What if sleep was needed for only a short period of time?
Did you ever think about the sleep cycle babies have? They wake up constantly throughout the night, demanding to be fed, or just wanting
to be held. We pray for the days when they can sleep through the night. Well, what if sleeping through the night, that we are so accustomed to, was not the norm? And in fact it was discovered that we didn’t need 8-10 hours a night; 3 to 4 hours were all that were needed. How would our lives change?I’m going to focus more on the adult part of life rather than the growing up as a child part of life. I’m also going to make the assumption that these 3 to 4 hours of sleep will be all we need to replenish our cells and bodies, so you’ll have to change your present frame of mind.
What would you be doing with all that extra time? Would you be binge watching more TV? How about play versus work? Would you take it easy and do more relaxing activities or become more of a workaholic?
What happens to our mind and bodies when we relax more? There is less stress. However, with increased relaxation, might come less exercise. Do we now gain more weight, especially since now we have more hours of wakefulness and probably eat more? Does that mean having 4 meals a day instead of 3, or just more snacks throughout the day?
And those workaholics out there…
Would the demands of your job increase? Would the 40-hour week increase, since now you’ll have more time and can build in more breaks so that you don’t have to overwork?
And though your body does replenish itself, would working longer hours have an affect on your body? With all of the increased expectations, would you age faster?
There are lots of things to consider if you had to sleep less. It’s said that we spend ? of our life sleeping. There is a lot of body replenishing, imaginative thought (dreams) and improvements to our well being, during that long time of our lives, that we might be losing. Now think of how much more we could accomplish with a longer wake time. But at what costs? Would it be worth it? Eight hours a night seems just about right for me.
Now, what if you were a kid with all that extra time You could go to school for a longer part of the day, which would include more recesses and even more learning? And your teachers could actually complete, in one year, what they are required to teach. Wouldn’t that be exciting?
I would certainly get a lot more writing done! It is odd that we have to sleep 8 hours a night…that’s 8 hours of every day wasted! Not very efficient.
I sleep too much. Oh well.
Stephanie,
Time not wasted if our bodies do replenish themselves so that we can be more efficient during our waking hours. It would be more interesting if we could determine our optimal sleep time as individuals rather than a fixed recommended time for everyone.
As a person that needs 9 – 10 hours a sleep to function properly (I can go a couple of days on 8 hours but then I start exhibiting signs of sleep deprivation), I wish we required less. It is hard to fit in everything that needs to be done in a day. My house would be cleaner and I would exercise more as those are two things that get skimped on now when I run out of time in the day. I read something a while back that said that humans use to actually have 2 sleep cycles of about 3 – 4 hours each. Girl Who Reads