THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU! I’ve felt like the outsider freak for so long. Society, business, acquaintances — you’re a hero if you can shine on 4 hours sleep — you get to brag about it. I think it’s time for us to start bragging about 9!!!
I always say “I’m a Taurus I need my sleep” 😂 I just feel so much better after 9 hours of sleep. I was absolutely shook when I heard Dakota Johnson sleeps like 10-14 hours a night. so jelly
Yesss! The thing I find challenging with my early bedtime and need for sleep is finding the time to socialize, and explaining to friends that it’s not that I don’t want to spend time with them… it’s that I can’t go out to a concert or have a late dinner and also feel human and functional the next day. I would *love* to go to a show with you… if that show was at, say, 2pm on a Saturday. Can we start a movement to bring more cool things to the matinee time slot?
As someone that drank the tech-bro kool-aid in his first startup, I'm guilty of trying many things like Polyphasic sleep to reduce my sleep time. I saw sleep as a waste. A waste of time that could have been spent coding, selling, learning.
But I didn't realize the impact that had on my emotions and health. As someone with chronic depression, I've discovered good sleep means a little less pain every day. A little less binge eating. A little less anti-social behavior. It's led to more good habits and less bad ones.
I'm glad I got this in my inbox on a day where I only achieved four hours of sleep.
SAME. I completely lost my mind when my daughter was young because of the sleep deprivation. No joke.
I've always needed it. And it isn't changing and those times when I think I can "be like everyone else" I am inevitably a mess for a good few days afterwards. Solidarity sister!
Wow. I’ve been told by so many people that I am “obsessed with sleep”. I am someone who feels best with nine hours of sleep and I move heaven and earth to get it. I have never heard (read) someone talk (write) so candidly about feeling like I do about sleep before. Thank you for writing this. I had no idea there were more people like me out there!!
Oh my goodness I love this so much. I remember thinking it was strange how I always wanted nine hours of sleep before I had my twins. I have been deranged for the past 17 years. Now I have menopause and new kinds of sleep interruptions, which started just when my kids Stopped needing me so much at night. I have a daughter with type one diabetes and so I have been a light sleeper since she was diagnosed at age 3 lots of testing at night and adjusting medication or sugar intake. Sleep is my religion. This is a great essay! Honestly, I think I would’ve liked it even if I wasn’t a nine hour kind of lady.
I am also a person that really needs to sleep. If I get less than 8 hours I feel like I am getting sick the next day. I am for at least 8, but prefer more. As much as I need my nightly sleep, I have never been a napper
Yes Yes Yes!!! All of this is soooo true. I cannot function if I have less than 7 hours- and I need a solid 8 to feel reasonably good. The world is definitely made of different camps, and I love the recognition that not sleeping is some sort of aspirational state! Why?!?
Lol I love this. I was the all-nighter test-taker in college and told myself I didn't need sleep for years (I had to be in the office at 6am for my Goldman job right out of college, and I wanted a social life).
Then I met my now-husband, who was in bed by 9pm every night (versus my 2am bedtime), so I had to slowly creep back my sleep schedule to get enough daytime hours with him 😂 Now I realize how overtired I was, because I'm still in the new(ish) days of motherhood, and the lack of sleep is rocking my BOAT.
Also, just want to say I laughed out loud here: "whereby tech bros transformed sleep into something cool, the way they made SlimFast cool for men by calling it Soylent"
I could have written this post. Looking back I wonder if my anxiety was so horrendous years ago because I wasn’t getting enough sleep in my kids early years. My husband is a night owl and still laments my strict bedtime.
Hard same. The sleep issues have been the hardest part of having kids. My first kiddo was and is a great sleeper (I think he got my sleep need gene), but the other two wake me and my husband up every night.
In other words, care to share your sleep consultant’s info?? 😭
I also function better with nine hours of sleep, but I realize this is also culture-bound. When I spoke to Dr. Benjamin Cheung, he told me about a study he conducted where culture not only affects how much sleep you think you need but how much sleep you need. In their study, researchers investigated sleep patterns and beliefs among university students from European Canadian, Asian Canadian, and Japanese backgrounds. Cultural variations were observed in sleep duration, efficiency, and perceptions of its health implications. Japanese students, despite sleeping less, reported better health and lower fatigue compared to European Canadians. They also held weaker beliefs regarding the relationship between sleep and physical well-being and preferred shorter ideal sleep durations.
What's interesting is that it wasn't just about self-report measures. Japanese participants actually performed better on less sleep than Canadians.
I've noticed this myself, too. When I travelled to Vietnam, I needed much less sleep near the end of the 4 months than when I arrived. It seems acculturating made me need less sleep.
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU! I’ve felt like the outsider freak for so long. Society, business, acquaintances — you’re a hero if you can shine on 4 hours sleep — you get to brag about it. I think it’s time for us to start bragging about 9!!!
