9/23/11 Friday

It really annoys me when I encounter people who claim that you can "condition" yourself to "need" less sleep. And some of them are even a bit judgmental towards those of us who need more sleep because they look at us like we're simply choosing to sleep more. There are those who are genetically predisposed to require less sleep and those individuals are the ones for whom this so-called "conditioning" works. But the average adult needs 6-9 hours of sleep per night.

According to physorg.com you cannot "train" your body to adapt to less sleep. An individual who requires more sleep will not adapt but will simply suffer the effects of sleep deprivation. Sleep. Those of us who require more sleep incur a sleep debt which must be paid inevitably. Sleep always wins in the end. But even repaying that debt isn't always enough. Adequate sleep is crucial to everyone. So to all of you people purporting to be able to "condition" yourselves to need less sleep. It is simply an ability that you have, not something that can be "learned". You're all genetically predisposed to be able to get by on less sleep than average and need to stop judging all of us others for being lazy and/or sleeping our lives away.

*Note: All the above reference information was acquired from or through PHYSORG