Dumb thread idea, I know. Maybe no one  will respond. For some reason I'm curious though. I need at least 7. 8 is prime.

 

I have an uncle who works 18 hours a day and sleeps 4 hours a day. He drinks coffee all day. He's in his 50s though; maybe the amount of sleep you need depends on age?

7, but I can work with 6 sometimes 5.

 

I used to not be able to do this, but the older I get the less sleep I need.

The older you get the less sleep you want. because life is coming to an end for yourself. You want to see and do as much as possible before that happens.

^wow what a depressing post

I like 8.5 to 9 hours of sleep a night, but I get anywhere from 4-7 most nights. I can certainly function on 3 hours if needs be, but that's with the aid of academic enhancing drugs. I can also go days without sleep if needed. Every finals week, I'd stay up for at least a 48-60 hour block. Adderall and Ritalin work wonders. They wake you up, make your mind sharper, improve your game with the ladies, and give you confidence to kick ass at life regardless of how much sleep you've had.

 

Without ADD meds, I need at least six hours to function, eight or nine to function well.

 

I have an uncle who works 18 hours a day and sleeps 4 hours a day. He drinks coffee all day. He's in his 50s though; maybe the amount of sleep you need depends on age?

 

It does somewhat, and it varies from person to person, but generally speaking, younger people need more sleep than older people. Still, 4 hours is ridiculous. The lowest I've heard is healthy for just about anyone is six hours. Everyone's bodies are different in terms of sleep needs, but there are certainly limits. I think most people fall in the 7-10 hour range. Very few get this much sleep though. Most Americans are sleep-deprived, and I bet high schoolers are among the worst. I remember working until close, getting six hours of sleep, and then getting up at 7 the next morning to rush to school. I wasn't even on ADD drugs, so it was horrible. I was tired the entire day and slept through study halls.

 

Keep your amphetamines (that IS what they are) in low dosage. You don't want to fry your brain, man. It will also make you age quickly. One of my old room mates is 20 and looks like he's 28. He's a big fan of adderall. On a happier note, it did cause him to go up 70 levels on World of Warcraft in only a few weeks.

 

My uncle said the reason he doesn't sleep that much is because he was in the military (during Vietnam era) and had to be up for 6  hours, sleep for 4, be up for six more hours, then sleep for 4, and so on. He said his brain can easily adjust. I guess I believe him because he really can pull off 4 hours of sleep but I do remember hearing that the older you get, the less sleep you need.

I never function "normally", but my body seems to crave 8 hours of sleep overnight and a 1- or 2-hour nap in mid-afternoon. I'm approaching 12 hours since I got out of bed this morning, without a nap, and I feel like I'm in zombie mode and running on autopilot.

In architecture school I would do at the very worst 3 day straight of zero sleep.  I've done more than that unnaturally, but I'm not going to talk about that here

 

Typically I'm fine on 6 hour/night all week when I'm working an 8-5 job, but I crash on the weekends and sleep until 2:00 pm on Saturdays

 

Even at 24, I've noticed my capacity to stay up like I used to is diminishing.  3 years of reckless sleep habits has in fact taken its toll.

The older you get the less sleep you want. because life is coming to an end for yourself. You want to see and do as much as possible before that happens.

 

As depressing as this sounds, I can relate. Some nights I think I want to get this or that done, but next thing you know it's already 12 AM and that's when I start getting pissed on how quick time flies.

 

Life is too short.

Depends on what type of activity I'm doing.. if it's physically intensive, more than if I'm just at work.

When I was injecting myself with coffee.  I could go days with only 2/3 hours of sleep.

 

Now I'm bed around 11:30 PM.

 

Back in the day, I remember quite a few times, where I went to work, went to dinner, went to a club partied until 4:30 AM.  Went home and showered and was back at work at 7 AM.

seven, more is better

However many I need, last night was not enough.  Lots of coffee is going to be necessary today...

 

2 double espressos and counting

I voted for 7 hours, because I feel like that would be ideal for me. However since I have an infant at home that hasn't figured out how to sleep through the night yet, I've learned that I can function well enough on 4 or 5 hours. Also I've figured out that bus drivers almost always make sure everyone is awake and off the bus when they get to the end of the route.

I've been getting about 3 lately.