Everyone knows that you need between 7-9 hours of sleep a night for optimal daily performance. While having some scientific backing, this viewpoint on life is flawed for several reasons. The entire workday most people spend asleep could be used to fulfill far more productive purposes and would diminish stress in the long run.
While it is true that sleep deprivation delivers some undesired effects on the body, replacements can supplement your needs in the waking world. Coffee and energy drinks are common forms of quick and tasty caffeine consumption and will provide you with energy for up to 12 hours. In extreme cases, certain illegal drugs will keep someone awake for days at a time, but you didn’t hear that from me and you still shouldn’t do them. Just keep drinking coffee until the exhaustion goes away. Don’t worry about the effects of too much caffeine on the cardiovascular system and organ function as a whole. It will be fine.
Why should you stop sleeping? The time spent in dreamland could be dedicated to so much more, especially in a school environment. A student will complete their schoolwork on time and efficiently if they do it at night. A week-long assignment could be completed in two days. Of course, the quality will decline from the increased difficulty of focusing and complex thinking under sleep deprivation, but it’s done, who cares? This schedule will benefit teachers as well; they don’t have to worry about how long it takes to grade papers when it can be done in less time. If you want to sleep that badly, you can do it at a future time when you don’t have any work to do (which will never happen but you can still hold out hope). Everyone has more free time in the end, and everyone wins.
If you still aren’t convinced, the most prominent geniuses in history figured this out a long time ago. Discoverer of gravity and many laws of the universe Isaac Newton notably only slept for 3-4 hours a day. Who knows, maybe sleep is actually the thing holding you back from greatness? As inventor Thomas Edison puts it, sleep is a “criminal waste of time, inherited from our cave days.” If these people can achieve further by redistributing their time, it will work for you too. You don’t need sleep to succeed, and hard work will serve you better in the long run.
Dramatically increased productivity isn’t the only benefit of cutting down on sleep. Ever feel like you need a hobby? Congratulations! You now have more hours to do whatever you want. By dedicating one hour a day to learning a new skill, you will attain that skill in 20 days, also known as the 20-hour rule. And would you look at that? We have a large portion of our day to take time from. The effects of sleep are temporary, the opportunities unlocked from learning a new skill are forever. Use that hour wisely.
Another idea you could dedicate this time to is to relax. Life is busy, and people have less and less time to unwind. Self-care is extremely important for your mental health. It isn’t healthy to go straight from one stressful day to the next, and this chronic stress has serious health consequences. Sleep is no replacement for finishing the first book in months or catching up on that TV show. Your happiness is important, and the solution is obvious. After all, you can always sleep later.
Give it a try and repurpose a few extra hours you have lying around. Productivity and efficiency will skyrocket as there magically is enough time to do everything. Your brain and mental health will thank you graciously for this lifted burden.
