Case 1: When I sleep slightly less than would be ideal, for example less than 7 hours per night, I wake up reasonably functional and get through the day without being excessively tired, if not being totally alert either.
Case 2: When I sleep slighly less than would be ideal, for example less than 7 hours per night and wake up, let the dog out to the backyard, wait a few minutes, let the dog back in, and decide to go back to sleep because it’s weekend. Now falling asleep takes a while but eventually I succeed. Then after an hour or two at max, I wake up again, but this time around I’m extremely drowsy with muscles aching and it takes serious effort to get up and get the engine running at normal speed. Even though the total amount of sleep (about 8-9 hours) sounds pretty ideal on paper.
Why is that?
Oh boy. Big topic.
Don’t refer to “average sleep” of 7-8 hrs. Plenty of people—like myself and everyone on my paternal side—struggle to exceed 6.5 unless post a physical day. Plenty of other people unfathomably need 9 or more hours. “Average” is such a poor yardstick, especially with so many unique outliers. Don’t pursue “ideal” sleep if you naturally need more or less.
Sleep cycles are around 90 mins. Your thoughts wander into dream state, you go into deeper states, and return to a dream state as the cycle ends. You dream several times a night but will only be aware of it going to sleep and especially waking up. Yet a few mins after waking up, you will have forgotten the details of the waking dream.
If you wake up mid-cyxle, not matter how much sleep you’ve gotten, you will feel drowsy. The brain activates awake, but everything else is in sleep mode and gets stuck there for a while since it never got its natural chems/triggers it uses to wake up This is why if you.re a 7.5 hr sleeper and missed it, it’s better to set the alarm to 6 than 7. Multiples of 90mins as a rough rule to avoid feeling shit next day.
Listen to your body. If you are hungry, eat. If you are not, don’t. Sleep is the same. If you force sleep, you will not benefit, espially if your brain is confused and fires up after an hour into “sleeping in”, making you feel drowsy. 3, 4.5, 6, 7.5, 9.
My advice is trial going to bed earlier. If you wake up earlier, you’re all good. When you wake up, that’s it. Don’t try go back to sleep.
On the other hand, if you go to bed early and wake up normal time, enough of that confirms you need the sleep. Your brain may be ready to wake up at 8am, but your body is not. Give the body an hour early mark and see what happens.
Good points. I should start to go to bed earlier. Always been somewhat of a night owl so I have to focus on that more.