Skipping out on sleep may be seen as the ultimate badge of productivity for a society that constantly tries to over-extend, over-perform, and over-deliver.
It's a lifestyle we associate with the rich and powerful of the world, not to mention the hustle-drunk tech bros of Silicon Valley, but it's not a new thing.
Is it true that sleeping less than eight hours per night leads to more? Is there more success, more productivity, and more wealth?
It's not that simple and healthy.
In the last 10 or 15 years or so, there have been studies showing that sleep deprivation affects metabolism and the immune system.
Your ability to fight infections is impacted. People who have long periods of sleep are more likely to be obese, have diabetes, and have cancer.
It's on top of short-term disadvantages like memory problems, reduced reaction times, and fatigue, which most of us have probably experienced after a bad night's rest.
There are ways to stop or limit sleep deprivation, and it isn't just having an eight-hour sleep in one solid block.
The power of sleep.
Some sleep schedules are more successful than others as the sleepless elite try new and different ways to sleep.
In 1943, an article in TIME magazine suggested a method of sleep invented by Richard Buckminster Fuller, whereby he slept two hours a day in thirty-minute blocks. He kept this up for two years before he had to stop.
Banks is a sleep loss researcher who deals with sleep issues for people working in low-sleep environments.
There are lots of polyphasic sleep schedules, with variations on the same theme: sleep less, but in more frequent doses.
Banks says that these are probably not going to work well in the long term since you're only getting a few hours of sleep over 24 hours, but they have one thing going for them. Naps.
There is some evidence that you don't need to get all your sleep in one big chunk.
People in operational environments might get a main sleep of four or five hours, and then they might get a one- or two-hour nap in the afternoon. That seems to be a way that you can try to sleep better.
Naps can have cool names and you can use special strategies, but the length doesn't really matter. People who aren't sleeping enough should be napping more.
We can't rely on naps alone. Our brains need at least one longer sleep cycle per night to function. Rapid eye movement or REM sleep is one of the main components of our nightly sleep.
Non-REM sleep is broken down into three stages. Stage one is when you are transitioning to sleep and only a few minutes. Stage two is a light sleep where your body temperature drops and eye movement stops, but you can sleep longer if you choose. Slow-wave sleep occurs most in the first half of the night. This is the kind of sleep you need to get in the morning.
REM sleep is very different from non-REM sleep. This section of sleep is where you'll most likely kick, jitter or do some other kind of movement. This is the part of sleep where you dream.
The restoration and recovery of the brain and the maintenance of sleep are both important parts of stage three.
The whole thing only lasts about 70 to 120 minutes per cycle, so even with four or five hours of sleep, you are still getting all the components needed for a good rest.
Do you need to care for a nappuccino?
Banks has another hack up her sleeve, one that will be especially exciting for coffee lovers, if a plain nap just isn't doing enough for you.
She tells ScienceAlert that one of their team published a paper on the 'nappuccino'.
Why does this work? A compound called adenosine is blocked by caffeine. Once we do sleep, edinosine is whisked away to start the day afresh.
Coffee and sleep make you wake up more refreshed.
She says that it's a little bit boring, but there are ways to use it more strategically.
The average person has a big cortisol spike in the morning to get them going. That is a normal thing. We don't need to have coffee first thing in the morning, but people want to have it because they feel sluggish.
It would be better if you had a cup of coffee in the late morning to help you get through the day.
Some people get lucky with their genetic sleep lottery.
Some people need more and some people need less. Some people can get by with less sleep. It is similar to a normal range in height or weight.
I don't believe politicians who say they can get by on a couple of hours of sleep. I think they're catching up on sleep through naps or sleeping in Parliament.
It all comes down to naps.
Getting less sleep and chugging coffee is not just about maximizing productivity. Some people have insomnia or anxiety around sleep, and knowing that your health is incurring damage without the right number of hours is unlikely to help quieten the voices in one's head.
The brain can bounce back from sleep deprivation, and many of the problems associated with sleep deprivation do actually get better once you get back to a normal sleep schedule.
When we change our sleep habits and get more sleep again, we can see that some of the effects of that doom and gloom are gone.
For what it's worth, he would fall asleep under his desk or in meetings and sometimes he would just pass out. His wife put a cot in the corner of his office so he could lie down.
Remember, the next time you feel like taking a nap, it's not a waste of time. There's no better productivity hack than a quick nap.
