Lately, I've been having trouble sleeping (that's why I'm still up) which has made much of my week a dazed state. Some days I can barely wake up and on other days, I feel completely fine despite not getting much sleep. What I did notice was that for the days I felt better, I did not actually know the exact time I went to bed - only that it was past a certain time. I think if your body doesn't know how many hours of sleep it gets, you will wake up not knowing whether or not you're tired or well rested. So this has me thinking: Why do people need 8 hours of sleep when there are so many people that can easily run on 5-6 hours of sleep? Did someone just say 8 because a day can be cut evenly into 3 pieces? Perhaps we can conduct our own mini-experiment...
This experiment would be perfect for anyone living with siblings, parents or unwanted roommates. Assuming your subject has a regular sleeping cycle, you could wake up in the middle of the night to set all the clocks back or forward by an hour or two. Your subject will wake up thinking he has slept a certain amount, oblivious to the change in their sleeping cycle. Then, by counting the number of times your subject stretches or yawns throughout the day, you can approximate how they are feeling overall. My bet is that a difference of 1-2 hours of sleep time can be negligible. So next time your friend says they absolutely require 8 hours of sleep a day, prove them wrong and slowly ween them to a glorious 6!