How to sleep for 6 hours?

Abdul Quadeer

Hello PFers,

My exams are approaching and I need to put in more studyhours. I can't getup without having a sound sleep of atleast 8 hours. I tried many things - kept the alarm far away so that I have to walk a few steps to turn it off, put the A.C. on a timer etc but failed.

I don't care if it affects my health, its just a matter of 2.5 months. To achieve something you have to lose something. Please suggest me some ways to do this.

Thanks in advance.
A.Q.

Ryker

What exactly do you think you will achieve by doing this? Feeling like crap and not being able to learn as efficiently or as fast as you would have had you been well rested? Well, if that's your goal, you're asking the right question.

Abdul Quadeer

By doing that, I will achieve a good rank in my exam. 95% of the top rankers sleep for 6-7 hours a day.

If I get a sleep of 6 hours, I don't feel like crap, I can study efficiently - only if I get up.
Don't care about the aftereffects, just tell me how do I achieve it.

Angry Citizen

You won't. Trust me on this. Getting a good night's sleep beats all-nighters any day. Screw the top rankers. If you can't get out of bed, then DONT GET OUT OF BED. Just use the time you have more wisely.

If you're dead set on it, then I don't know what to tell you. I can set my alarm right next to my bed and never fall back asleep.

DaveC426913

What makes you think they will be aftereffects as opposed to duringeffects?


The first week of sleep loss will compromise your ability to study in the second week. And it will accumulate.

jeebs

you do realize that sleep helps you organize what you've tried to learn in your mind? I'm revising for exams myself right now and I definitely notice that when I've found something hard to understand, then slept on it, it's been easier to tackle at the next attempt.
it's important to get enough sleep or you won't be able to concentrate either. I'm sure that 16 hours of potential work time per day for 2.5 months is not going to be that much different to 18 hours.

DaveC426913

jeebs is right. In the long-term (2.5 months) you would be much better to organize other parts of your life to get the extra time you need. Sleep is the one you should not compromise on.

Abdul Quadeer

hmmm....
Is a 7 hours sleep fine?

DaveC426913

How much do you need?

How much do you need to feel rested and alert? It sounds like you need 8 hours.

What are you doing with the other 16?

glueball8

Like others said, sleeping 6 hours instead of what you need 8 hours will only have a negative impact on your learning and mark.

Sleep is not to just rest your body and mind. During your sleep you are relearning everything during the day, but it skips over the non-important parts(like skipping the boring parts of a movie). So no matter how much you study and try to be productive, sleeping is MORE productive. (Over sleep is not productive though.)

Rather than trying to work like never before, you should study smarter than ever before. I'm sure every top student has a good studying habit, and I'm sure the program you want to get in wants you to have a good studying habit.

The hard part is to develop a good studying habit. Developing a good studying habit is a art, it takes a lot of effort, time, adaptation and self control. It is VERY hard.

glueball8

There is no hour for everyone, it depends on you. There are probably people who only needs 6 hours while some people needs close to 9. Though most people need 7-8 hours.

Abdul Quadeer

erm I need 7-7.5 hours to feel rested. But if no one wakes me up I sleep for 8-9 hours (=laziness).

I have been studying for 7-9 hours a day for the past 4 months, not continuosly but with breaks throughout the day.Rest of the time for eating, praying, watching t.v. etc.
Now I need to increase it to around 12-14 hours of sincere studying. I am preparing for the world's most challenging/toughest Engineering Entrance Exam. I have seen students who sleep for 4-5 hours for the whole year and get a rank below 5000 (out of 4 Lakh)

Choppy

I'm not sure there's a good way to reduce the amount of sleep you need, although some things to try include:
- regular sleep schedule
- regular exercise
- limit caffeine intake - particularly in the hours leading up to bedtime
- write out everything you need to accomplish the next day so that you won't dwell on it while you're trying to sleep
- do what you can to limit distractions that might wake you
- avoid television before sleeping
- have a regular wind-down routine
- for getting up sometimes a nice shower can do the trick

Those tips will help you get better sleep, which is what you should focus on, rather than decreasing the amount of bad sleep.

Otherwise, the best advice is to figure out how to study more efficiently. That is something you CAN change and improve on and will give you measurable results. There's a lot of threads on that, so look around and good luck!

Abdul Quadeer

I wish there was a shower attached to my bed

Nice post.

gb7nash

http://www.scientificamerican.com/po...sleep-08-12-08

Simfish

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/he...or-health.html

Honestly, 6 hours of sleep is just as good as 8 hours of sleep.

==

As for sleeping less, well, trying to split up your sleep into two (or more) intervals might do the trick. More intervals reduces your sleep the most (it's called polyphasic sleep), but 2 intervals is a lot easier.

And if you're feeling unalert after waking up, modafinil or Ritalin would do the trick (I won't advocate adderall since it's neurotoxic). If you could ever get your hands on modafinil, that's probably the best solution (but it's also very very expensive)

DaveC426913

Don't be silly. Everyone's different, and they need as much as they need. The 8 hours thing is just an average.

That article uses only a single criterion - heart disease - as an indicator. A good done, but still just one.