[pavel_lishin]

It is for some people, and it isn't for others, which is why this kind of generic advice is amazing if it fits you exactly, and awful if it doesn't.

I can function on six hours, but not well. I also can't easily take 15 minutes to meditate in the morning, because I have a two month old baby I have to help care for in the mornings. This somewhat limits my ability to meditate and exercise.

[manibatra]

I second that! I have tried sleeping for 8 hours and I just end up feeling sluggish all day. Less than 6 hours has the same effect. 6 hours just happens to hit the sweet spot.

I would suggest meditating anytime in the day. I dont believe that it specifically has to be in the morning. It could be a placebo but just sitting still for a bit does some to help.

[gooseus]

I don't know how true this is, but it's something I've found true for myself... I've read (or heard) that your sleep cycle is 90 minutes down to deep sleep and back, so it's best to get up after some multiple of 90 minutes because that's when you'll have cycled back to the lightest sleep.

So typically I either get 6 hours or 7.5 hours of sleep a night, though if I ended up getting 3 or 4.5 one night I'll sometimes try to get 9 the next night. If I can't get at least 3 hours of sleep, I just stay up.

So it's possible the problem with 8 hours is that you're trying to wake up in the middle of a cycle and thus the sluggishness. Or maybe I'm just spreading pseudo-science.

[melvinmt]

> I've read (or heard) that your sleep cycle is 90 minutes down to deep sleep and back, so it's best to get up after some multiple of 90 minutes because that's when you'll have cycled back to the lightest sleep.

That's basically how http://sleepyti.me works.

[manibatra]

I have heard that too but never really got down to testing it out. In fact I have resigned to the fact that when it comes to sleep to each their own.

For eg I have experienced better quality of sleep after taking ZMA ( I weight train ). But I have heard anecdotes where people have said that its just a placebo.

[visarga]

I take Magnesium every day, it has helped my sleep tremendously. I am more relaxed and less stressed during the day, too. It's like I am 10 years younger.

[Scarbutt]

A what time do you take the magnesium?

[duaneb]

Six hours feels like you can function, until you can't. I think i remember seeing that people who could reliably function with just six hours exist but are vanishingly rare.

Juat be honest with yourself.

[barry-cotter]

It depends on the person. Need for sleep follows a normal distribution in terms of what you require.

Natural short sleepers who only need 4.5 hours exist. Most people who sleep that much are chronically sleep deprived but there are people who just genuinely don't need that much sleep.

https://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000804.htm

I'm not a short sleeper but I need closer to seven hours sleep a night than eight.

[akovaski]

I don't really understand how your baby makes it difficult to take 15 minutes to meditate, because I would imagine you were sleeping in increments longer than 15 minutes. So why is this? Is the baby waking up when you wake up?

[pavel_lishin]

> Is the baby waking up when you wake up?

It's more accurate to say that I wake up when the baby wakes up - I hear her start to stir because she's hungry/awake, and that rouses me.

But yeah, she also tends to wake up when one of us does in the morning, unless we're very quiet, since she's just about slept out at those times.

I tend to also let my wife sleep in and take care of the kid in the morning, since she takes care of her all day, and half of the night. It seems unfair to dump the kid on her in the morning, too, while I exercise and meditate.

> I would imagine you were sleeping in increments longer than 15 minutes

Some bad nights, you'd be surprised.

[kevinskii]

I would have wondered the same thing 3 years ago: Can it really be that hard to find 15 minutes to meditate when you have a young kid? It turns out that, yes, it can.

[jamiepenney]

I've been getting up earlier so I have some time before my kid wakes up. He's adjusted to my earlier schedule now so all that's happened is I'm doing his breakfast at 6:30 instead of 7. Hard to keep quiet in a 2 bedroom house where the shower is right next to his room unfortunately.

[wiredfool]

Between three kids 2.5 yrs apart each, I think I went more than eight years never getting a reliable night sleep at home. Maybe once or twice a month did I manage to fall asleep and not get woken up for some reason.

[marcusgarvey]

This is off topic, but while we are on the subject: does anyone regret having children because of issues like lack of sleep, etc? Did that feeling change after the baby stage?

[khedoros]

My first couple months having a son are a blur, and it's difficult to overstate just how disruptive having a young infant is to every aspect of your life. Imagine a fire alarm going off every 1-3 hours, 24/7, for a period of several months. It wakes you up every time, but since you share duty with your significant other, you only have to get up every second time to turn it off (which will require you to be semi-awake for at least half an hour, because mumble mumble fire alarm analogy breaking down).

Waking up 15 minutes early to meditate (let alone do the exercise, etc) is perhaps possible, but since you're so far below a baseline of sleep quality and duration, you're far better off with the extra 15 minutes.

[furyofantares]

A newborn eats every 2-3 hours -- doesn't have a stomach large enough to eat less frequently than this and is used to getting its nutrition continuously.

That's measured from start-to-start of sequential feedings, not end-to-start. Baby might be slow to eat, especially if breastfeeding -- baby is learning how and gaining strength to suck, mother's milk is coming it but may not be quite there yet -- so feeding could easily be 45 mins. If mother is really having trouble with milk she may use a pump afterward to try to get her milk to come in better, and baby may be supplemented via bottle, another 15 mins if you can overlap these things. We're down to an hour left to hit that two hour window, in which to get baby back asleep, maybe have to burp baby, maybe change diaper, maybe wash bottles.

It's very possible to have 0 minutes of downtime between feedings for multiple feedings in a row and it is relentless. I fell asleep standing up multiple times, not only did I not have time to meditate, I can't imagine I could have done it without falling asleep.

I hear some newborns are easier, so maybe you actually get 1-2 hours at a time, but that still must be brutal. Having a low total amount of sleep is one thing but never getting longer stints adds a whole other dimension to the problem.

That's all newborn stuff of course, it should get easier by two months. But that's what the parent of a two month old may be emerging from and is a starting point you might wish to consider if you seek to understand what some parents go through.

[coldtea]

At that point (with the baby etc), you want to use ALL the time you get the chance to sleep.

You are not gonna waste 15 minutes meditating, nor do you have the courage to...

It's like asking why one can't go surfing/running/whatever after a 14 hour work shift. Yeah, you still have 10 hours left in the day, but you hardly have the power at that point...

[akovaski]

I would also recommend sleeping for the sleep deprived (I don't even meditate), but I just wanted a clarification on the idea that GGP couldn't find 15 minutes in a day to do something.

[pavel_lishin]

I could, and there are many 15 minute intervals in my day where I don't have to do something - but not so many that I don't treasure them. Meditation isn't the same as relaxation when you start off, as I understand it - it takes some concentration and effort, and my reserves of both are usually running pretty empty all day.

Like others have said, I'd rather have an extra 15 minutes of sleep, or an extra 15 minutes in the shower, or 15 minutes to just sit and eat breakfast.

[pavel_lishin]

To be fair, meditating would probably really help with the stress of having a newborn. I just can't imagine doing it right after she wakes up and is hungry and possibly covered in whatever came out of her at night. The idea of a stable, repeatable routine largely goes out the window when you've got a young kid, because they can and will interrupt it.