During my younger years, I didn't require as much as I do as a Senior. Today I sometimes need 9 hours of sleep, but mostly 8 hours. Generally in bed between 10 and 11 and almost always up by 7. Since my wife still works a full-time job, I let her sleep in as late as she wants to on the weekends, unless we have something planned to do in the morning, like breakfast out. During the times we've been to Las Vegas, NV, we go to our hotel room and take an hour or so nap at 3PM, so we could stay up a little later that night. I mean, the nightlife, the lights and all are just too exciting to miss by going to bed to early (LOL). Now, my SIL (brother's wife) only needs around 4 to 5 hours of sleep at night. Neither of us could function at all on that little of sleep. Absolutely no way! So, what are your sleep habits/sleep requirements?
Everyone's different on this Some thrive on less sleep. I like to get up early, everything takes longer to accomplish I've always got up early though - too much sleep makes me tired .........
Since I can remember, I need between 4 to 6 hours. Anymore than that and I feel bad. But I am a firm believer in 'Power Naps' (15 to 30 min.)
8. I can and do sometimes run on less but that 8 hours is preferred. I've always been a sleep wimp. I like my sleep. I should add when I worked 12 hours shifts for 10 years, I probably went on less than 8 for those 3 days on schedule.
For most of my working life, I slept very little. Working the graveyard shift at the paper company, I would sleep about four hours a day; then, once every couple of weeks, I'd sleep as long as I could keep my eyes closed. As a paramedic, I was up and down all night so there was no figuring how much actual sleep I got. However, for the past few years I have been sleeping at least eight hours a day, and sometimes more. I can still easily do an all-nighter if I'm busy with something but usually I go to bed about midnight or one o'clock in the morning, and don't get up until about eight or nine. Sometimes I'll take a nap during the day, but that's not so unusual. As a paramedic, I'd sleep during the day when time permitted since we were busier at night.
I'd like to get 8-9 hours, but get 6-7 hours nightly. I don't take a nap at all, never could take a nap since I was little. I'd pretend to sleep when I was in kindergarten when we had to roll out our nap sacks and just close my eyes until the teacher woke us up. I don't know why, but I just don't nap. I've got Psyche to watch every night till 2 AM, except on Sunday's for Bondathon is on Sunday.
And I thought I worked busy areas when I was in emergency medical! What I hated about nighttime calls was when we'd arrive at a house and nobody was home (lights all off). Fake call, whatever, but we still got woke up in the middle of the night and sometimes it wasn't easy to get back to sleep.
Sounds like when I was in the Navy. I was told in boot camp that the Navy guarantees 1 hour of sleep and there were some nights that I really felt like that was all I got. I could have the 8PM to midnight watch, get off of that and end up going on a refueling detail for at least an hour. And still have to get up at 6AM.
How much I need and how much I get actually differs day to day with me. Though I would say over all I need at least 8 hours of restful sleep to be at my best. Since oftentimes even those 8 hours may be filled with tossing and turning...I think the best answer for me is that whatever sleep I need for each day's doings are provided for me.
When I was in kindergarten, we'd be kicking and pinching each other, throwing things, and anything other than sleeping. When I worked in Los Fresnos, we once went two weeks without a call. At another time, at least one of our two ambulances was out constantly for two days, and frequently they were both out. But McAllen was a lot busier and later, when I was part owner of a company in Delta County, we had 9-11 contracts with seven cities and a portion of the county area, so we were busy. Often, I would sleep on the way to an emergency call.
When my area of coverage was Huntington Beach, Fountain Valley, Costa Mesa and Newport Beach, I was busy, but not nearly as much as when I worked the Compton, Watts, South Central, Torrance and Los Angeles areas. I got to see just how busy it was at L.A. County General Hospital on a Friday and Saturday night and early morning. Seemed like I was always getting Code 3 (emergency) calls. We'd be sitting down enjoying a descent dinner at Denny's when and my handheld radio would sound-off from the dispatcher. Off we'd go. After a few years of doing this "emergency" stuff, I got tired and changed occupations. Went into warehousing which was Monday thru Friday and weekends off. Loved that.
In bed between 10-11pm...mostly at 10:30......normal wake time 6:00-6:30. I really do not like getting up before 6am. I do like to buy grocery ,run errands early especially in the summertime. Less than 6 or 7 hours makes me a zombie