Oh my goodness I feel SEEN
I always say “I’m a Taurus I need my sleep” 😂 I just feel so much better after 9 hours of sleep. I was absolutely shook when I heard Dakota Johnson sleeps like 10-14 hours a night. so jelly
Yesss! The thing I find challenging with my early bedtime and need for sleep is finding the time to socialize, and explaining to friends that it’s not that I don’t want to spend time with them… it’s that I can’t go out to a concert or have a late dinner and also feel human and functional the next day. I would *love* to go to a show with you… if that show was at, say, 2pm on a Saturday. Can we start a movement to bring more cool things to the matinee time slot?
As someone that drank the tech-bro kool-aid in his first startup, I'm guilty of trying many things like Polyphasic sleep to reduce my sleep time. I saw sleep as a waste. A waste of time that could have been spent coding, selling, learning.
But I didn't realize the impact that had on my emotions and health. As someone with chronic depression, I've discovered good sleep means a little less pain every day. A little less binge eating. A little less anti-social behavior. It's led to more good habits and less bad ones.
I'm glad I got this in my inbox on a day where I only achieved four hours of sleep.
It's a wake-up call.
SAME. I completely lost my mind when my daughter was young because of the sleep deprivation. No joke.
I've always needed it. And it isn't changing and those times when I think I can "be like everyone else" I am inevitably a mess for a good few days afterwards. Solidarity sister!
Wow. I’ve been told by so many people that I am “obsessed with sleep”. I am someone who feels best with nine hours of sleep and I move heaven and earth to get it. I have never heard (read) someone talk (write) so candidly about feeling like I do about sleep before. Thank you for writing this. I had no idea there were more people like me out there!!
Oh my goodness I love this so much. I remember thinking it was strange how I always wanted nine hours of sleep before I had my twins. I have been deranged for the past 17 years. Now I have menopause and new kinds of sleep interruptions, which started just when my kids Stopped needing me so much at night. I have a daughter with type one diabetes and so I have been a light sleeper since she was diagnosed at age 3 lots of testing at night and adjusting medication or sugar intake. Sleep is my religion. This is a great essay! Honestly, I think I would’ve liked it even if I wasn’t a nine hour kind of lady.
I am also a person that really needs to sleep. If I get less than 8 hours I feel like I am getting sick the next day. I am for at least 8, but prefer more. As much as I need my nightly sleep, I have never been a napper
I’m team nine hours of sleep too!! These hours are the foundation of my day 🙏🏻
Yes Yes Yes!!! All of this is soooo true. I cannot function if I have less than 7 hours- and I need a solid 8 to feel reasonably good. The world is definitely made of different camps, and I love the recognition that not sleeping is some sort of aspirational state! Why?!?
Lol I love this. I was the all-nighter test-taker in college and told myself I didn't need sleep for years (I had to be in the office at 6am for my Goldman job right out of college, and I wanted a social life).
Then I met my now-husband, who was in bed by 9pm every night (versus my 2am bedtime), so I had to slowly creep back my sleep schedule to get enough daytime hours with him 😂 Now I realize how overtired I was, because I'm still in the new(ish) days of motherhood, and the lack of sleep is rocking my BOAT.
Also, just want to say I laughed out loud here: "whereby tech bros transformed sleep into something cool, the way they made SlimFast cool for men by calling it Soylent"
Now I don't feel like a crazy person for religiously guarding my bedtime of 8:30PM for most of my life.
I could have written this post. Looking back I wonder if my anxiety was so horrendous years ago because I wasn’t getting enough sleep in my kids early years. My husband is a night owl and still laments my strict bedtime.
Hard same. The sleep issues have been the hardest part of having kids. My first kiddo was and is a great sleeper (I think he got my sleep need gene), but the other two wake me and my husband up every night.
In other words, care to share your sleep consultant’s info?? 😭
I also function better with nine hours of sleep, but I realize this is also culture-bound. When I spoke to Dr. Benjamin Cheung, he told me about a study he conducted where culture not only affects how much sleep you think you need but how much sleep you need. In their study, researchers investigated sleep patterns and beliefs among university students from European Canadian, Asian Canadian, and Japanese backgrounds. Cultural variations were observed in sleep duration, efficiency, and perceptions of its health implications. Japanese students, despite sleeping less, reported better health and lower fatigue compared to European Canadians. They also held weaker beliefs regarding the relationship between sleep and physical well-being and preferred shorter ideal sleep durations.
What's interesting is that it wasn't just about self-report measures. Japanese participants actually performed better on less sleep than Canadians.
I've noticed this myself, too. When I travelled to Vietnam, I needed much less sleep near the end of the 4 months than when I arrived. It seems acculturating made me need less sleep.