Optimize Your Sleep For Better Health and More Free Time

Written by Robert Pagliarini - 16 Comments
Categories: self improvement, time management

Image courtesy of Photoshop Art @ Flickr

Getting too much sleep is hazardous to your health — it may lead to higher risk for obesity, diabetes, and premature death. We’ve been brainwashed to think we need 8 hours of sleep a night, but sleep requirements vary greatly by age, stress level, and health. In fact, research suggests 7 hours might be the ideal amount of sleep the average adult needs per night, and getting 8 or more hours can lead to increased mortality — even more so than too little sleep!

All this talk about how we are sleep deprived and how we need more sleep is enough to, well, put me to sleep. Many experts have pounded the table that “improving job performance may be as easy as getting a good night’s sleep” and that “getting a good night’s sleep is the single best way you never thought of to improve your abilities and human capital literally overnight.”

Hogwash! Not only can too much sleep be bad for your health, it can rob you of your other 8 hours. If you work 8 and sleep 9, that only leave 7 hours for you to pursue your goals and live your life. Every hour, minute, and second you sleep more than you need to is a complete waste of time and your life.

Too little or too much sleep can lead to low energy and mental sluggishness. Your goal is to get an optimum amount of sleep, which I define as the least amount of sleep possible while still feeling physically energized and mentally alert. So how do you know how much sleep you need? Test, test, test. Here’s what to do:

Step 1
Start with 8 ½ hours of sleep. Make sure you get the full 8 ½ hours. No more and no less.

Step 2
The next day, complete the Sleep Optimization Form.  This is a simple form to gauge how you feel (physically and mentally) at different times during the day. Because stress, eating habits, and a host of other factors can influence our energy levels and outlook, try to keep all other variables constant (i.e., unchanged as possible).

Screen shot 2010-01-19 at 12.43.49 PM

Step 3
Repeat Steps 1 and 2 for four nights in a row.

Step 4
Reduce your sleep by 30 minutes and start the sleep/test process again for four nights in a row. Keep cutting your sleep in Step 1 by 30 minutes until you reach 7 hours.

Step 5
Analyze the data. Review your Sleep Optimization Form and identify which days you felt the best (based on higher scores). If you find that you feel good on 8 ½ hours of sleep, but you also feel good on 7 ½ hours of sleep, you’ve just saved yourself an hour a night and given yourself an extra 30 hours a month to create something.

If you really want to get fancy, you can test 15 minute increments (e.g., 7 hours and 45 minutes versus 8 hours). Remember, we’re trying to identify the absolute minimum amount of sleep you need because every minute you aren’t sleeping is another minute for you.

Now I just hope I don’t lose any sleep over contradicting all of the other experts…

Robert Pagliarini writes for CBS MoneyWatch and is the author of three books including the latest, The Other 8 Hours: Maximize Your Free Time to Create New Wealth and Purpose. For a limited time, you can download several free resources (assessment, poster, audio interview, video, and more) from the book at www.other8hours.com.

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  • http://SilverClipboard.com/ Wellington Grey

    Is there any scientific research behind this form, or is it something that the author just made up?

  • http://enlightr.com/cloud Craig

    Awesome. I’ve been looking for an efficient way to optimize my sleep for a while. Not sure if I’ll follow the advice here but it’s still interesting.

  • http://www.30daysatatime.com Dave @ 30daysatatime

    I’ve never bought into the “8 hours of sleep per night” idea because it seems so arbitrary. I function perfectly well on 7 and sometimes fewer and feel horribly sluggish when I oversleep. That’s all I need to know.

  • http://www.lionslinger.com Walter

    I believe that our body has its way of telling us when we are not getting enough sleep. In my case, I can go on 5 hours of sleep. That leaves me a lot of time to work on my goals. This post of yours is very interesting. :-)

  • John

    I seem to remember reading that our sleep works in cycles of 1.5 hours or thereabouts.

    This explains why some people can survive happily on 6, 7.5 or 9 hours, but getting up after the magic 8 is really difficult.

    I think this needs to be taken into account when doing a study like this.

  • http://www.uncertainchange.com Tomas Stonkus

    Oversleeping. I have been doing too much of that lately. I can definitely say, that sleeping a lot will not return the favor of feeling super energized the following day.

    I would like to know why.

    I know I have felt the best, when I was sleeping in regular patterns: going to be a bit earlier and waking up at the same time everyday.

    I think because of this idea that I am not getting enough sleep if I am sleeping less than X hours has conditioned me to force myself back to sleep even though I would naturally wake up at 6 or so.

    Interesting idea with the chart, but it’s bit cumbersome to implement it.

    Best,
    Tomas

  • Robert Pagliarini

    Hey Craig – Great question. I’ve tested several variations of this form and have had the best success with this one. Scientific? No. But it beats sleeping different amounts each day and not knowing how your body reacts…

  • Robert Pagliarini

    Tomas – It is a bit of a drag to complete, but I just haven’t seen a better way to test this.

  • Robert Pagliarini

    Walter – I wish I could live on 5 hours! The things I could do…

  • Cristina

    this sounds good. i will give it a try!

  • roothorick

    The form IS scientific research, in and of itself. You’re starting with a “control” of 8.5 hours, experimenting with different patterns, logging the results, and making conclusions based on those results — a bit more informal than real lab time, but genuine science nonetheless.

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  • http://www.axelg.com/10-steps-to-sound-sleep.html axel g

    Interesting, this is totally new to me.

    In the short-term a large number of variables may effect the outcome…

    I reckon that long-term trials would work though.

    Helpful post!

  • http://www.bestmattressreviews.com Zach Smith

    I agree wholeheartedly. It is not about how long you sleep, it is about the quality of sleep you get. Some people can adjust to 4 hours of sleep. The thing is, when we sleep constantly for 8 hours, we are training our body to function well only when we have 8 hours of sleep. The most important thing is to make the most out of our sleep time. One big way to make sure that you are getting the best quality of sleep is to purchase the right mattress. Choose a mattress that has the most ideal comfort level.

  • Adonis Paxon

    This method has a few merrits:
    1. Sleep and rest are different we know this. One can fall a sleep, and not rest, so too one can rest without sleep. The key is understanding that you can do both. and either indepantly of each other. The benefit here is that this allows the understanding of a potential pattern to improve time efficiency, while possibly expanding further to understand the difference betwen resting, and sleeping. I was fortunate to read an article about short meditation, one method was to close eyes, take a few deep breaths, open eyes slowly to refresh where you are. This is a very powerful exercise. So aside from sleep and rest being different things, we too have know we are different as individuals.

    Sleep and rest is different to individuals, What if I am active teenager, vs an older adult, or what if my race is different, will that have an impact, so a key advantage is to begin testing a persons own ideas of the high value of time, and its direct relation to success, for time is not only money time is the only thing none of us can ever get or buy more of. Although, I beleive there are many elements which may have an effect on the amount of ‘Rest’ factors like the use of a deppressant right before resting for the evening, or is a red glass of wine before bed just a theory? We are all aware of the symptoms of a slight amount of alcohol consuption before bed. What about travellers of people in different fields of work which require rest during different periods of the day, and places like different hotel rooms.

    In conclusion, streamlining sleep, great article for those who value their time highly.