One of the most influential inventors of our time, Thomas Edison had a love-hate relationship with sleep. He was a known workaholic, and publicly broadcast the belief that sleep is a sign of laziness and people who slept often would fall behind.
So contemptuous was Edison’s attitude towards sleep that he wrote in 1921:
“People will not only do what they like to do, they overdo it 100 per cent. Most people overeat 100 per cent, and oversleep 100 per cent, because they like it. That extra 100 per cent makes them unhealthy and inefficient. The person who sleeps eight or ten hours a night is never fully asleep and never fully awake; they have only different degrees of doze through the twenty-four hours. For myself I never found need of more than four or five hours’ sleep in the twenty-four. I never dream. It’s real sleep. When by chance I have taken more I wake dull and indolent. We are always hearing people talk about ‘loss of sleep’ as a calamity. They better call it loss of time, vitality and opportunities. Just to satisfy my curiosity I have gone through files of the British Medical Journal and could not find a single case reported of anybody being hurt by loss of sleep. Insomnia is different entirely, but some people think they have insomnia if they can sleep only ten hours every night.”
While he carried his apparent lack of sleep as something of a badge of honour, he had a little secret: power-napping. Not only were napping cots scattered throughout his property, from laboratories to libraries, but he was also frequently photographed catching a few moments of shut-eye in unusual locations.
So, do you have insomnia?
A good question. One of the hardest things in life is knowing whether “it’s you or everyone else,” right? The other challenge is retaining insight when you begin to think it may be one or the other.
One of the main features of insomnia is the worry about what will happen if you do not sleep. This vicious cycle can repeat itself night after night as the sufferer sinks into an abyss of increasing worry and ever more elusive restful sleep.
So, just how much sleep should I be getting anyway?
Good question, and like many things in life, “it depends.”
In my opinion, there is first a genetic component, then a behavioural component (learned or familial), and finally a physiological one. We have no control over the first. The second we can often influence, unless, of course, we need the shift-work income. The third relates to how much sleep we require on a daily basis and ties in with the first two, together with age, gender, health status, and lifestyle.
How much exercise do we need to stay healthy? I don’t know. How much food do I need? I don’t know. How much sleep do I need? I don’t know.
I know what you’re thinking: “Well, there’s not much point in asking you then, is there?”
But think about it. Doesn’t your need for sleep depend on how busy you were today, how much sleep you got last night, whether you napped, whether you are unwell, and a host of other factors?
Those of you hoping the answer is eight hours may be disappointed. I have always said eight hours because statistically and intellectually it is a reasonable starting point and, clearly, we live in a sleep-deprived society. If we say eight hours and only get six, we may still be just fine.
So, don’t despair if you do not get eight hours every night. Use it as a guide, but remember that you are unique (not special, just unique).