You don't need as much sleep as you might think

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Before I was put on antipsychotics at the age of 15, I slept 4 hours a night and no naps and I was fine. My parents told me that as a baby, I only slept 5 hours a day. However now olanzapine sedates me so I sleep 8 hours a night, which is way too much for me. I wake up feeling awful, dehydrated, dizzy and nauseous. I have been doing quite well regarding psychosis, so I may ask for a medication review (I am on 20mg olanzapine). I need an antipsychotic for my challenging behaviour / meltdowns though.

I find sleeping annoying and interfering.

I was put on Stelazine back in 1990. It was HORRIBLE!! Restless Leg Syndrome TO THE MAX. I used to wake up in the morning and I was so jittery and restless that I just had to get up and go for a drive!

I HATED STELAZINE!!

And the other thing was, it turned me into a zombie. A shell of a human. I was just blank (I mean, I've got pretty flat affect most of the time but this was DIFFERENT). I didn't feel anything! Weird little blue tablets. Thank Christ they've got better stuff now!

Anyway, all that's over now and I now live back in the real world with all you other Schizos!

I agree. I don't think it's wise to mess with the circadian rhythms and cut sleeping time via alarm clocks. It's up to individuals to try whatever they like of course. Currently I'm waking up naturally about 10 hours after falling asleep, and I feel better than I used to when I woke to an alarm.

I usually use an alarm clock about once a month. Even then, it is sometimes a reminder, not to wake me up.

I'm able to get by on 5 hours of sleep each night.

I agree. I don't know if it's "unwise", per se, but I know I don't like it----but, even when I'm working, and my rhythm is easily changed, I still set the alarm cuz I'm scared to death something will happen, and I won't wake-up on time, and be late for work----and, THAT'S WORSE!!

I FINALLY got a couple of hours sleep YeeeHaaar

Congratulations.

Thank you

Everyone is different so saying that "you don't need as much sleep as you might think" may not work for others who need more sleep than you, you can't assume that everyone needs the same amount of sleep as you do.

I personally don't care if I /could/ sleep less. My favourite medium is to be able to fall asleep relatively quickly (say within 15 minutes) and to not feel tired during the day. I find the best way to achieve that for me is to have 8-9 hours a night, always going to bed and waking up at exactly the same time (ok my bed time varies as I can lose track of time, or forget to do things that I like to do every day until late at night). If I allow myself to wake-up when I want, I end up getting up later and later, and being unable to sleep at bedtime.

I do like being awake early though. I enjoy that period of time before you're going to get any phone calls, texts, knocks at the door, official emails, or people being noisy outside. I find that period of time really relaxing and I like to just sit down and saviour it.

I could probably get by on not much sleep, I guess I am now anyways, my sleep cycle is broken. But I'd want longer periods of sleep so I can have some dreams. If I get less than 7-8 hours of sleep I usually have no dreams or I did and have no memory of them even occurring.

Yes, lesser of two evils and all that. I wish I could remember the name of the guy who has tons of stuff on the web about the ill effects of interfering with the natural sleep cycle. Very logical. But for all that, I had to wake to an alarm for a few decades before I quit working, and I have to admit it wasn't lethal.

For me I have to use an alarm clock, otherwise I just end up oversleeping and being unable to fall asleep at night. I feel fairly happy with the way I sleep.

Yes, I can see the usefulness of an alarm clock. What happened to me when I only went to bed when I was tired and only got up when I woke up naturally, was that I ended up going to bed pretty late and not waking till noon. Not a problem as such, as I don't have any morning deadlines these days, but after decades of having to get up, I still have the habit of thinking that something's wrong if I don't, and then there's the practical problem that if one day I have to be up early, it could be quite a shock to the system. It's odd that my "natural" sleep cycle is running as if I lived in the middle of the Atlantic.

When I was in grad school in the 1970s (was also in grad school in the 1990s), I nearly always got up at about 4:30 in the morning, took a shower, and went to the math department to study.

That was in a dorm. It was awfully difficult to go to sleep in a dorm early enough to be able to get up at 4:30 am.

I need at least 7-8 hours of sleep. The older I get, the crankier I get without sleep.