at all, regardless of what they do. I agree with the rest of your post. Either way, it's not a big deal since this little low-energy cloud goes away fast .

[Eighttroy19]

So this kind of explains Sleep Paralysis to? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis Waking up during REM so you cant move but you can see, I've never experienced this, just read about it.

[Weightgainfiend]

good stuff

[ChosenBrah]

Anyone else feel kinda like they're drunk after being really tired? lol

[ArnoldS1995]

NICE it turned into sticky. gr8 job OP! and good educational read too

[Noobiness]

Dam this thread, after reading the part before i went 2 sleep where your body goes 2 different sleep modes/patterns i had nightmares for some reason all night and i couldnt sleep...tsk tsk

[BillyBlackwell]

Very interesting. I have woken up during the night after 4 hours and felt like I could easily stay up if I wanted to, then when i go back to bed and wake up 6 or so hours later I feel like crap!

[startupboss]

interesting read thanks