I’ve long been interested in ways to minimize how much sleep you require.
Of course so you can get more out of every day; who doesn’t want that?
I’ve never read this tip in a book but after experiencing this now on multiple occasions I’m confident that it really works so I thought I’d share it with you.
Of course I’m not a doctor and this isn’t medical advice but I think you might find it helpful…
There’s really only one thing you need to do in order to require much less sleep.
And that is, in the last hours before you go to bed, as many as you can comfortably handle… don’t eat anything!
Yep, that’s it. I’ve found when I go to bed on an empty stomach, just drink water in the last say 4 hours of my evening, I always wake up after about 4-5 hours sleep and feel REALLY refreshed.
I can’t tell you the scientific reasoning behind it but my logic looks like this…
One thing your body is using energy on while you’re sleeping, is digestion. In fact it uses ALOT of energy on digestion. If you have a piece of stake for dinner, it can take your body up to 8 hours to properly digest it – that must be alot of energy.
So the more you eat before bed, the more work your body will be doing while you sleep to digest it all. The less you eat, the more energy your body can put towards replenishing it’s systems and restoring your energy – voila, you wake up spritely!
So give it a shot.
Drink only water for 4 hours or so before bed, go to sleep riiight on the border of being quite hungry, and see what happens.
Let me know your results!
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yet there is another problem in this case.. it’s when you sleep that your growth hormones are actually working to maintain your body composition.. if u sleep less, you’re not giving time for your body to do these stuff.. unless you don’t fear obesity, i hope you’ve got a reason for this too
hi Andrew:
You are pretty right, and I have the similar experience too!
These are other tips that work for me, thought you may be interested:
- eat less processed foods;
- eat a lot of fresh foods/veggies;
- avoid fried foods;
Ya i know it’s all common sense, but you will be surprised by the end result!
CY
@ Ryan: surely if the body is not busy digesting, it can do all its other work in less time, and that’s why you wake up feeling refreshed.
But I have a problem with this in that I just cannot sleep if I am hungry. So I end up lying awake for hours until I get up and raid the refrigerator to knock myself out … and then still feel tired in the morning
Rosie Cottis
Hey Ryan,
Interesting. Again of course I’m not a medical doctor and am speaking only from experience but personally I prefer to take the belief that my weight is determined more by what I do while I’m awake than when I’m asleep.
Furthermore, I know that our bodies are creatures of habit. If you’re used to sleeping 8 hours a night, then your body will take that long to do what it has to do. If you suddenly started sleeping 4 or less, I’d say you’ll surely have the problems you mentioned and then some!
Having said that, I can imagine that if you are trying to deal with a weight problem, this may not be the best thing to try.
Rosie,
That’s really interesting you mention.
I’ve actually found that once I get to sleep I’m fine and don’t get hungry through the night but I do wake up in the morning MEGA hungry.
Again I guess it’s about what you’re body’s used to and if this causes a problem for ya, best to try something else? (or be tough and condition yourself until you are used to it?)
Thanks for the comments guys.
Andrew