get more sleep while sleeping?

[unwashed potato!]

wondering if its possible for someone to get more sleep while they are sleeping? i dont mean like trying to sleep but the actual part where they have noded (sp?) off and classed as no longer awake. i got thinking about this because i was thinking about how some people can be deep sleepers in that no noise will wake them, and others can be light sleepers that hear a slight and be awake, which makes me think that the light sleepers get less energy from sleeping then heavy sleepers as they are more awake and using more energy while sleeping becuase there body is listening to the noises.

also is it anything to do with what you eat before sleeping? or how comfy you are when sleeping?

 

[Booner!]

Good theory!

Well I never wake up in the night, unless there is something irregular making noises. I have good hearing!

Yet my mum will wake up by the slightest noise..

 

[gjrc]

i sleep lightly, but then i dont need much sleep.

its just about conditioning the body and what you get used to.

 

[unwashed potato!]

its just about conditioning the body and what you get used to.

is that fact, or an educateed guess from your experience?

 

[Will_3rd]

yeah I'm deep sleeper, managed to sleep all the best things that happened at Uni

so once I'm asleep I am a heavy sleeper unless there are people shouting outside at 4am or a girl talking on her phone outside my door at 3am.

 

[unwashed potato!]

i think people are missing the point of this thread. what im asking is if there is a way that you can get moer sleep/energy whilst sleeping in the same amount of time as before? im dont mean like how light sleepers will be woken up so get less, but just becuase the body is still being used whilst your sleeping more then heavy sleepers which would mean some of the energy gained from sleeping will have been used just trying to listen.

 

[geeza]

yes, drink a bottle of vodka before going to 'bed' you will have a great sleep and i doubt nothing will wake you. Ive slept through a sofa being put on my head with a person lieing on top of it!

 

[CircleFaust]

so are you saying if a light sleeper and a deep sleeper were both asleep for say 8 hours would the deep sleeper have more energy when he awoke?

i wouldn't think so. i think once a light sleeper is asleep they would be recharging the same as a deep sleeper.

however the light sleeper by nature is more likely to wake up during the course of his 8 hours and then his recharging process would be disrupted ,naturally.

 

[Tute]

I have a friend who claims he "powernaps" with about 3 hours sleep a night, not sure if it's true or not but he said he had to train his body to do it.

He pops pro-plus like skittles though, and drinks coffee by the litre.

 

[Mat]

I dont think the body would use a noticable amount of energy listening in the way that you describe. The body does what it needs to during the sleep pattern but I dont think you would be able to notice any difference if you account for things like you suggest.

The body will alter the sleep pattern on a day to day basis depending on what it needs. For example, if you have no sleep one night then the percentage of deep sleep will be incresed the next night automatically, to make up for it.

 

[tom_nieto]

yes, drink a bottle of vodka before going to 'bed' you will have a great sleep and i doubt nothing will wake you. Ive slept through a sofa being put on my head with a person lieing on top of it!

Booze coma isn't proper sleep though. Even after 8-10 hours of it I don't feel refreshed.

 

[Mat]

Booze coma isn't proper sleep though. Even after 8-10 hours of it I don't feel refreshed.

Yeah, "booze comas" are more like hibernating, which isnt sleep. Once a bear comes out of hibernation one of the first things it does is go to sleep! As it is with the morning after.

 

[Zefan]

Sleep with a beautiful woman, that brings much good sleep.

Or just read

 

[mishima]

I have a friend who claims he "powernaps" with about 3 hours sleep a night, not sure if it's true or not but he said he had to train his body to do it.

He pops pro-plus like skittles though, and drinks coffee by the litre.

I think that will catch up with him soon enough I have family friends who could have 3/4 hours a night and that was cause of their busy lives - eventually your body reacts and the lack of sleep against hours awake takes its tole. Picking up illness is one of the effects of it, having a low immune system.

I think the state at what you sleep - deep or light is dependant upon how relaxed the person is. Consciously and sub-consiously!

