I used to sleep the normal 7.5 hours a day. Over the last 180 days I have slept an average of 5 hours 57 minutes per day.
So, after 2 years of experimentation and occasional deep dives into the scientific literature, here are my theses on sleep:
Conversation
wow this is fascinating. i'm not all the way through yet but do you know about anecdotes where advanced meditators need less sleep? iirc i've heard meditation can get you down to 4 hours a night which tracks with the numbers here!
4
21
re: sleepiness indicating the boringness of the environment, ime it goes deeper than that. sleepiness can become a psychological defense against many uncomfortable emotions and "boredom" is often hiding one or more of these
1
2
41
i've heard it called "emotional narcolepsy" and i think some people really do have it bad enough that they will literally fall asleep if they try to feel certain feelings
Drowsiness is one of the main ways my mind has been inclining when it wants to avoid something during recent sits.
"Sloth & torpor" is one of the classical hindrances: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_hind
1
8
Show replies
this happened to me regularly while working on my book (which was emotionally challenging to write), I would wake up bright and fresh in the morning, shower, have a coffee, sit down to start work and then be beset with narcolepsy
I’m also coming around to “…maybe that’s good?”
3
1
15
because I would go ahead and take those naps too and I think I went through quite a bit of internal psychological/emotional remodeling during those naps
2
1
11
Show replies
my wife can confirm that during difficult conversations I sometimes get too tired to keep my eyes open. it's wild how long it took me to put together
1