Can you make yourself require less sleep?

[Bleacher Creature]

Seriously, anyone else here not able to function (at least for the first hour or two) on less than 8 or 9 hours? I'm so tired (no pun intended) of not being able to wake up in the morning, but am just not willing to go to sleep at 10 or 11pm at night just so that they can wake up at 6 or 7am?

Thoughts? Suggestions?

[Redstone]

1. No, you can't.

You are how you are.

Redstone

[Mike03]

2. I Relate

I have been struggling with intense insomnia now for exactly one year, since the week Katrina struck (which is probably why I am posting so much now, when I usually don't post).

A year ago I began getting up earlier and earlier, until I was subsisting on a couple of hours of sleep--from around five or six hours a night. Often I am only getting three or four. My alarm is set for three AM right now, but many days I wake up prior to that.

I would love to get by on just a couple of hours a night, but I used to need eight to ten hours.

Thanks for asking this question, and I can't wait to see what others say. I feel that sleep deprivation harms me, but I cannot stop getting up early.

[CrushTheDLC]

3. You can try to, but I don't recommend it.

Used to be able to party until 3:00 in the morning, make it into work at 6:45 AM, and after slamming down about 64 ounces of coffee, I was fine. Now I'm lucky if I can get to sleep at all more than three nights a week, and when I DO sleep, struggle very hard NOT to sleep in until noon.

So the moral of the story is.... whatever your body's natural sleep rhythm is, don't mess with it, or you'll pay the price later.

[Mike03]

8. Any advice on

how to repair a disrupted sleep pattern that seems to just go out of whack on its own desire/impetus?

[reyd reid reed]

4. I function.

Not very well, but I function. I work until well after midnight and usually can't go right to sleep when I get home. I generally fall asleep somewhere around 3 a.m., maybe a little later if I get home later or it was a particularly good or bad night. I'm up at 6:30 the next (same?) morning to get the kids up dressed, washed, fed and out the door and on the school bus.

This is my life from mid-August through May.

It's not enough sleep but it's all I get.

I have to make it be enough. And, in the meantime...

Coffee. Lots and lots of coffee.

[u4ic]

7. Wha???

3.5 hours a night???

Oh, hon...:-( :hug:

[Mike03]

9. Thank you so much for sharing this

I am lucky if I am asleep by ten or eleven, and my alarm goes off at three, but I usually awaken at 2:30.

[Mike03]

5. I'd be happy to share how I do this

But as others have said, and which I agree with, I don't think it's very good for the spirit/mind and body. Physical strength, in my opinion, is the best antidote to insomnia.

[CatholicEdHead]

6. No chance at all

It hits me doubly hard when I had to work overnights. It was all over at sunrise.