 

[geeza]

The body will alter the sleep pattern on a day to day basis depending on what it needs. For example, if you have no sleep one night then the percentage of deep sleep will be incresed the next night automatically, to make up for it.

this doesnt work in all cases unfortunately. After a couple of days of no/hardly any sleep you start to hillucinate as you 'nod off' which makes it scary to even try and sleep, however trying to stay awake wont work and just makes it worse

 

[MNuTz]

is that fact, or an educateed guess from your experience?

FACT:

http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/10/polyphasic-sleep/

Interesting read.

Ive thought about doing this myself as i always feel there isnt enough time.

I work 4 on 4 off shifts on an alternating pattern but unfortunately, my breaks are not regular. Lucky if i get 2 x 30 min breaks in 12 hours.

 

[Sparky__H]

this doesnt work in all cases unfortunately. After a couple of days of no/hardly any sleep you start to hillucinate as you 'nod off' which makes it scary to even try and sleep, however trying to stay awake wont work and just makes it worse

I get that when I nod off and wake up in the morning

Some strange stuff too, skipps about between diffrent images at a fantastic rate.

 

[Angilion]

I've looked into this a little because I work awkward shifts and I'm trying to optimise my sleeping.

Sleeping is a surprisingly active event. It's not like going into standby, which I sort of assumed it was. I had the idea that the higher functions of your brain went on standby while physical maintainence was stepped up (you heal more when asleep). In fact, there's more brain activity during some parts of sleep than when you're awake. In that respect, the OP is wrong about how much energy is used.

There are 5 distinct stages of sleeping, which can be detected by medical scanning kit, particularly brain scanning. Stages 1 and 2 are light sleep, stages 3 and 4 are deep sleep, stage 5 is REM sleep. The stages repeat in cycles that usually last between 80 and 100 minutes. The routine is 1,2,3,4,3,2,REM. That routine takes the 80 to 100 minutes in total, then it's back to stage 1 again.

If you sleep for more than 1 cycle (as you should), the total length of a cycle remains pretty much constant, but the length of stages 3, 4 and REM varies. The longer you sleep for, the more REM and less stage 3 and 4 you get.

As far as I can tell from my reading, light sleepers spend more time in stages 1 and 2, whereas heavy sleepers spend more time in stages 3 and 4. If you're woken during stages 3 and 4, you'll be in a mess. Ever had one of those days where you know you had 7 or 8 hours sleep but you're still a zombie for hours after you wake up? You were woken during stage 3 or 4. If you're woken during REM sleep, you will probably remember vivid dreams. You may also wake up paralysed, as you are always paralysed during REM sleep so that you don't move to match your dreams. It's happened to me - scared the hell out of me.

Your best bet is to make sure you sleep a whole number of cycles (the 1,2,3,4,3,2,REM cycle). How many cycles is less important. Nice idea, but without quite sophisticated monitoring equipment, you can't be sure what stage you're in. You can start with a guess of 90 minutes per sleep cycle, with 7 and a half hours being best for most people (5 cycles).

What you eat before sleeping might have an effect. I think a full stomach reduces the amount of deep sleep, which isn't a good idea. Drugs often have the same effect, particularly nicotine and alcohol. You'll be deeply unconscious with enough alcohol, but that isn't the same as good sleep.

 

[Tute]

I think that will catch up with him soon enough I have family friends who could have 3/4 hours a night and that was cause of their busy lives - eventually your body reacts and the lack of sleep against hours awake takes its tole. Picking up illness is one of the effects of it, having a low immune system.

I think the state at what you sleep - deep or light is dependant upon how relaxed the person is. Consciously and sub-consiously!

It's funny you should say that - he's always coughing and spluttering like he's got a constant bout of flu. Never really though anything of it until you said that.

He runs a web hosting business that he built from the ground up, he has some important customers and runs it mostly alone so he's always running around restarting servers/writing webpages so I can understand why he does it.

I do worry about his health though, it can't be good for you at all.

 

[geeza]

I get that when I nod off and wake up in the morning

Some strange stuff too, skipps about between diffrent images at a fantastic rate.

thats bad. I only get it a bit after a heavy weekend with some nasty nightmares.

Eating oranges is suppose to help with sleeping as it 5thp (get from health food store) this stuff is suppose to help builbup of serotonin which controls mood, emotion and stuff. Not tried it but you could try some if you cant sleep that well.