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To Sleep or Not to Sleep
The grand experiment
“Wouldn’t that be amazing? To get by on just 2 to 4 hours of sleep per night!” Jen exclaimed as we walked out of our Psychology classroom at university.
We had just learned about some sleep studies that argued that the conventional 8 hours of sleep was an unnecessary habit and that you could condition yourself to get by on just a fraction of that.
“I’m going to do it,” I said. “Between work and school, I need the extra time.”
“Not me,” Jen said. “I love my long slumbers. Besides, it will be so hard to reduce yourself down to such a small amount of sleep.”
“But if those researchers are right, all those hours of sleep are wasted. I need those hours! I’ll get so much more done!” I retorted.
And thus began my quest to rob more and more hours from my sleep. Jen was right. The “training period” was rough. I was tired all the time as I shaved down my slumber to an absolute minimum. But I was determined. I had always felt the pressure of not-enough-hours-in-the-day, and it was especially stressful as I tried to balance college and a job to pay for my education. I was often accused of “burning the candle at both ends,” but now I had scientific evidence to support my grand experiment.
